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‘The squeezed-out middle’ - a concept that mainly appears in American debates but which, as The Broker’s dossier shows, applies increasingly to Europe - is in fact the flipside of inequality.

Developing countries should go for regional trading agreements until they raise the overall skill levels of their populations.

In natural resource management, the issue is not bringing politics back in or taking it out, but the conditions under which issues are politicized.

African governments must implement a series of policies to make sure that natural resource wealth brings more inclusive and equitable growth.

With only a quarter of the world’s population having access to social protection, the case for expanding it is gaining ground in international discussions. The debate focuses on how best to design social protection, whether it should be universal...

Only through focusing on equity can poverty reduction and a sustainable environment be achieved in the post-2015 development framework.

‘Spurring economic transition’ is the follow-up to The Broker’s debate on inequality. What are the most important conclusions of the inequality debate that it needs to address?

There is a common tendency to view growth and equity as competing goals, including by many of those who have strong concerns about the latter. This is unfortunate since it is likely to lead to bad policy and horrible politics.

How can we create a more inclusive economy and what obstacles lie in the way? This debate seeks answers.

Norway’s recent international cooperation white paper, Sharing for Prosperity, seems stubbornly non-conformist. For it recommits Norway to some fundamental, if today unfashionable, purposes: for low-income lands, pursuit of growth-with-r...

On why the post-2015 agenda should include a goal to limit the negative characteristics of inequality and how indicators of income concentration are better suited for this. One proposal that could be used is the Palma index.

The notion of sovereign equality as the foundation of the international legal order is showing creaks and squeaks.

The specification of a new international income inequality goal will certainly be difficult. However, if rich-country fears of “the rise of the rest” can be replaced with a common commitment to a new economic and ecological convergence, global equ...

Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness, dear Chairholders of the Prince Claus Chair, ladies and gentlemen,

On 28 November, the Broker attended an exclusive meeting of the Prince Claus Chair in Development and Equity, chaired by Her Royal Highness Princess Máxima of the Netherlands. The meeting took place at Noordeinde Palace in The Hague. On this day,...

Coincidence landed me in Williamsburg, Virginia. The pretty town serves as a proud testament to 18th century US history, as it was here, in the carefully reconstructed Capitol building and Raleigh Tavern that the American colonists became inf...

We may need a new development model, one that puts greater emphasis on culture and social exclusion, Tanja Van de Linde argues.

Editor Evert-jan Quak comments and reflects on new research, publications, blog posts, conferences and current affairs in the field of inclusive and sustainable economy.

Social change

The Broker will publish interesting publications and current affairs in de field of global development.

960 million or 72% of the world's poor live in middle income countries

Possibly one of the greatest steps towards the advancement of women’s rights over the last decade has been the expansion of primary education. But on its own, this is not adequate to ensure gender equality or empower women. The position of gender...

The big issue for the MDG summit, the 'big push' to 2015 and even the post-2015 debates (there's a newly agreed UN summit due in Sept 2013) should really be a focus on equity and on the poorest. Why? Because nearly three-quarters of the world's po...

There are only five years left to deliver the targets set by the Millennium Development Goals for poverty, education, gender, health and the environment. The MDGs have had success so far: generating global consensus, supporting advocacy, mobilizin...

Praful Bidwai examines articles and blog posts by The Broker to discuss the disconnect between gross domestic product and social progress. He concludes that a radically new economics must be developed from the bottom up. 

Frans Bieckmann is the Editor in Chief of The BrokerLooking back on, and having briefly chewed over a long day of interesting talks and debates at the High Level Policy Forum in Brussels, I will share with you some of the threads and trends t...

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) provide clear objectives and a timeline for the world to achieve greater equality and a higher quality of life. The 2015 deadline for the MDGs is fast approaching and debates are beginning to flare up about...

From my perspective the author’s diagnosis is essentially right. There is overall consensus that recent decades have seen an increase in inequities in general and health in particular. Some LDC countries are even showing deteriorating health outco...

The recent change in global health policy and priorities, as heralded in three key reports published recently, revitalizes the PHC paradigm to provide ‘health for all’ and is characterized by a strong focus on equity and people-centred health serv...

The Global Forum for Health Research (Global Forum) agrees with the authors' statement that health issues need to be addressed in a comprehensive way, tackling social determinants of health, for which an intersectoral approach is essential.

Arnold Toynbee observed in 1931 that "The twentieth century will be chiefly remembered by future generations not as an era of political conflicts or technical inventions, but as an age in which human society dared to think of the welfare [hea...

The responses thus far to the special report on civic driven change (The Broker 10) have helped to launch a public and international conversation with far-ranging implications for the work of democracy building and development. I look forward to h...