Dear World Leaders,
Twenty years ago, in 2005, Nelson Mandela declared, “As long as poverty, injustice and gross inequality persist in our world, none of us can truly rest.”
His words ring as true as ever today. Since then, total global wealth has doubled, yet nearly half the world still lives in poverty. Even as many green transitions advance, climate and environmental breakdown is unrelenting. One in four people worldwide now regularly skip meals.
We write to you as former Heads of State and Government, and Members of the Elders, from around the world. We understand the magnitude of the challenges before you. We also know that one challenge sits at the root of many others: extreme and accelerating inequality. We therefore urge your support for a crucial initiative of our time: the establishment of an ‘International Panel on Inequality’.
As wealth concentrates into fewer hands, we have seen in our own countries how rising inequality erodes public life, undermining institutions, public confidence, and the health of democracy itself. Leaders at the Brazilian-led G20 in 2024 agreed, “that inequality within and among countries is at the root of most global challenges that we face and is aggravated by them”. From addressing poverty to the climate crisis, and squeezed living standards, each rely greatly on reining in extreme inequality.
Unfortunately, inequality has hit crisis levels across the world. Wealth inequality has increased in most countries in recent decades. Globally, for every $1 of growth since 2000, the richest 1% have captured 41 cents. The bottom half of humanity have had to share the remaining 1 cent. In country after country, inequality undermines economies, drives polarisation, and fractures the bonds that hold us together.
This year, the G20 under South Africa’s leadership, commissioned the G20’s first-ever report on global inequality – led by Nobel Laurate Professor Joseph Stiglitz. Its sobering report clarifies what drives inequality and its policy remedies. It underlines forcefully the evidence that inequality is not inevitable. It is the result of policies – and can be changed by them.
Yet – as the report shows – we cannot address one of the world’s greatest crises without knowledge that is dependable, comprehensive, and coordinated. Consider the indispensable work done by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which has helped the world address the climate emergency. In a similar vein, we now need a body to help the world address the inequality emergency.
That is why we offer our full support to the key recommendation of the Stiglitz-led Committee to the G20 – and indeed to all governments – on the need for an IPCC for inequality, an ‘International Panel on Inequality’. This body would support policymakers with authoritative assessments and analyses of inequality, and would focus minds and inform robust policymaking at the national and international levels. The President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa has said that South Africa supports such an institution and is now calling on other countries in the G20 and beyond to endorse the Stiglitz report and this key recommendation for an Independent Panel on Inequality. Now is the time to support it.
Such a body would help all: governments, the private sector, multilateral agencies, media and civil society. It must help to analyse how the world’s approach to major international issues, from trade to artificial intelligence, impact inequality. And it should let the facts lead; highlight inequality trends; and assess impartially the impacts of policies on addressing the divide.
President Ramaphosa of South Africa has declared that “Addressing inequality is our inescapable generational challenge”. It is a challenge that we can and must address. We urge your support for an Independent Panel on Inequality.
Signed,
- Jan Peter Balkenende, Prime Minister of The Netherlands (2002-2010)*
- Joyce Banda, President of the Republic of Malawi (2012-2014)*
- Valdis Birkavs, Prime Minister of Latvia (1993-1994)*
- Gro Harlem Brundtland, Prime Minister of Norway (1981, 1986-1989, 1990-1996) and Founding Member of The Elders*
- Micheline Calmy-Rey, President of Switzerland (2007 and 2011)*
- Kim Campbell, Prime Minister of Canada (1993)*
- Laura Chinchilla, President of Costa Rica (2010-2014)*
- Helen Clark, Prime Minister of New Zealand (1999-2008)*
- Marie-Louise Coleiro-Preca, President of Malta (2014-2019)*
- Rafael Correa, President of Ecuador (2007-2017)
- Felipe González, President of the Government of Spain (1982-1996)*
- Dalia Grybauskaitė, President of Lithuania (2009-2019)*
- Alfred Gusenbauer, Chancellor of Austria (2007-2008)*
- Tarja Halonen, President of Finland (2000-2012)*
- Mehdi Jomaa, Prime Minister of Tunisia (2014-2015)*
- Ivo Josipovic, President of Croatia (2010-2015)*
- Aleksander Kwaśniewski, President of Poland (1995-2005)*
- Yves Leterme, Prime Minister of Belgium (2008; 2009-2011)*
- Stefan Löfven, Prime Minister of Sweden (2014-2021)*
- Graça Machel, Founder, The Graça Machel Trust and Foundation for Community Development and Deputy Chair of The Elders
- Rexhep Meidani, President of Albania (1997-2002)*
- James Michel, President of Seychelles (2004-2016)*
- Mario Monti Prime Minister of Italy (2011-2013)*
- Anand Panyarachun, Prime Minister of Thailand (1991-1992)*
- George Papandreou, Prime Minister of Greece (2009-2011)*
- PJ Patterson, Prime Minister of Jamaica (1992-2006)*
- Iveta Radicova, Prime Minister of Slovakia (2010-2012)*
- José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, President of the Government of Spain (2004-2011)*
- Petre Roman, Prime Minister of Romania (1989-1991)*
- Francisco Sagasti, President of Peru (2020-2021)*
- Juan Manuel Santos, President of Colombia (2010-2018), 2016 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and Chair of The Elders
- Jigmi Yoser Thinley, Prime Minister of Buthan (2008-2013)*
- Elbegdorj Tsakhia, President (2009-2017) and Prime Minister (1998; 2004-2006) of Mongolia, and Member of The Elders*
- Leo Varadkar, Prime Minister of Ireland (2017-2020; 2022-2024)*
*Member of Club de Madrid
