Moving Forward in the Fight to End Inequality and Exclusion

By Sarah Cliffe, Director, NYU Center on International Cooperation

Timor-Leste Foreign Minister Dionisio da Costa Babo Soares, Uruguayan delegate, Irish Deputy Prime Minister (Tanaiste) Simon Coveney, Namibian President Hage Geingob, Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, Ethiopian President Sahle-Work Zewde, Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, Tunisian delegate.

Amid the whirlwind of last month’s UN General Assembly — a gathering marked by dispiriting reminders of the deep challenges facing international cooperation today — I witnessed some bright moments of hope for meaningful progress on the sustainable development goals. One that particularly stood out was a gathering of leaders from a diverse group of countries who came together to speak up about the need for multilateral action on one of the most pressing sources of political polarization and public anger in our world: rising inequality and exclusion.

At the invitation of Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, heads of state and government from Sweden, Ethiopia, Spain, Sierra Leone, and Namibia; joined by the Vice President of Indonesia, the Deputy Prime Minister of Ireland, the Foreign Minister of Timor-Leste, as well as representatives from Uruguay and Tunisia, came together to issue a joint statement in which they “commit to working together to identify practical and politically viable solutions to the challenge of inequality and exclusion in our own societies and globally.”

Read the full blog post here: https://cic.nyu.edu/blog/moving-forward-fight-end-inequality-and-exclusion