UNDP Report: Rising Insecurities

The United Nations Development Programme, in partnership with the CCIEE and the SIIS, published a report entitled, "Rebalancing Global Economic Governance – Opportunities for China and the G20 beyond 2015." The report highlights the importance of global governance and sustainable development to "add value to ongoing debates and inform the work of policy makers and practitioners in China as well as around the world."

What Demands Does Global Economic Governance Need to Address? (Chapter 1)

1.1.1 Global Financial Crisis and Rising Inequalities

In addition to the global financial crisis of 2008-09 spurring the Great Recession, the 2010 the banking crisis had evolved into a European sovereign debt crisis that caused another drop in global output. Although today’s economies are generally recovering, the momentum of recovery remains weak, asymmetric and volatile.

Emerging and developing economies have experienced slowdowns, but this is less a result of external market contractions than a consequence of internal transitions. Most emerging and middle/low income economies are grappling with how to reform and upgrade their economies, how to enhance resilience from external risks and dependency on ‘developed’ countries and how to avoid the "middle-income trap."

In developed and developing countries, the poorest half of the population often holds less than 10% of its country's wealth, while the world's top 1% holds around 48%. Over the last 25 years, the average income of the top 0.1% globally has grown 20 times compared to that of the average citizen.

Household income inequality in Africa and LAC actually declined by 7% and 5% respectively between the 1990s and the late 2000s. In contrast, Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (ECIS) and Asia experienced the largest average increases in inequality, 35% and 13% respectively over the same period.

Between 2008 and 2009 approximately 320 – 430 million people globally experienced poverty lasting an entire lifetime and/or spanning generations. Poverty has implications far beyond income; poverty can imply under- or mal-nutrition, insufficient food, lack of access to sanitary systems, health care facilities, education and other resources.

In the 1990s, poverty was predominantly regarded as a low-income country issue, since 93% of the world's poor lived in low-income countries (LICs.) In contrast, between 2007 and 2008, approximately 75% of the world’s poor lived in MICs and the remaining 25% lived in LICs.