The Eurasian Economic Union & Latin America and the Caribbean: A Transcontinental Partnership
3.
Inequality
EAEU member States enjoy a great advantage in the struggle against inequality: all EAEU countries have achieved considerably greater progress in this pillar of inclusive growth than the average developing country. Kazakhstan even outstrips the advanced economies’ average and each EAEU member State has its own strengths. To illustrate, Kyrgyzstan reports the world’s most equitable access to school education between girls and boys, while Kazakhstan is characterized by the world’s second most unbiased labour market for youth compared to adult workers. At the same time, Armenia and the Russian Federation are amongst the first quartile of world rankings with respect to the parity of male and female unemployment. Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are all characterized by low income concentration ratios (25.2, 27.5 and 27.7 points, respectively). The ranking of the least equitable EAEU country —Armenia (67th)— is higher than the previous two pillars’ worst positions (149th and 85th). One area for improvement in Armenia is the inequality between young and more mature job applicants (see table IV.4).
Ratio of female to male employment rate
Ratio of female to male labour force participation rate
Income concentration ratio
Poverty headcount ratio
School enrolment, secondary (gross), gender parity index
Gender parity in the number of seats held by women and men in national parliaments
Total, Inequality
Armenia Belarus Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Russian Federation Argentina Bolivia (Plur. State of) Brazil Colombia Costa Rica El Salvador Guatemala Honduras Mexico Panama Paraguay
Ratio of youth to adult employment rate
Table IV.4 Eurasian Economic Union and Latin America and the Caribbean: best and worst performers according to all indicators for inequality, 2018 (Ranking out of 90 observations)
86 21 2 55 58 74 24 79 63 72 37 19 25 20 42 45
22 76 53 73 20 69 52 77 83 78 50 55 62 7 61 59
57 34 25 71 46 70 63 61 59 74 75 78 76 77 69 65
46 12 16 39 73 55 71 77 88 80 58 75 87 82 83 77
63 15 40 71 24 37 52 50 54 42 55 62 64 58 45 49
59 23 17 1 20 53 43 55 63 62 10 60 85 69 39 64
66 21 40 60 71 10 1 82 62 19 26 78 51 3 65 75
67 14 9 61 51 56 33 77 75 66 44 70 73 52 60 64
Source: Eurasian Economic Commission and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (EEC/UNCTAD), “Inclusive growth of the Eurasian Economic Union Member States: assessments and opportunities”, 2019 [online] http://www.eurasiancommission.org/ru/act/integr_i_makroec/dep_makroec_pol/Documents/Inclusive_growth_in_ EAEU_Member.pdf. Note: Green and light green is used to reflect a better position in the overall ranking. Orange to red colour indicates a worst position among 90 observations.
The four countries ranked below the developing economy average provide another illustration of the heterogeneity of countries in the inclusiveness index: two of them (Guatemala and Honduras) are amongst the countries with the lowest quality of life, whereas the other two (Brazil and Columbia) are amongst those with the highest quality of life. In each
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