Abstract
In view of the 2020 global health crisis and its repercussions on the global economy, the need to redirect conventional economic thinking towards securing global economic sustainability is most critical. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a significant move in this direction. However, in the past few years, a clearer understanding of inclusive economics and sustainability indicators have progressed our ability to reduce economic exclusion, chiefly represented by global inequality. Collective wellbeing within the “global village” is shaped largely by these avenues/directions, thus presenting the question: can an improved combination of sustainability priorities be identified that would substantially enhance countries’ adoption of the SDGs? New, inclusive paths to economic progress are essential to a world economy in crisis recovery mode. The aim of the paper is to qualitatively identify key indicators from these different directions to, collectively, address some of the most significant drivers of global inequality, thus improving the adoption rate of the SDGs. As its main contribution, the study found that for economic inclusivity to realistically reduce global inequality its full integration into three areas is necessary: business models, public policy and community development. This should also be supported by “social covenants” to facilitate improved SDG adoption by countries.
Highlights
In a time when the world is arguably facing one of its most severe challenges due to the coronavirus-related lockdown restrictions, it is the ideal moment to rethink and address the systemic failures of our current economic framework
The past 20 years, which first involved the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of 2000–2015 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (2015–2030), much progress has been made in cultivating new economic thinking [2]
Given that a wide variety of causes of economic inequality exist, as denoted by the rich body of literature on the subject, the emphasis here is on identifying those drivers of inequality that have a strong “excluding” effect on people’s formal economic participation, and which occurs across countries
Summary
An inclusive economic framework evolved (and is evolving) that can add significant value to the implementation of the SDGs and their country-specific effectiveness (i.e., their ability to ensure real economic development) [3]. This is an important topic given the growing need for the SDGs to be more successfully implemented than the MDGs were. A key question is, : what would a more integrated framework of combined sustainability priorities consist of, which would increase their effectiveness and result in increased adoption of the SDGs by countries? In answering this question, the study becomes a qualitative assessment—following a theoretical literature review approach—of a possible symbiosis between inclusive economic criteria, the SDGs and sustainability indicators towards addressing global inequality
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