Global Conference Towards 2030 Addressing Inequalities and Challenges to Social Inclusion through Fiscal, Wage and Socia

Introduction:

The Agenda for Sustainable Development has identified poverty eradication as its overarching goal, with the ambitious aim of completely eradicating extreme poverty by 2030. The international community and the entire United Nations system is prioritizing the implementation of this agenda in its current work programme. This calls for innovative policy approaches and cross-sectoral working methods to ensure that the social, economic and environmental aspects of development are all implemented. In this regard, the Organisation for Poverty Alleviation and Development (OPAD) is holding a series of global conferences, Towards 2030, to identify innovative policies that can support governments in achieving sustainable development. The first Conference in this series will be in September this year. This extremely exciting and thought-provoking international Conference is intended to be a forum, discussion and networking place for researchers, international development agencies, academics, professionals, administrators, educational leaders, policy makers, industry representatives, and the public.

Theme of the 2018 Conference

The inaugural Conference will take place in Stockholm, Sweden from 24th to 27th September 2018, on the theme: “Addressing inequalities and challenges to social inclusion through fiscal, wage and social protection policies.” This theme was chosen to align with the theme of the United Nations Commission for Social Development (CsocD) for 2019. CsocD is the main forum at the United nations in New York where intergovernmental discussions on the social dimension of sustainable development takes place each year and the recommendations inform government policy and multi-stakeholder actions. The theme also corresponds to SDG 10, on reducing inequalities between and within countries, and particularly target 10.4, which says countries should “Adopt policies, especially fiscal, wage and social protection policies, and progressively achieve greater equality.”

The Conference will address the following key question: How can development occur in the face of mounting global inequalities and the rapid depletion of the world’s resource base? Innovative

approaches are needed to better understand recent trends in the distribution of wealth, income and opportunities in the capitalist world economy, and more fully comprehend the availability, use, and governance of resources. Original ideas are equally needed to gain insights into the transformative politics that might help to address the tensions and possible trade-offs between inequality reduction and sustainability. This conference will focus on issues of poverty and its reduction/ eradication, social inequality, policy management with an international perspective.

The Conference will also address questions regarding the role and importance of equal distribution of resources and social inclusion. The potential roles and impacts less-developed countries have on politics, business, education and the public sector. In addition, major social and economic trends and their poten