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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Reducing inequality is at the heart of leaving no one behind and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Yet inequality remains the greatest challenge to achieving sustainable development. According to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) SDGs 2021 report: “The Asia-Pacific region has fallen short of the 2020 milestone for the 2030 Agenda. The region must accelerate progress and urgently reverse its regressing trends on some goals and targets to achieve its 2030 ambition.” The report indicated that concerted efforts are needed to improve the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region’s performance to achieve the targets under Goal 10 (reducing inequality).
The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered multiple forms of inequality and hit certain groups hardest, such as lower-income households, workers with lower education, minorities, immigrants and women.
Income inequalities in the ASEAN region were increasing before the onset of the pandemic. There is little prospect of their being mitigated in the absence of renewed growth. Recovery is expected: according to the most recent International Monetary Fund (IMF) World Economic Outlook Update, the growth estimate for ASEAN is 3.1 percent in 2021, and the projection is 5.6 percent in 2022.
A rise in inequality triggers an increase in the incidence of poverty. It is estimated that a 1 percent increase in the Gini Index in each country in 2020 would increase the number of additional poor people by around 15 percent—or around 152 million people. Going beyond income poverty, around 7.7 percent of the population of Southeast Asia are at risk of falling into multidimensional poverty as a result of the pandemic.3 In ASEAN, the rate of rural poverty is higher, with around 18 percent of rural people living below the poverty line.
At regional level, ASEAN is currently implementing the ASEAN Comprehensive Recovery Framework, which contains a comprehensive response, including measures to protect vulnerable groups. It is expected to contribute to avoiding widening gaps in society.
This policy brief has been prepared based on discussions at the 6th ASEAN–China–UNDP Symposium on the SDGs, guided by the theme ‘Reducing Inequality in the Decade of Action to Achieve the SDGs and Recovery from COVID-19 Pandemic’, jointly organized by the Senior Officials Meeting on Rural Development and Poverty Eradication (SOMRDPE), through the leadership of the Philippines, the Mission of the People’s Republic of China to ASEAN, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the ASEAN Secretariat. It outlines and elaborates on approaches to reducing inequality in the ASEAN region to achieve the SDGs.
Moreover, this paper discusses specific dimensions of the differential impacts on the population which cover five key issues: jobs, social protection, education, health and food security. It concludes by discussing an exit strategy and suggests a series of exit indicators that ASEAN countries may consider monitoring.