2) September 18: Global Equity: Ethical Foundations

Syllabus

Global Equity Seminar Course
Fall 2002, Wednesday, 4:10-6:00 PM
Instructors: Sudhir Anand and Lincoln Chen

THEORY AND EVIDENCE
1) September 11: Global Equity and the Millennium Development Goals

2) September 18: Global Equity: Ethical Foundations

3) September 25: World Poverty: Alternative Estimates and Conceptions

4) October 2: Income Inequality: Evidence and Debate
CASES IN HEALTH AND EDUCATION
5) October 9: Health Equity and the AIDS Pandemic

6) October 16: The MDGs and Health Equity

7) October 23: Gaps in Primary Education

(One page submission of proposed topic for term paper)

8) October 30: Changing Gender Agenda

9) November 6: Human Security and Equality
INSTITUTIONS AND POLICIES
10) November 13: Globalization and Fairness

11) November 20: Global Institutions and Policies

(Policy brief exercise submissions)

12) December 4: Civil Society and Non-Governmental Organizations

13) December 11: Private Investments and Partnerships

(Term paper submission)

THEORY AND EVIDENCE
1) September 11: Global Equity and the Millennium Development Goals
This introductory session will describe the course goals, its structure and content, and class exercises and term papers. No examination is planned. Brief presentations will be made on "what" is global inequity and "why" it is important. The search for global equity in practical terms will be illustrated through the UN Millenium Development Goals, a set of organizational priorities for UN agencies, the World Bank, governments, bilateral donors, and constituent groups of global civil society.
2) September 18: Global Equity: Ethical Foundations
Why should we be concerned with global inequality and poverty? One family of views suggests that our obligations to one another are stronger within the boundaries of the nation state than they are across them. In this view, there is a weaker duty to assist those who live in distant lands than to assist one's compatriots. In another view, the very reasons that we are concerned about inequalities within countries offer equally compelling reasons to be concerned about inequality globally. What are the obligations that we have to one another? Do they depend on the extent to which we live in an interdependent world? Or do our obligations emerge, rather, from the moral idea that having been born in rich circumstances rather than poor ones is arbitrary? If we are concerned about others, should we focus on absolute deprivation or to the existence of inequalities in relative status, or both? As egalitarians or prioritarians, what is the space upon which our concern should focus [e.g. capabilities, welfare, primary goods, resources]?
3) September 25: World Poverty: Alternative Estimates and Conceptions
Policies to reduce world poverty must be guided by information and analyses concerning how many poor people there are, how poor they are, where they live, and in what sense they are poor. Since 1990 the World Bank has been producing estimates of global income poverty defined in relation to an absolute poverty line of '$1 per day' (1985 PPP$). According to this standard, the Bank estimated 1.2 billion poor people in 1998. There are, however, reasons to be skeptical both about this concept of poverty and about the reliability of the Bank's estimates. This session will examine current estimates of global income poverty and their divergence, and the political implications of different estimates of levels and trends. It will also discuss non-income aspects of poverty: does poverty simply mean lack of resources, or should it be measured in other dimensions?
4) October 2: Global Income Inequality: Evidence and Debate
As income distribution data for countries have become increasingly available,
several estimations of global income inequality have been made. However, they use different data bases and different methodologies to construct a world distribution of income, thus reaching different conclusions – especially on recent time trends. Part of the controversy centers around different spaces of global inequality. Another contention revolves around the appropriate exchange rates to use for converting income in local currencies into a common numeraire – e.g., market exchange rates or purchasing power parity adjusted dollars. Differences in the datasets, exchange rates used, and units across which inequality is estimated (country or individual) all contribute to the divergent findings. This session will review recent studies that estimate the level of and trends in global income inequality and discuss the differing positions in the global debate.
INEQUITIES IN HEALTH AND EDUCATION
5) October 9: Health Equity and the AIDS Pandemic
HIV/AIDS is one of the gravest health crises in human history. What are the scale, dimensions, and trajectories of this global pandemic? As the world community attempts to grapple with the crisis, fissures in equality among people and countries are emerging. HIV/AIDS demonstrates a variable pattern of risks and impact across and within countries. Why? Vigorous debate has developed between prevention and treatment, targeted versus broad strategies, and epidemiological versus human rights approaches. Especially contentious is affordable access to life-saving anti-retroviral drugs treatment among HIV-positive poor people, especially in heavily impacted sub-Saharan Africa. Controversial has been the equity implications of the WTO/TRIPS (Trade-Related aspects of Intellectual Property rights) agreement on intellectual property rights that regulates research, development, and pricing of new drugs. What is the appropriate balance between equity and profit in matters of life and death?
