The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development covers 17 goals, the tenth of which is "Reduced inequalities", namely: Reduce inequality within and among countries. 

Under this major goal, there are ten targets, the first of which is "By 2030, progressively achieve and sustain income growth of the bottom 40 per cent of the population at a rate higher than the national average".

● Current Situation

About the World

Considerable Progress Made in Reducing Poverty

Extraordinary economic growth and widespread improvements in well-being have failed to close the deep divides across countries and within societies.

More than 70 per cent of the world population now live in countries where income inequality has increased in the last three decades. Inequalities between social groups, including those based on age, gender, race, ethnicity, migrant status and disability, are pervasive in developed and developing countries alike.Extraordinary economic growth and widespread improvements in well-being have failed to close the deep divides across countries and within societies.

Overall, since the 1990s total global inequality (inequality across all individuals in the world) declined for the first time since the 1820s. Reinforcing this trend, we have mostly seen income inequality between countries decline. Yet income inequality within countries has risen, this is the form of inequality people feel on a daily basis. 

Text and photo source: un.org

About China

Income Gap Tends to Narrow

Photo source: xinhuanet.com

Building a well-off society in an all-round way in China is a process of reducing poverty and making people richer. Although there is a gap between the rich and the poor, the income gap between urban and rural residents, regions and different groups tends to narrow on the whole. From 2011 to 2020, the average annual nominal growth rate of per capita disposable income of rural residents was 10.6%, which was 1.8 percentage points faster than that of urban residents.

Text source: stats.gov.cn

●  Cases

About the World

ADB Helps Rural Population Increase Income

Photo source: baidu.com

In South Asia, the Asian Development Bank addresses poverty and inequality by developing agriculture, developing natural and human resources and strengthening small, medium and micro enterprises (MSME). In Bhutan, 62% of the population lives in rural areas where agriculture is the main source of livelihood. Therefore, ADB supported the development of a rural financial development project through a preferential loan of US $20 million and technical assistance of US $1 million, so as to increase the access of family workshops and small enterprises to financing, rural employment opportunities and promote economic development.

Text source: Asian Denvelopment Bank Report 2020 

About China 

Shenba Pilot Zone Helps to Increase Income of Local Residents

Since the establishment of Shenzhen Dapeng new area poverty alleviation cooperation project "Shenzhen Bama Health Cooperation Special Pilot Zone" (hereinafter referred to as "Shenba Pilot Zone") in September 2018, a number of industry leading enterprises such as Shenzhen Huawei, Shenpeng Group and Beijing Delixunda have settled in Bama for healthy food through cooperation with poor villages, land equity participation and dividends of poor households, planting, breeding and processing. We will introduce employment and entrepreneurship incentive policies and other ways to realize the full drive of industries, guarantee of employment and link of interests for poor households. The number of investment projects increased from 19 in 2016 to 122 in 2020, and the planned investment increased from 10.1 billion yuan to 78.95 billion yuan.

Photo source: chinanews.com

The construction of "Shenba Pilot Zone" has promoted the rapid economic and social development of Bama. It has successively promoted 21 enterprises to pair up with 25 poor villages, provided more than 2000 jobs, driven 21712 poor people from 5008 poor households to get rid of poverty, and increased the annual per capita income by about 2000 yuan.

Text source: dpxq.gov.cn

●  Background

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Initiated by the United Nations

On 1 January, 2016, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including 169 targets, of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development — adopted by world leaders in September 2015 at an historic UN Summit — officially came into force. Countries will mobilize efforts to end all forms of poverty, fight inequalities and tackle climate change, while ensuring that no one is left behind.