Does Inequality Matter? - CEPA

Good Practice in Poverty Measurement
Poverty Symposium 2006 - Poverty and Inequality
Introduction
In her opening remarks, the Executive Director introduced the theme
of CEPA’s 7 th Annual Symposium on Poverty Research, Does Inequality
matter It emerged after discussions within CEPA and with others in the
sector, out of a growing recognition, that in the current poverty discourse
there is a greater emphasis on absolute levels of poverty, whereas issues
of inequality and relative poverty seem to be falling off the agenda. This
year’s symposium sought to put it back on the agenda.
The presenters and panellists gave us the opportunity to examine inequality
from a number of perspectives: from the perspective of social exclusion,
access to new technologies, conflict and trade. Two panels looked at how
inequality is addressed in practical terms: by a selection of institutions that
seek to address it in their work and how it is tackled in the policy sphere.
This introduction pulls together the main points of discussion from each
of the presentations. It includes a synopsis of the contributions made by
panelists and some of the issues that emerged from the plenary during
discussions.
The issue of inequality and its relationship with poverty is complex. Many
of the presenters and panelists highlighted this complexity and described
different aspects of it in their contributions. Whilst it is difficult to draw
substantive links between these diverse areas of focus and manifestations
of inequality, it is possible to draw out the underlying normative bases
of many of these presentations. They were based on the idea that the
inequalities that were made evident by these varied pieces of work were
negative. This notion of inequality as negative and as something that
needed to be addressed ran through each of the contributions to this
symposium.
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