Nations must support resolutions of G20 Inequality Report: Ramaphosa

President Ramaphosa receives the report from Prof. Stiglitz

President Cyril Ramaphosa says when the G20 Summit opens later this month, a call will be made to all nations, to support the resolutions of the G20 Inequality Report.

It was compiled by the G20 Extraordinary Committee of Independent Experts to measure inequality and its effects.

In August, this panel was tasked by Ramaphosa to lay out an action plan, which can practically tackle the widening gap between the rich and the poor.

The report was officially handed over to Ramaphosa by committee Chair, Professor Joseph Stiglitz at Tuynhuis in Parliament on Tuesday.

This document is the first ever report on global inequalities.

Six panelists from various G20 nations, led by Professor Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize winning economist, spent the last few months doing research on inequality levels, with the aim of trying to understand why it is increasing, and what its drivers are.

He and his team presented a range of solutions for world leaders, which include recommendations on debt restructuring, as well as the regional production of long-acting AIDS medicines and other pandemic therapies.

“People across the world know how extreme inequality undermines their dignity and chance for a better future. They saw the brutal unfairness of vaccine apartheid where millions in the global south were denied the vaccines to save them,” says Ramaphosa.

Ramaphosa says the G20 platform will be used to institutionalize the mechanisms emanating from this report.

“Now with this report we have clear actions that we can take as governments as societies and as the global community to reduce inequality,” Ramaphosa explains.

Ramaphosa says the ball is now in the court of the G20 leaders, who have to demonstrate the necessary will and commitment to the rest of the world.