The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, has warned that inequality is “eroding trust, deepening polarization, and destabilizing economies”, as governments and experts meet in Johannesburg to begin establishing an International Panel on Inequality, inspired by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
The message will be broadcast at a meeting of the Panel’s founding committee in Johannesburg, attended by President Ramaphosa and representatives of the governments of Brazil, Spain, and Norway, alongside inequality experts including Nobel Economics Laureate Joseph Stiglitz.
The Panel was proposed in a report commissioned for South Africa’s G20 Presidency and authored by a committee of experts chaired by Professor Stiglitz. Their report warned of an “inequality emergency”, with one in four people worldwide regularly skipping meals, while billionaire wealth has reached the highest level in history.
At last year’s G20 Summit in Johannesburg, the leaders of Spain, Norway, and Brazil joined President Ramaphosa in supporting the initiative, alongside President of the European Council Antonio Costa. In February, the African Union unanimously passed a motion supporting the panel.
