News

On April 3, Social Platform participated in a high-level workshop on "Defining and Measuring Inclusive Growth", organised by the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Participants included a diverse group of OECD and international experts, policy makers, corporate and philanthropic foundations, non-governmental organisations, international institutions and regional banks.

The OECD made it clear that rising unemployment and increasing inequalities have been around since long before the global economic crisis generated deep social concerns. "Inequalities were brewing under the surface prior to 2007 and increased almost everywhere even during periods of sustained economic growth. We need to reverse this trend – It is time to change this reality and make better policies for more inclusive growth,” declared Angel Gurría, OECD Secretary General: “Today, the gap between rich and poor is widening almost everywhere. Within OECD countries, it is now the widest in 30 years: the average income of the richest 10% of the population is about 9 times that of the poorest 10%.”

Current discussions and policies agreed to create growth, are clearly overlooking these social objectives, being driven by mere economic and budget concerns and ignoring the inclusive aspect. Social Platform is of the opinion that, to respond to the deteriorating and preoccupying social situation in Europe, the EU and its member states urgently need to put social considerations on an equal footing with fiscal and economic priorities in all components of EU governance. To this end, they have to take immediate actions, including to protect social budgets when developing actions to tackle macro-economic imbalances, in order for growth to be inclusive. Furthermore, the EU and member states must invest in services of general interest and social protection, a true anti-poverty and social inclusion strategy, quality and sustainable employment, and equality and non-discrimination.

During the debates, our representative and member of the Management Committee, Michel Mercadié, insisted on the following points:

1) The role of the partnership of civil society with policy makers and institutions to orient growth towards inclusion and solidarity;

2) The importance of recognising the specificities of public services (of general interest), being an essentiel element of inclusive growth;

3) The danger of a blind cut of public expenses in the social field, in particular since these expenses are in fact a profitable investment;
4) The strength of the social economy in making growth inclusive, where it is currently too often forgotten in the debates.

This workshop is the first phase of the OECD's Inclusive Growth for Shared Prosperity Initiative. With this initiative, the OECD wants to revise the way economic growth is approached– from purely pro-growth to inclusive growth – while also seeking ways to improve the way policy is made and implemented. A main objective of the workshop was to work towards developing a roadmap for policies for inclusive growth and to identify obstacles to implement change and reach consensus among the different constituencies within the societies. The first phase of the initiative aims at identifying how to define the concept and measure it, while its second phase will shed light on the policy options and tradeoffs that are pro-growth and pro-people.

You can read our full written contribution to the OECD workshop here.