2014-04-22 - Socio Economic Review 2014 - Full text and cover - FINAL

S O C I O - E C O N O M I C R E V I E W 2 0 1 4
13.
T H E G L O B A L S O U T H
CORE POLICY OBJECTIVE: THE DEVELOPING WORLD
To ensure that Ireland plays an active and effective part in promoting genuine
development in the Global South and to ensure that all of Ireland’s policies are
consistent with such development.
At the end of 2013 and in early 2014 two reports were published within weeks of
each other: The UN Human Development Report 2013 and an Oxfam Briefing paper.
Both reports give us a current snapshot of human development across the Globe at
this time. The Human Development Report entitled The Rise of the South: Human
Progress in a Diverse World, sounded a note of optimism. It points to the
transformation of a large number of developing countries into dynamic major
economies and it noted that much of the expansion is being driven by new trade
and technology partnerships within the South itself. However it moves quickly to
point out that economic growth alone does not automatically translate into human
development progress. Significant investment in anti-poverty strategies, education,
healthcare, nutrition and employment skills is necessary. The Report finds that
‘most regions show declining inequality in health and education but a worrying rise
in inequality in income.’(Figure 4 p5)
The reality of income inequality is graphically reported in the Oxfam briefing paper.
Entitled Working For the Few, the paper shows that the richest 85 people in the world
share a combined wealth of €1.22 trillion which is the same as the poorest half of
the world’s population (3.5 billion people). Winnie Byanyima of Oxfam notes that
‘Widening inequality is creating a vicious circle where wealth and power are
increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few, leaving the rest of us to fight over
the crumbs from the table’ and that ‘Seven out of ten people live in countries where
economic inequality has increased in the last 30 years’. She notes that in the ‘US the
wealthiest one percent captured 95 percent of the post-financial crisis growth since
2009, while the bottom 90 percent became poorer’. Promoting genuine
development in the Global South is one of the key policy areas that must be
13. The Global South 247