Roll Up Your Sleeves
Writer Maria Ramos, CEO: Barclays Africa
The world is starting to sit up and take notice of the fact that growth without responsibility and growth without inclusivity cannot hope to forge a better, more dynamic and more sustainable world economy
• The fact that strong GDP growth has societal benefits does not mean that structural obstacles to socio-economic inclusiveness are automatically overcome.
• In some instances there may be a contradiction between GDP growth and income inequalities.
• The world needs to think differently about individual and collective responsibilities and a higher societal purpose.
• Social challenges cannot be resolved adequately if all stakeholders are merely concerned with protecting their own turf.
During this year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, the forum’s “Shaping the Future of Economic Progress Initiative” published the Inclusive Development Index (IDI). The IDI is based on the notion that most citizens evaluate their countries’ economic progress not by the amount of goods and services produced in their economy (GDP), but by their household’s standard of living — a multi-dimensional phenomenon that encompasses income, employment opportunity, economic security and quality of life.
It’s now common cause that while strong GDP growth has societal benefits, in the form of improving employment and household income, that does not mean structural obstacles to socio-economic inclusiveness are automatically overcome. In some instances, there may be a contradiction between GDP growth and income inequalities due to structural patterns which mean the advantage to higher income groups grows faster than cumulative benefits to low- income strata.
This reality is part of what prompted us to think carefully about the role our organisation plays in
8 An Absa Investment publication
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