South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday announced the launch of a G20 experts taskforce to examine global wealth inequality and its effects on growth, poverty, and multilateralism, the first initiative of its kind within the G20.
South Africa Clinches G20 Consensus In Diplomatic Win. The six-member group, chaired by Nobel Economics Prize laureate Joseph Stiglitz, will present its findings to G20 leaders when they gather in Johannesburg in November.
South Africa has made tackling inequality and sovereign debt burdens central to its G20 presidency this year, seeking to elevate issues facing poorer nations.
“South Africa’s G20 presidency today is proud to launch an initiative that will target this issue of global wealth inequality, a first for the G20, and offer a practical way forward,” Ramaphosa said in a statement.
He added that inequality has become visible worldwide, undermining dignity and prospects for a better future, pointing to the unfair distribution of COVID-19 vaccines as one example.
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“They see the impacts of rising food and energy prices, of debt, of trade wars, all driving this growing gap between the rich and the rest of the world, undermining progress and economic dynamism,” Ramaphosa said.
“A new oligarchy in our global economy is becoming apparent.” Stiglitz said the taskforce’s mission is to turn global frustration over inequality into actionable policy.
“Inequality was always a choice, and G20 nations have the power to choose a different path on a range of economic and social policies,” he said.
According to the World Inequality Report, the poorest half of the world’s population held just 2% of global wealth in 2021, while the richest 10% controlled 76%.
The taskforce also includes UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima and development economist Jayati Ghosh of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Reuters reported.
The United States is due to take over the rotating G20 presidency at the end of this year.
The G20 was originally founded to coordinate financial policy in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s and expanded to include state leaders during the 2008 global financial crisis.
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Image Credit: The Globe and Mail
