Conflict Resolution and Methods of Mediation by Prof. Dorcas Ettang

 

Global Inequality Report

 One in Four Skip Meals Worldwide :G20 Expert Committee Report on Global Inequality

Siby K. Joseph

The G20 Extraordinary Committee of Independent Experts on Global Inequality Report, published in November 2025, highlights stark realities about global inequality.

 The G20 Extraordinary Committee of Independent Experts on Global Inequality was  commissioned by the G20 South Africa Presidency .It published its report on  November 4 , 2025. This report was authored by the G20 Extraordinary Committee of Independent Experts on Global Inequality, led by Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate in economics, Professor at Columbia University and a former chief economist of the World Bank. The G20 Extraordinary Committee of Independent Experts on Global Inequality, includes Adriana E. Abdenur (Brazil); Winnie Byanyima (Uganda); Jayati Ghosh (India); Imraan Valodia (South Africa); and Wanga Zembe-Mkabile (South Africa). The G20 comprises 19 countries including: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Türkiye, United Kingdom, and United States and two regional bodies, namely the European Union and the African Union.

According to the report, nationally, 83% of countries have high income inequality (using the World Bank definition of ‘high inequality’ as a Gini coefficient above 0.4). These countries account for 90% of the world’s population. The wealth gap between the rich and the poor has been increasing globally, with the top 1% holding a disproportionate share of wealth. Between 2000 and 2023, the top 1% increased their share of wealth in over half of all countries, which contain 74% of the global population. In India, the top 1% have grown their share of wealth by 62% over this period, while in China, the figure is 54%. 

The US saw a significant increase in wealth inequality after 1980, with the top 1% increasing their share of wealth by 50%. Between 2000 and 2024, the top 1% captured 41% of new wealth, while the bottom 50% captured just 1%. The richest 1% saw their average wealth increase by $1.3 million, while the poorest half of humanity saw their wealth increase by an average of $585. This means the average wealth increase for the top 1% was approximately 2,655 times greater than the average increase for someone in the bottom half of the global population.

The report says that “The explosion in private wealth has been driven primarily by the increase in financial wealth, which is a result at least in part of policy choices by governments regarding the financial sector.” The report highlights that the rapid growth in private wealth is largely driven by government policies and macroeconomic factors, rather than solely individual effort. This suggests that policy decisions, such as those related to the financial sector, have played a significant role in shaping wealth distribution. In countries like India, this implies that government policies may have contributed to the concentration of wealth among a small elite.

It was saddening to read in the report that one in four people globally (2.3 billion) face moderate or severe food insecurity, i.e., having to regularly skip meals, which is up by 335 million since 2019. Half the world’s population is still not covered by essential health services, with 1.3 billion people impoverished by out-of-pocket health spending. The gap between the North and South is crystal clear. A woman in Kenya is 37 times more likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth than a woman in Sweden.

It is pertinent to note that many billionaires have acquired their wealth through inheritance rather than through entrepreneurship. In the next 30 years, 1,000 billionaires will transfer more than $5.2 trillion to their heirs, largely untaxed, perpetuating intergenerational inequality. Overall, it is estimated that over $70 trillion will be passed down to heirs over the next decade, undermining social mobility and equality of opportunity.

The report identifies factors such as globalization and large corporate and financial interests that contribute to inequality across the globe. “Some of these imbalances in income and wealth distribution within and between countries result from globalization driven not only by the benefits of global economic integration but also by large corporate and financial interests.” “Inequality is a policy choice. The negative trends can be reversed.” It proposes an International Panel on Inequality (IPI), which could track trends on inequality and assess the forces contributing to those trends.

About the Author:

Dr. Siby K. Joseph is the Director of the International Fellowship Program on Nonviolence and Peace and heads the Sri Jamnalal Bajaj Memorial Library and Research Centre for Gandhian Studies at Seagram Ashram Pratishthan, Wardha-442102, Maharashtra, India.