The road to equality: How do EU Member States address inequalities through international cooperation?

Tuesday, March 29, 2022

EU Member States committed themselves to tackling inequalities when they adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the European Consensus on Development (2017) and the Council Conclusions on addressing inequalities in partner countries (2019), and in the common EU response to COVID-19. Some Member States (MS) have also given individual commitments.

Research has shown that inequalities are economically inefficient and hinder social development; tackling inequalities is necessary if we are to achieve all the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). CONCORD is committed to supporting the reduction of inequalities both through its members’ work and by following up on the commitments by the EU and its Member States to reduce inequalities through their international cooperation.

This report provides an EU-wide analysis based on an assessment of how Member States’ organisations and their international cooperation strategies respond to the challenge of inequalities. The research focuses on five key aspects: (1) Member States’ political commitment to reducing inequalities, (2) mainstreaming tools and practices, (3) redistributing wealth to partner countries, (4) targeted action within partner countries and (5) Policy Coherence for Sustainable Development.

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Our interactive map includes dashboards for individual EU Member Countries. The dashboards show the current position of Member States on the path of tackling inequalities and provide an overall assessment of their outcomes. The goal of the dashboards is to assist Member States to monitor their progress, promote what works well, flag shortcomings and incoherencies, and hold them accountable.