FIGHTING INEQUALITY: PROGRESS MADE UNDER G20 BRAZIL AND THE PRIORITIES FOR SOUTH AFRICA

The document evaluates the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty established by G20 Brazil, arguing that while it addresses symptoms like hunger and poverty, it lacks an explicit focus on the root cause: inequality. It highlights a global trend where in-country inequality has nearly doubled between 1980 and 2020. The author urges South Africa, in its 2025 G20 presidency, to elevate inequality to a headline challenge, develop standard metrics for its reduction, and explore coordinated international actions such as a global wealth tax.

• The G20 Brazilian presidency established the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 1 (poverty eradication) and 2 (zero hunger and sustainable agriculture), as well as addressing gender inequality.
• As of the end of November 2024, the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty consisted of 66 member organisations from 82 countries and utilized a 'policy basket' of 49 policy instruments.
• While economic inequality between countries has decreased over recent decades, inequality within countries has increased significantly; the gap between the average incomes of the richest 10% and the poorest 50% rose from over eight times in 1980 to nearly 16 times in 2020.
• The author argues that the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty has a gap in its high-level framing by not explicitly focusing on inequality, which is a driver of poverty and hunger and a relational problem based on unequal power.
• South Africa serves as a cautionary example of the difficulty of reducing inequality, as its wealth and income disparities have remained extremely high for decades despite post-apartheid policies targeting poverty, unemployment, and inequality.
• The document recommends that South Africa's G20 presidency should broaden the alliance's focus to include SDG 10 (reducing inequality), develop standard metrics for measuring inequality (such as the Gini coefficient), and consider a global wealth tax to reduce extreme disparities.

APA

South African Institute of International Affairs (n.d.). FIGHTING INEQUALITY: PROGRESS MADE UNDER G20 BRAZIL AND THE PRIORITIES FOR SOUTH AFRICA. https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/SAIIA_PN_12_G20-InequalitySolidarity.pdf

Chicago

South African Institute of International Affairs. FIGHTING INEQUALITY: PROGRESS MADE UNDER G20 BRAZIL AND THE PRIORITIES FOR SOUTH AFRICA. n.d. https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/SAIIA_PN_12_G20-InequalitySolidarity.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=South African Institute of International Affairs |title=FIGHTING INEQUALITY: PROGRESS MADE UNDER G20 BRAZIL AND THE PRIORITIES FOR SOUTH AFRICA |url=https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/SAIIA_PN_12_G20-InequalitySolidarity.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{southafricaninstituteofinternationalaffairsndfighting, author = {{South African Institute of International Affairs}}, title = {{FIGHTING INEQUALITY: PROGRESS MADE UNDER G20 BRAZIL AND THE PRIORITIES FOR SOUTH AFRICA}}, institution = {South African Institute of International Affairs}, url = {https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/SAIIA_PN_12_G20-InequalitySolidarity.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }