UN Geneva - Multimedia Newsroom : International Panel on Inequality (IPI), Founding Committee first meeting

Thank you very much.

We have around 5 minute maximum for question from the floor.

So I'm going to take three question all of them together and come back to the panellists to respond.

So go ahead, introduce yourself, press the button and then press it back.

It was very encouraging to hear that the panel is thinking, or the committee is thinking about various kinds of inequalities, and one of them also brought up the inequality in the global knowledge architecture.

I represent the International Science Council, members are the various national academies, research councils, but also the international disciplinary unions.

And I'd like to extend keen support to to help these discussions through bringing scholars from different disciplines, various backgrounds in parts of the world.

And we'd like to understand how we can help bringing people whose research is directly important to these discussions, but who might not normally be around such tables.

[Other language spoken]

Any question, go ahead.

Much Eva Maria Eager from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.

And the ministry itself is very interested in the proposal of the panel and we are following the discussions keenly and curiously.

And one big question I personally am asking myself and Chico Ferreira touched upon this is in the political sphere.

We know that inequality is a very polarising topic and how can the IPI contribute to a more moderate debate on, on, on the challenge and really speak to all, uh, or let's say, to a more central area of the political discussion and not just, umm, immediately end up in one or the other corner?

Because that's one of the biggest challenges I see in the, in the UMM, bringing this IPI idea forward, not only, you know, in, in my own country, but also when, as a ministry for Economic Cooperation and development, when we talk to our partner countries, often depending on which ministry you're talking to, the reactions are very different.

When we touch up on the topic of inequality, it can be either very supportive or the contrary.

So what could be the role for the IPI to find that moderate ground?

Thank you very much.

[Other language spoken]

I'm chair of the NGO Committee on Ageing.

And I wonder if ageing has been an issue that has been included in the report, as in if inequality grows as one grows old, are there any measures?

[Other language spoken]

You know, I didn't get your name from the International Science Council, but Meha.

So, you know, really we would really welcome all kinds of support like this.

And so if you could give your name and your contacts and details, and I would ask everyone here who thinks that they could help in this in terms of expertise and taking this project forward to contact Nabil Max, Katie Chakrabarti, who's there Head up to, to be in touch with us, that would be great.

You know, I think in terms of the political polarisation, that's really what Chico, what Professor Ferreira was talking about, which is really either the problem when you, I'm, I don't even remember fully before the IPCC was founded, but there was complete confusion and lack of knowledge and disbelief about climate change and it was almost impossible to get governments to even recognise it as a problem.

It's only when you started getting these kind of very clear, objective scientific examination based on very clear definitions and concepts and data that were accepted by those in the field that you got also governments to recognise it.

So that's what we're hoping.

We are hoping that creating a cohesive, coherent set of concepts, measurements, definitions and then going out there and trying to apply them systematically will in fact generate much greater trust in the system.

So there will be less to argue about across the different ministries and then in turn hopefully there would be more pressure to do something about it.

That on the issue of ageing, you know, in fact we have met, I think it's there as a word, but we have not dealt with it in great detail.

But please bear in mind, literally we had two months and it's a 30 page report.

So we recognise it as an issue.

And we also recognise that it once again, there are these huge intersectionalities in ageing.

I mean, the problem of elderly widows in South Asia, the et cetera is, is, is massive.

So it is again one of those dimensions.

But you know, there's a whole lot of work clearly that needs to be done.

So in a, in a sense, I think this kind of supports our position that that these are all things that panel will really take up and that there will be enough of a buy in among scholars across the world to get more and more of these things on the agenda.

We're we haven't obviously finalised anything yet.

We are still working on the next steps and we've had fantastic discussions, I believe, and very useful hot full discussions from our government champions.

So it's early to say that, you know, this is exactly the shape it will take and this is what it will cover.

But I believe that we are hoping to get some kind of, well, certainly greater government buy in, but some kind of international support.

We we have, I think Professor Stiglitz mentioned that the UN and Secretary General is very positive.

We've had very positive responses from a number of UN agencies as well.

And so we are hoping to get much more buy in towards the creation of this and we would really like to do this as soon as possible for kind of obvious reasons which I don't need to state in the UN building.

So the next steps really are to be thinking about how such a panel would be set up, where it would be, well, it would largely be virtual, but still where it would be sort of placed in, in a sort of organisational sense.

And the kinds of the ways in which it would organise in terms of the, the the board, the, the actual panel, the working groups and so on.

So these are things that have to be worked out.

And, you know, we have such thoughtful interventions from the governments who have much more experience also in dealing with these international issues than than we have as academics.

And we've had very interesting interventions from our academic and other multilateral institution friends.

So I think, I think this process is actually on its way.

There I say it.

Thank you very much.

Now, I'm going to invite for the closure of this meeting to Winnie the Yangima, a director of UNAID and also member of the founding committee of the IPI.

But I'm going to ask her to move here so you can all see her well for this closing remark.

[Other language spoken]

Good evening or good afternoon.

First, a word of thanks.

I want to start by thanking Magdalena, my colleague, the Universe Director.

Thank you for moderating this panel and for hosting our meeting here in Geneva.

I had the privilege of collaborating with Unrest many years ago on research into the care economy.

