UNDP REGIONAL HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT Progress at Risk: Inequalities and Human Development in Europe and Central Asia1 Draft FOR COMMENTS (2 February 2016) Abstract: Many of the developing and transition economies of Europe, Turkey, and Central Asia have enjoyed relatively high levels of socio-economic equalities. Since 2000 income inequalities have generally been low or falling, which has helped to reduce poverty and allowed the middle class to stage a comeback. Relatively comprehensive pre-1990 social protection systems and high levels of gender equality have ensured that the benefits of economic growth have been fairly evenly spread. However, the expansion of informal, vulnerable, and precarious employment is combining with growing gaps in social protection systems and (in the region’s less wealthy countries) new pressures on household food and energy security to put these accomplishments at risk. This is particularly the case for those countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States that have made some of the best progress in reducing inequalities—and which now face growing socio-economic pressures. This report examines the human development aspects of these challenges, within the context of the Sustainable Development Goals and the promise of the global sustainable development agenda 2030 to “leave no one behind”.
Table of contents Subject Executive summary -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Chapter 1—Measuring income and non-income inequalities -------------------------------------------------Chapter 2—Inequalities, employment, and social protection ------------------------------------------------Chapter 3—The economic dimensions of gender inequalities -------------------------------------------------Chapter 4—Inequalities, health, and HIV/AIDS -------------------------------------------------------------------Chapter 5—Natural Capital, Inequalities, and Sustainable Human Development -----------------------Chapter 6—Inequalities and inclusive governance --------------------------------------------------------------References ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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This paper does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations, or its Member States.
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