A PROPOSAL in the United Nations last week to establish an “International Panel on Inequality” has been gaining traction in the international community.
The proposal has been tabled by the UN General Assembly for formal consideration.
Outgoing UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the new body was conceived to bring into sharp focus Sustainable Development Goal 10, which calls for transformative change in reducing inequality that “threatens long-term social and economic development, stalls poverty reduction, and undermines people’s sense of fulfillment and self-worth.”
Guterres said there were “breathtaking levels of income and wealth inequality, with the richest 10 percent of the world’s population now owning 75 percent of all wealth.”
He described this vast divide as a “ticking time bomb.”
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 notes that inequality manifests in devastating ways. “Every day, women and children die from preventable diseases or childbirth because they lack basic health care. Older persons, migrants and refugees routinely face a lack of opportunity and systemic bias,” the report said. “This issue affects every country, with one in five people worldwide experiencing some form of discrimination — particularly women and people with disabilities. This prejudice takes many intersecting forms, from religious and ethnic bias to gender and sexual orientation discrimination.”
The UN said the proposed panel would bring together experts to “assess, synthesize and present trusted knowledge and analysis” on the scale, causes and consequences of inequality, and identify practical choices available to governments.
Among the options are greater investment in education, health, social protection and decent work; fairer taxation; and reforming the global financial architecture.
The body would be modeled after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and adopt the IPCC’s science-based approach to addressing inequality.
The creation of the panel has found strong backing in developing countries, progressive European nations and academics. Spearheading the movement is the Founding Committee, made up of South Africa, Brazil, Norway and Spain. It has also been endorsed by the African Union, the European Council, and Group of Seven members Germany and Japan.
The proposal, however, is expected to run into stiff resistance from countries, personalities and groups that will feel its fallout the most.
Two features of the panel’s policy framework are particularly striking. One will impose a standardized minimum tax rate on the assets of mega-rich individuals, and urge governments to phase out “regressive indirect taxation” like the value-added tax (VAT) and shift to “progressive capital income taxes” that promote universal social security and public services.
The other is the creation of a Global AI Fund to ensure that developing nations are not left behind in the race for artificial intelligence (AI) dominance and share in the benefits it generates.
The planet’s wealthy elite will definitely not relish paying an inequality tax, and will fight the proposal tooth and nail.
Governments that rely heavily on VAT and similar levies to prop up their economies, meanwhile, will find it extremely painful to transition to a more socially oriented taxation scheme.
Establishing an AI Global Fund will not be a straightforward process. China and the United States are too focused on the AI race and will not prioritize sharing their hard-earned gains with have-nots.
Guterres has warned that the “breakneck emergence” of frontier technologies like AI ”could unleash global inequality at a scale far beyond that we have seen.”
So, is a Panel on Inequality feasible? It depends on one’s view. In terms of data and methodology, chances are high, since information on wealth distribution and other economic inputs are readily available.
On the other hand, its viability is shaky, given inequality’s deep political and ideological roots.
The panel’s biggest flaw, however, is that like so many UN initiatives, it is nonbinding, and will depend on persuading individual governments to embrace it.
Some may consider it a pipe dream, a venture that in the end won’t count for much.
We believe it’s worth the try. A Panel on Inequality will not close the yawning gap that has stunted social and economic development and bred poverty.
But it could widen our understanding of — and engagement with — this long-standing challenge.
And that will be a big step forward.
