Trend Progress toward equality stalling

Summary

The report judges that, despite long-running gains, the next stretch of the path towards equality has become difficult. Recovery after the covid crisis has been uneven, with the poorest countries bouncing back less and suffering more from the end of USAID support. Multilateralism, for decades the default mode of international cooperation, is under strain, while global problems whose burdens fall unevenly across countries, such as climate change, grow more pressing. Feelings of powerlessness feed the rise of populism and autocracy, which usually works against reducing inequality. Progress on gender equality and women's rights is also bumpy, and the drive towards equality between men and women appears to be stalling.