Round table discussion debates Latvia's approach to inequality

Now that the Sustainable Development Goals have been adopted by the United Nations, their implementation has to be discussed in depth and at a country level. Bankwatch member group Latvian Green Movement therefore organised a high level discussion about goal no. 10, inequality on 20 October 2015. The main task of the event was to find a starting point by identifying existing Latvian policies in the field of inequality reduction within and among countries.

by Aris Adlers, Latvian Green Movement

The event panelists included government and parliament officials, development experts and civil society representatives who agreed on a number of statements including:

Development is not simply bought or built.

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- Equality is about equal possibilities to self-realisation and access to resources.
- One of the main consequence of inequality is distrust among people and politicians.
- In the National Development Plan of Latvia, inequality is one of the priorities.
- Inequality negatively influences the economic development of the country.
- Countries with lower GDP and lower inequality are more successful than those with higher GDP and higher inequality.
- Latvia has one of the highest levels of inequality within the EU.
- The reason for Latvia’s low performance in the reduction of inequality is a decision making process that is based on habits and personal opinions of decision makers instead of analysis and research.
- Stagnant higher education causes problems by not addressing contemporary needs.
- It is a challenge to change the paradigm of development cooperation from charity to cooperation.
- The amount of resources devoted to support Latvia’s main target countries for development cooperation is insufficient.
- The refugee crisis is one of the indicators for increasing inequality.