• Agenda
  • Initiatives
  • Reports
  • Events
  • About
    • Our Mission
    • Leadership and Governance
    • Our Members and Partners
    • Communities
    • History
    • Klaus Schwab
    • Media
    • Contact Us
    • Careers
    • World Economic Forum USA
    • Privacy and Terms of Use
  • EN ES FR 日本語 中文
  • Login to TopLink

We use cookies to improve your experience on our website. By using our website you consent to all cookies in accordance with our updated Cookie Notice.

I accept
    Hamburger
  • World Economic Forum Logo
  • Agenda
  • Initiatives
  • Reports
  • Events
  • About
  • TopLink
  • Search Cancel

Report Home

  • Report Highlights
  • Competitiveness Rankings
  • Interactive Heatmap
  • Competitiveness Dataset (XLS)
  • Blogs and Opinions
  • Top 10 Infographics
  • Videos
  • Press Releases
  • [ — Divider — ]
  • Preface
  • Chapter 1.1 – Index Analysis
    • Introduction
    • Methodology
    • Rankings and Analysis
      • Top 10
      • Europe and Eurasia
      • Asia and the Pacific
      • Latin America and the Caribbean
      • Middle East and North Africa
      • Sub-Saharan Africa
      • Box 1: The Competitiveness of Cities
      • Box 2: India’s Competitiveness Crisis
      • Box 3: The Need for Structural Reforms
      • Box 4: Building Strategic Collaborations
    • Conclusions
    • References
    • Appendix A: Statistically testing the validity of the Global Competitiveness Index
    • Appendix B: Computation and Structure of the Global Competitiveness Index
    • Technical Notes and Sources
  • Chapter 1.2 – Sustainable Competitiveness
    • Introduction
    • Defining Sustainable Competitiveness
    • The Measurement of Sustainable Competitiveness
    • Results for Selected Economies
    • Box 1: The Advisory Board on Sustainable Competitiveness
    • Box 2: Progress toward stronger environmental regulations
    • Box 3: The World Economic Forum’s Global Project on Inclusive Growth
    • Box 4: The Sustainable Development Goals: A sound basis for sustainable growth
    • Conclusions and Next Steps
    • References
    • Appendix A: Calculation of the Sustainability-adjusted GCI
    • Appendix B: Technical Notes and Sources for Sustainability Indicators
  • Chapter 1.3 – The Executive Opinion Survey
    • Introduction
    • Administration
    • Results Computation
    • Box 1 – A brief history of the Executive Opinion Survey and The Global Competitiveness Report
    • Box 2: Example of a typical Survey question
    • Box 3: Insights from the Executive Opinion Survey 2014
    • Box 4: Country/Economy Score Calculation
  • Partner Institutes
  • Downloads
  • Competitiveness Library
  • Acknowledgements
  • Contact Us
Global Competitiveness Report 2014-2015 Home
  • Report Home
  • Report Highlights
  • Competitiveness Rankings
  • Interactive Heatmap
  • Competitiveness Dataset (XLS)
  • Blogs and Opinions
  • Top 10 Infographics
  • Videos
  • Press Releases
  • [ — Divider — ]
  • Preface
  • Chapter 1.1 – Index Analysis
    • Introduction
    • Methodology
    • Rankings and Analysis
      • Top 10
      • Europe and Eurasia
      • Asia and the Pacific
      • Latin America and the Caribbean
      • Middle East and North Africa
      • Sub-Saharan Africa
      • Box 1: The Competitiveness of Cities
      • Box 2: India’s Competitiveness Crisis
      • Box 3: The Need for Structural Reforms
      • Box 4: Building Strategic Collaborations
    • Conclusions
    • References
    • Appendix A: Statistically testing the validity of the Global Competitiveness Index
    • Appendix B: Computation and Structure of the Global Competitiveness Index
    • Technical Notes and Sources
  • Chapter 1.2 – Sustainable Competitiveness
    • Introduction
    • Defining Sustainable Competitiveness
    • The Measurement of Sustainable Competitiveness
    • Results for Selected Economies
    • Box 1: The Advisory Board on Sustainable Competitiveness
    • Box 2: Progress toward stronger environmental regulations
    • Box 3: The World Economic Forum’s Global Project on Inclusive Growth
    • Box 4: The Sustainable Development Goals: A sound basis for sustainable growth
    • Conclusions and Next Steps
    • References
    • Appendix A: Calculation of the Sustainability-adjusted GCI
    • Appendix B: Technical Notes and Sources for Sustainability Indicators
  • Chapter 1.3 – The Executive Opinion Survey
    • Introduction
    • Administration
    • Results Computation
    • Box 1 – A brief history of the Executive Opinion Survey and The Global Competitiveness Report
    • Box 2: Example of a typical Survey question
    • Box 3: Insights from the Executive Opinion Survey 2014
    • Box 4: Country/Economy Score Calculation
  • Partner Institutes
  • Downloads
  • Competitiveness Library
  • Acknowledgements
  • Contact Us

Box 3: The World Economic Forum’s Global Project on Inclusive Growth

Share

Download PDF

In many countries, the gap between rich and poor is widening, youth unemployment is rising, and access to basic services remains a challenge. Even in several fast-growing developing countries, it appears that growth has not made a notable dent in income inequality or poverty, and the vulnerabilities associated with these problems remain entrenched.1 The global community is calling for change—for solutions that foster economic growth in a more inclusive manner.

The question of how to unlock new sources of productive employment and strengthen the contribution of economic growth to improvements in broad living standards is becoming an increasingly important concern for political and business leaders in developed and developing countries alike. However, although international consensus on the need to develop new approaches in this respect is widespread, very little in the way of concrete policy guidance has emerged from the G-20 or from international institutions. There is a growing need for analytical frameworks and evidence-based solutions suited to this purpose.

The economic fundamentals that have accompanied high and sustained economic growth are well known and form the basis of the World Economic Forum’s 12-pillar model of competitiveness. Nevertheless, the economic debate on inclusive growth is still taking shape, and the Forum is playing an active role in disentangling the complex relationship between growth and equity, building on its existing benchmarking and sustainability work. The mechanisms through which growth-enhancing policies impact poverty and inequality are difficult to unravel, however. Several policy areas have been identified as “win-win” or “super pro-poor” in that they have both a positive effect on growth and a negative effect on inequality, while others remain inconclusive.2

For example, policies and structural reforms should provide equality of opportunity so that all segments of society can participate in its growth by expanding and improving labor, technology, and capital in order to raise living standards. Increasing affordability and access to high-quality education and training, and providing access to credit and other incentives for small business development, are among the most effective instruments available to governments for achieving progressive growth. These should be complemented by policies that redress some of the inequalities in outcomes, particularly those experienced by poor and vulnerable segments of the populations, through attention to areas such as provisioning public services, establishing a progressive tax code, and providing basic social and labor protections.3

The international community has made significant progress in defining inclusive growth. However, agreeing on a comprehensive and more actionable framework remains an ongoing challenge. One widely accepted definition of inclusive growth involves output growth that is sustained over decades, is broad-based across economic sectors, creates productive employment opportunities for the majority of the country’s population, and reduces poverty.4 Reductions in excessive income inequality have also emerged as a prerequisite for inclusive growth, supported by mounting evidence that inequality undermines growth.5 In summary, inclusive growth is about both the pace and pattern of economic growth.6

The World Economic Forum’s Global Project on Inclusive Growth aims to mobilize a better response to this challenge by drawing on its multiple, relevant capabilities in partnership with key international organizations to build on this initial framework and push the policy agenda further. Specifically, it will seek to assemble a comparative analysis of the extent to which countries make use of the wide spectrum of policy incentives and institutional mechanisms that influence the pattern and pace of broad-based progress in living standards.

An initial framework includes areas such as creating an enabling environment for human capital formation, reinforcing the wage and productivity growth link, fostering entrepreneurship and investment, reinforcing business and political ethics, promoting gender parity, reviewing fiscal policy (tax code and social protection), and providing improved public services and infrastructure. Once completed, this framework will be used as a point of departure for a series of policy dialogues among policymakers, business leaders, and other opinion shapers. The goal is to establish a more concretely actionable foundation for policy by giving countries a clearer relative sense of the extent to which they are exploiting the policy space and the best practices available to them on the basis of the recent experience of their peers or the historical experience of other relevant countries. By doing so, the Global Project on Inclusive Growth aims to shed light on the full spectrum of policy levers available to promote social participation in the process and benefits of economic growth without dampening incentives to work, save, and invest.

1
1 While extreme poverty (at a $1.25 per day threshold) has declined notably, taking such narrowly defined poverty headcount ratios underestimates the large numbers of low-income people who fall just above fixed international poverty thresholds (e.g., $2 or $2.75 per day). See AfDB 2013; Ali and Zhuang 2007.
2
2 Lopez 2004; Killick 2002.
3
3 Furman 2014; IMF 2013.
4
4 Commission on Growth and Development 2008; Ianchovichina and Lundstrom 2009.
5
5 Berg and Ostry 2011; Ostry et al. 2014.
6
6 Ianchovichina and Lundstrom Gable 2012.
Back to Top
Subscribe for updates
A weekly update of what’s on the Global Agenda
Follow Us
About
Our Mission
Leadership and Governance
Our Members and Partners
The Fourth Industrial Revolution
Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution
Communities
History
Klaus Schwab
Our Impact
Media
Pictures
A Global Platform for Geostrategic Collaboration
Careers
Open Forum
Contact Us
Mapping Global Transformations
Code of Conduct
World Economic Forum LLC
Sustainability
World Economic Forum Privacy Policy
Media
News
Accreditation
Subscribe to our news
Members & Partners
Member login to TopLink
Strategic Partners' area
Partner Institutes' area
Global sites
Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution
Open Forum
Global Shapers
Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship
EN ES FR 日本語 中文
© 2021 World Economic Forum
Privacy Policy & Terms of Service