Understanding 11

Culture, Society and 1

Politics
Quarter 4- Modules 5

Writers:
Eric F. Fungo, LPCNSHS-Manuyo Campus
Estella Marie A. Oclares, LPCNSHS-Manuyo Campus
Rosanna T. Sarte, LPCNSHS-Manuyo Campus
Maria Cristita B. Cuerdo, LPCNSHS-Manuyo Campus

Content Validator:
Eric F. Fungo, LPCNSHS-Manuyo Campus

Language Validator
Mary Rose B. Baita – GANHS - SHS

Consolidator/Team Leader
Mary Jane Aranda, PES Camella Annex

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 Lesson Ways to Address Social Inequalities
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Most Essential Learning Competency
● Suggest ways to address social inequalities (local, national and global).

What is it?

Social Inequality
As discussed from the previous modules, social inequality is the existence of unequal
opportunities and rewards for different social positions or statuses within a group or society. It has
several important dimensions. Income is the earnings from work investment, while wealth is the total
value of money and other assets minus debts. Other important dimensions include power,
occupational prestige, schooling, ancestry, race and ethnicity. This also refers to relational processes
in the society that have the effect of limiting or harming a group social status, social class and social
circle. Areas of social inequality include access to voting rights, freedom of speech and assembly, the
extent of property rights and access to education, health care, quality housing, traveling, transportation,
vacationing and other social goods and services.

Ways to Address Social Inequalities

The obligation to address inequalities is born out of both international standards ang human
moral perspectives. However, in the current environment of fiscal austerity, making the practical case
for focusing on the worst off also involves showing that growing inequalities have negative economic,
social and political consequences. The extent of social inequalities varies from one society to another
suggesting that they are amenable to change. Nevertheless, simple solutions are being provided such
as the following:

1. The obligation of progressive realization and non-retrogression that governments must move
as expeditiously and effectively as possible to realize economic and social rights and cannot
take steps backwards.
2. Non-discrimination and equality that governments have an immediate obligation for ensuring
that deliberate, targeted measures are put into place to secure substantive equality and that all
individuals have an equal opportunity to enjoy their rights.

3. The principle of maximum available resources which entails the government, even in the face
of public revenue limitations, must use the maximum resources available to fulfill economic and
social rights.
4. Legislative reforms and its implementation to address discriminatory and exclusionary
practices as well as recourse mechanisms for disadvantaged groups and individuals to claim
their rights.
5. Social protection program to protect not only against sharp declines in income due to
contingencies such as illness, old age, disasters, market risks, etc. but also persistently low
incomes and their structural causes.
6. Widely accessible and good quality basic services for investing in people, their growth and
capabilities, education, health, food, housing and social security.
7. Having tools to assess, monitor and manage the impact of a broad set of policies on economic,
social and cultural rights.

Source: https://tinyurl.com/y6m57p7x
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Other Ways to Address Social Inequality
Alongside the Millennium Development Goals, extreme poverty was reduced by half even
before 2015. However, the new commitment is more ambitious and challenging than before. It
considers using measures of multidimensional poverty to track the progress on poverty education. The
recognition of the multidimensional and multi-causal character of poverty is a big step in public policy,
and a strong manifestation of commitment by national governments.
Through the deconstruction of poverty, inequality emerges as a primary issue. According to
Jim Yong Kim, president of the World bank, inequality is hardly new in human history but now it is
destabilizing global collaboration in ways that put humanity’s most critical achievements and
aspirations at risk. Inequality is usually associated with an unequal distribution of resources and
therefore it is related to the gap between the rich and the poor. It also relates to an unequal access to
opportunities or benefits from economic activity. In the best-case scenario, this unequal distribution is
associated to talent or effort, but in most cases, it is the result of institutional structures that create
social barriers based on sex, age, ethnicity, social status, among other variables that define individuals’
initial conditions.
Among its documented effects, inequality can lead to social tensions, discrimination, poverty
traps, erosion of social capital, regional imbalances, and an unfair access to justice. It also prevents
people from obtaining fair benefits from economic activities. Therefore, fighting inequality will open
doors to opportunities that are taken from groups traditionally excluded from development. Preventing
inequality can help promote social capital and stimulate the economy.
In this order of ideas, governmental and non-governmental efforts have taken place in order to
improve welfare by reducing inequality. The following are some examples of how inequality can be
reduced by implementing institutional arrangements on the field of fiscal, social and economic policy.
Pro-poor fiscal policy – income redistribution is achieved by fiscal policy mainly, but it does
not limit itself to income transfers from the rich to the poor. In informal markets, fiscal incentives for
poorer entrepreneurs can encourage them to enter the formal sector, provide social security for them,
and make it easier to pay taxes according to status and profits. On the other hand, fiscal incentives
from banks can encourage them to lend money to poor people, providing guarantees of payment and
creating funding programmers targeted to the poorest deciles.
Better targeting of social programs – targeting helps to reduce inequalities related to income,
education and health. Income transfers programs can have a greater and longer-term impact if better
targeting is used, ensuring people with wider gaps in access and income inequality are participants of
the programs. This can be done using geographic targeting, it is selecting the regions with the higher
prevalence of poverty. It can also use surveys to estimate if a potential beneficiary is poor or how poor
the recipient is. There is also the possibility of participatory targeting, where people from the community
identify and validate the selection of beneficiaries. Finally, having a national or state level list of social
beneficiaries is also useful for preventing the programs to duplicate efforts.

Participatory decision-making – This strategy focuses on increasing the voice of the poor.
Poor people often face an inequality of participation in policy making. Designing participatory
methodologies to include their perspective in public policy can help reduce the gaps of power to decide
over policies, which affect them and their communities. Participation does not limit to decision making,
it can also include monitoring and evaluating results and impact of social policies as well.
Revision of legislative frameworks that foster inequality – This strategy can help to identify
discriminatory laws or laws that generate inequalities among people or regions. Laws that do not
recognize domestic labor as productive, or social security systems that do not provide universal
access. The frameworks supporting these legislations might be discriminating towards informal poor
workers, for example, agricultural laborers without access to social security such as their pensions.
Promotive action – discrimination against certain groups of population might isolate them and
limit their access to opportunities for a better wellbeing. Media campaigns and advocacy efforts, which
identify this kind of discrimination and promote the participation of these sectors, can make people
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with disabilities, migrants, religious groups and indigenous groups more confident about their inclusion
in the state. Affirmative action can help to reduce the impact of ancient discrimination towards social
groups, like indigenous communities.
Addressing regional inequality – Improving access to roads, communications and markets
can have a great impact on reducing poverty and opening opportunities for marginalized groups.
Moreover, decentralization of public services, offices and industries can promote shared prosperity
among regions by preventing regional poverty pockets.
Differentiated poverty reduction policies – extreme poverty is usually associated with
systemic inequality and chronic poverty. Meanwhile, transient poverty is more related to the effect of
shocks and a higher social mobility rate. Different policies are needed to address each case of
scenario. A temporary employment program might work for transient poverty but may be inefficient for
chronic poverty related, for example, to a disability or to address poverty experienced by refugees.
Understanding the dynamics of poverty can work to design more efficient policies and have a bigger
impact on chronic poverty.
Program monitoring and evaluation – sound public expenditure evaluation can determine if
a social program is being efficient on reducing inequality or poverty. Design, performance and impact
evaluation can also increase public support for social programs by demonstrating they are effective.

Process Questions: (use another sheet of paper)

1. How does social inequality manifest in society?
2. What other ways can social inequality be addressed?
3. Why is it important for us to learn how to address inequality in the society?
4. As a social science student, in your own unique way, how can you help address inequality
in the society?