Our work showed how gender inequality is wired in the global economy and how women's unpaid care work functions as a huge subsidy on the global economy.

And you've continued this work showing the structural barriers in the economy for many people.

I want to thank my brother, the A Law Director General Giobeung Bo, and Professor Francisco Ferreira for sharing your expertise.

Your contributions have been important then to the representatives of our founding governments represented here by Mr Zen Dangor for South Africa, Spain's Jose Domingo Rossello, Norway's Henrik Hubble, and Brazil's Ambassador Mauricio Mauricio Lirio, thank you so much for your guidance, your contributions in the meetings today.

And then to my colleagues, the co-authors, the extraordinary committee, as we were called, the co-authors of the G20 Inequality report sitting here, Professor Jayati Ghosh, Professor Joe Stiglitz, Professor Imran Melodia, where were you?

[Other language spoken]

And Professor Wanga Zembe and Dr Adriana Abdenour, who is not here with us.

My deepest thanks to you all and especially you who have come to share with us this this discussion.

Now we are here at the UN Paladinacion, this beautiful campus.

And in fact, I would advise if you're not from Geneva, don't go away without going to see the Human Rights and Alliance of Civilizations room.

It's said to be as beautiful as a Sistine Chapel.

But tragically, in recent years, this beautiful Palais may be best known for discussing the darkest chapters of humanity, the horrors of war and its devastating consequences around the world, deadly pandemics and health crises, gross human rights abuses, and more recently, the brutal cuts in international aid.

In fact, the all too frequent failure of negotiations here in Geneva has LED some to question the value of multilateralism.

But yet here today, we are showing that even amid huge disruption, multilateralism can achieve results.

North and South can cooperate.

We can find new ways to meet the great challenges of our era.

That gives me hope.

Brazil led the way when it LED G20 two years ago on the question of tackling the inequality emergency and then followed by South Africa, South Africa's historic leadership of the G20 last year where Amaka was laid down on this question.

You've already heard the shocking evidence in our report about the extreme inequality that continues to widen.

I will not repeat what Joe has said very well and others round on the panel.

[Other language spoken]

Poverty, stigma, discrimination and criminalization push people away from life saving HIV services.

Inequality compromises girls and women's life chances.

In sub-Saharan Africa, girls and young women make up two out of every three new infections.

That's inequality 3300 new infections every week amongst women and girls.

The rules of the global economy structurally tilt the balance away from ending AIDS and other pandemics.

Take for example the international property rules.

They allow farmer monopolies to keep prices medicine prices unaffordable in developing countries, both low income countries and even middle income countries.

[Other language spoken]

I switched on the TV to watch the news.

The first thing that came up was an ad by Gilead, a pharmaceutical company inviting people in the American market to come and get a prevention tool.

The latest 1.

Lena Capaville, which if you take it twice a year through an injection, you have 100% protection from HIV infection.

It costs in that market $28,000 per person per year.

We're inviting people who have their insurance to come forward and take it.

It was repeated every few minutes.

I saw it so many times the week before I was in Kenya.

There there was also breaking news on the TV and very important people in government where in a Fort in a photo opportunity in a press conference also celebrating and clapping and announcing the launch of 20,000 doses of Lena Kapavir.

Kenya needs 2 million doses to start with, not 20,000.

But Kenya was celebrating just 20,000 doses of this magical medicine.

[Other language spoken]

Because Gilead will not licence more generic companies to produce at scale.

Reduce the price.

We know it can be sold at $25 per person per year, but they will not do that because the rules allow them.

This is not acceptable.

Over 80% of the highest HIV burdened countries have levels of debt rated as high risk or in debt distress and that is shocking out health spending with two in three countries in Africa spending more on debt servicing than on health of their people.

By the way, Brazil is challenging Gilead on this and we are following your lead on on, on the the lack of access to medicine.

So Africa also loses around $80 billion a year in illicit financial flows, mostly through tax avoidance by global companies and of course rich individuals.

So together these factors fuel an inequality pandemic cycle.

Inequality enables a disease outbreak to become a pandemic, and then it prolongs the pandemic, causing devastating consequences and deaths.

So and then in turn, with after a pandemic, you have deepening inequality and then more vulnerability to the next pandemic and so on.

Complacency is not an option.

For 80 years, these holes here and other places around the world have seen generation after generation find global solutions to global problems.

The Geneva Convention, the Refugee Convention, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the pandemic agreement, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change unit aid, UN AIDS, our own organisation.

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A simple case of mission accomplished.

Each had a struggle it struck each of it of these struggled to hold governments to their commitments.

But all of these global initiatives have served as a driving force behind change, setting the agenda, finding consensus, and spurring government efforts around the world, each time innovating, finding new ways to operate amid many geopolitical challenges.

It's always been the case.

So today we've began writing a new chapter, a streamlined, networked, agile institution that brings together governments and experts North and South to provide rigorous scientific evidence and analysis on the inequality emergency.

You have heard today that it is possible.

We are putting in the hard miles of turning the possible into reality.

[Other language spoken]

And by the end of the year, I am confident we will officially launch an international panel on inequality.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much.

International Panel on Inequality (IPI), Founding Committee first meeting - 16 March 2026