Equity begins with children

Jan Vandemoortele

• We seek to confirm, not to question, our ideas

• We tend to oversimplify

Don't Believe Everything You ThinkThe 6 Basic Mistakes We Make in Thinking

Thomas Kida, 2007

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Underweight Primary SchoolEnrolment

% Girls Child Mortality Measles Deliveries

1990 2009

All developing countries

-7

+7 +9

-3

+10

+11

Gender Parity

Child mortality

Child malnutrition

Primary education

Maternal health

Achieved To be Achieved

1990 2009 2015

Global MDG scorecard (as of 2009)

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Underweight Primary SchoolEnrolment

% Girls Child Mortality Measles Deliveries

1990 2009

Sub-Saharan Africa

-5 (-7)

+18 (+7)

+13 (+9)

-5 (-3)

+4 (+10)

+13 (+11)

Africa is not missing the targets, you are missing the point!

“African poverty and stagnation is the greatest tragedy of our time.”

Blair Commission for Africa, 2005

60 70 80 90

Glasgow

Kensington

2003/05

2007/09

+2.7 yrs

+1.2 yrs

-35%

-25%

-15%

-5%Bo

ttom

Seco

nd

Mid

dle

Four

th Top

Trends in malnutrition – South Asia

(1995-2009, by quintile)

• Top 10%: appropriated 91% of gains in income between 1989 and 2006

• Top 1%: captured nearly 60% of income-growth between 1976-2007

• Top 0.1%: income share up from 4% to 12% between 1979 and 2006

• “[...] the US economy did well, except for the people in it”

“There is no one policy for reducing inequality […] and another for raising national

performance. Reducing inequality is the best way of

doing both”

The Spirit Level – Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better

Wilkinson & Pickett, 2009

“In fact, a more equal society has a greater

likelihood of sustaining longer-term growth”

F&D, September 2011

Editor-in-Chief

“Salvation does not depend on what we do but on who we are”

Meister Eckhartearly 14th century

Mughal Shah Jahan 1592-66

Queen Ulrika-Eleonora 1656-93

“No hay camino, se hace camino al andar”

The best leaders are not more visionary or more creative;

Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos & Luck – why some thrive despite them all

Collins & Hansen, 2011

they are more disciplined and more empirical”