Benchmarking Inclusive Growth and Development

The World Economic Forum proposes a benchmarking framework to measure inclusive growth, defined as sustained, broad-based output growth that creates productive employment and reduces poverty. The framework evaluates six policy pillars: Education and Skills, Employment and Labor Compensation, Asset Building and Business Investment, Corruption and Rents, Fiscal Transfers, and Basic Services and Infrastructure. Using over 120 quantitative indicators, the tool allows countries to compare their performance against peers in high, middle, and low-income groups. Preliminary analysis of sample countries like Japan, Costa Rica, and Kenya highlights the diversity of performance, showing that few countries excel across all pillars simultaneously.

• Inclusive growth is defined as output growth that is sustained over decades, is broad-based across economic sectors, creates productive employment opportunities for a great majority of the country’s working age population, and reduces poverty.
• The Benchmarking Framework is structured around six principal policy domains: Education and Skills, Employment and Labor Compensation, Asset Building and Business Investment, Corruption and Rents, Fiscal Transfers, and Basic Services and Infrastructure.
• The framework prioritizes policy levers that influence the private sector and market distribution of outcomes over direct public sector transfers to ensure that inclusive strategies do not undermine economic incentives.
• Preliminary results for Japan indicate that while it excels in education quality and equity, it faces challenges with a high poverty rate of 16% among advanced economies and significant earnings inequality between men and women.
• Costa Rica demonstrates strong performance in employment, basic infrastructure, and health services, but struggles with high inequality and poverty relative to other middle-income countries.
• Kenya is a top performer among low-income countries in growth and competitiveness, particularly in ICT and financial inclusion, though it faces significant gaps in basic sanitation (29%) and clean drinking water (61%).
• The framework avoids an overall aggregate ranking or league table, reflecting the authors' view that there is no single ideal policy mix and that different approaches are appropriate based on a country's specific historical and political context.

APA

Samans, R., Blanke, J., Corrigan, G., & Drzeniek, M. (2015). Benchmarking Inclusive Growth and Development. World Economic Forum. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Inclusive_Growth_Development.pdf

Chicago

Samans, Richard, Jennifer Blanke, Gemma Corrigan, and Margareta Drzeniek. Benchmarking Inclusive Growth and Development. World Economic Forum, 2015. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Inclusive_Growth_Development.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Samans |first1=Richard |last2=Blanke |first2=Jennifer |last3=Corrigan |first3=Gemma |last4=Drzeniek |first4=Margareta |title=Benchmarking Inclusive Growth and Development |publisher=World Economic Forum |date=January 2015 |url=http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Inclusive_Growth_Development.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{samans2015benchmarking, author = {Samans, Richard and Blanke, Jennifer and Corrigan, Gemma and Drzeniek, Margareta}, title = {{Benchmarking Inclusive Growth and Development}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2015}, month = jan, url = {http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Inclusive_Growth_Development.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }