Who is being left behind? Closing the horizontal inequality gap

On Monday 17 May Rachel Gisselquist will join the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) Seminar Series as discussant in their event on closing the horizontal inequality gap. Find more UNU-WIDER research on horizontal ineqality here.

This seminar is organised jointly with the Institute for International Economic Policy at George Washington University and the UNDP Human Development Report Office. This seminar will be held online. 

Part of the historic and ambitious nature of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is its pledge to leave no one behind, including a specific goal to reduce inequality between and within countries. This move beyond national averages to look at the unequal distribution of resources, opportunities and voice within countries includes the target to empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status.

This presentation will provide an overview of how the UN’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) has operationalized the pledge to “leave no one behind”, with a specific focus on trends in inequality by race and ethnicity.

Sabina Alkire directs the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), a research centre within the Oxford Department of International Development, University of Oxford. Her research interests and publications include multidimensional poverty measurement and analysis, welfare economics, Amartya Sen’s capability approach, Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness index, and human development. She is also a Distinguished Research Affiliate of the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs. She holds a DPhil in Economics from the University of Oxford.

Fanni Kovesdi is a Research Analyst at OPHI. Since joining OPHI in 2018, she has worked on the global Multidimensional Poverty Index (global MPI) and Changes over Time projects, harmonizing global MPI data to analyse trends in poverty for 80 countries. Prior to joining OPHI, she worked on an ESRC-funded research project on dual career couple trajectories and has completed internships at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and Child Hub for Southeast Europe. She holds an MSc in Sociology, University of Oxford, and a BSc in Politics and Sociology, University of Bristol. Her research interest include inequality; poverty; wellbeing; social identities and migration.

Maren Jiménez is a Social Affairs Officer in the United Nation’s Department for Economic and Social Affairs (DESA). At DESA, Ms. Jiménez forms part of the writing team of the World Social Report (previously the Report on the World Social Situation), the United Nation’s flagship publication on social development issues. Prior to joining DESA, Ms. Jiménez held several positions at United Nations’ regional commissions in Addis Ababa, Bangkok and Santiago de Chile. Ms. Jiménez holds a M.A. in Sociology from The University of Texas at Austin.

Rachel M. Gisselquist, a political scientist, is a Senior Research Fellow with the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) and a member of the institute’s senior management team. She works on the politics of developing countries, with particular attention to inequality, ethnic politics, statebuilding and governance and the role of aid therein, democracy and democratization, and sub-Saharan African politics. At UNU-WIDER, she currently leads many projects like Addressing Group-based Inequalities and The State and Statebuilding in the Global South.