While there has been progress in promoting opportunities for all since the 1990s, group-based inequalities persist, including during childhood. Gaps between groups are not closing fast enough; the goal of leaving no one behind is likely to remain out of reach by 2030.
Given the profound influence of early life experiences on longterm health and economic outcomes, investing in the well-being of all infants and young children offers a powerful means of addressing entrenched inequalities and promoting social inclusion.
Access to decent and productive employment is crucial for social inclusion. However, labour market inequalities between groups remain pervasive, even between people with similar levels of education.
Collecting and disseminating disaggregated data, particularly by those characteristics listed in the Sustainable Development Goals, such as ethnicity, race, economic or disability status, is key to tracking progress in reducing social exclusion. However, the current global development funding landscape threatens the future of publicly available data sets for measuring inequality between different population groups.