The Commitment to Reduce Inequality
Pakistan ranks 7 out of 8 countries in the South Asian region when it comes to the commitment to reducing inequality, according to the Commitment to Reduce Inequality Index 2022.
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The Commitment to Reduce Inequality (CRI) Index report is published by Oxfam International and focuses on convincing countries to develop national inequality action plans to achieve SDG 10 on reducing inequality. It recommends that all governments around the world should have strong anti-inequality policies on public services, tax, and labour rights for the purpose of radically reducing the gap between rich and poor.
The recent index has painted a bleak picture of how committed governments are to reducing inequality, while Oxfam argues that the pandemic should have been a “wake-up call” to act on poverty in general. Still, half of the nations covered in the index had cut their spending on social protection and 70% slashed education.
Pakistan slipped by one place to a regional CRI ranking of 7 out of 8 countries during 2022 versus 6 out of 8 countries during 2020. Pakistan's place has been taken by India as it has improved its regional CRI ranking to secure the 6th position among other South Asian countries. The same Index for 2018 shows that Pakistan used to rank 4 out of 8 countries at a regional level while India used to rank 6 out of 8 countries. Pakistan's major slip has been in the 'public services ranking' between 2020 and 2022. According to the report, high spending on public services alone does not guarantee that it will have a strong re-distributive effect and combat inequality. Governments must also ensure spending is progressive and should avoid policies that could undermine the benefits of spending, like health and education fees, which hit the pockets of the poorest people hardest, increasing income inequality.
Pakistan is towards the bottom of the ranking along with Nigeria, and India, spending too little to meet the needs of a majority of the population. Essentially abandoning its people to the vagaries of an unequal system, characterized by crumbling and under-resourced public health services, or a highly commercialized and unregulated private healthcare sector (table in the fourth graphic of the day- scroll down)
GRAPHICS OF THE DAY
Regional CRI Index Rank for Pakistan deteriorated since 2018
After COVID-19 India improved its regional CRI Index Ranking by making a major improvement in the 'public services ranking'
Comparing coverage with spending – some of the lowest performers on both are lower-middle-income countries with huge health inequalities
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