6) October 16: The MDGs and Health Equity
Five of the eight major MDGs are directly health related – child hunger and malnutrition, child mortality, maternal mortality, HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, and access to clean drinking water All of the other goals are centrally important to health attainment – poverty reduction, education, gender equality, and global partnerships. What is the world health situation? Why has health attained such high priority in the MDGs? How well are recent trends moving toward MDG targets in diverse countries? Are the goals realistic and feasible? What are underlying assumptions about strategies and attainment?
7) October 23: Gaps in Primary Education
Primary education for all the world's children has been a long-established universal aspiration and is now one of the Millennium Development Goals. The MDGs include targets to achieve universal primary education by 2015, and to eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary schooling by 2005, and in all levels of schooling by 2015. Schooling, especially of girls, is associated with many aspects of social and economic development: it reduces unwanted fertility, maternal, infant and child mortality, and increases family nutrition. Educational inequality is also a major cause of economic inequality. Yet 120 million of today's children fail to attend primary school. This gap is one of the major social failures of the last century. Despite all the international declarations, universalism in primary education seems as far away as ever. Why? What are the factors that constrain progress? What is and can be done to correct this key global social deficiency? The situation in South Asia, which contains about half of the world's out-of-school children, will receive special attention.
8) October 30: Changing Gender Agenda
Although discrimination against girls and women is important to all aspects of a society's social achievement, no country in the world have attained equality in all aspects of gender relations. Significant progress has been achieved in some countries, but many shortfalls and setbacks are also emerging. Along with enormous variability in intensity of gender imbalances, there are many facets of gender inequality. Some aspects are among the most contentious global policy debates – e.g. abortion and women's rights. What is the global pattern of gender inequality? Have old forms of inequality receded? Are new forms emerging? Is culture an explanation and, if so, is it acceptable? How successful has been the language of women's human rights?
9) November 6: Human Security and Equity
The concept of "human security" has steadily gained ground in the 1990s with the end of the Cold War, the emergence of "new conflicts", and growing recognition of the multiple insecurities faced by the world's poor. What is the conceptual basis of human security and how does it relate to more traditional concepts like "national security" and "international development"? Why has this concept been so eagerly grasped by the international community, and what are some substantive intellectual and policy criticisms? What are the institutional and policy implications of human security? The work of the ongoing Commission on Human Security will form the basis of this session.
INSTITUTIONS AND POLICIES
10) November 13: Globalization and Fairness
Globalization involves many different things: increased international trade, financial flows, movements of people and the dissemination of cultures. Opinions abound regarding the benefits and dangers of globalization -- from the 'Washington consensus' view that deregulation and international integration are unambiguously good, to the anti-global capitalism of the Seattle protesters. What exactly is globalization? How should people and nations react to it, and what is its role in national development? Can globalization be made fairer?
11) November 20: Global Institutions and Policies
The global institutions responsible for managing globalization are the IMF, World Bank, and World Trade Organization. The first two were created after World War II, and the last in 1995. These institutions are arguably more powerful than ever, the IMF and World Bank playing dominant roles in the design of many countries' policies, and membership of the WTO placing strong constraints on trade policy. There is much debate on the appropriate role of these institutions. Has their impact on development been positive or negative? Could they be made more effective and democratic? Does globalization require global governance at all?
12) December 4: Civil Society and Non-Governmental Organizations
While a diverse range of civil society groups -- including religious organizations, the media, unions and academic institutions -- have all made meaningful contributions to combating poverty, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have attracted particular attention. The decentralization of governments and scaling-back of social spending have expanded space for NGOs, and made them key players in health care, education, economic development and human rights. But NGOs are extraordinarily diverse in function (e.g. service delivery, advocacy, community mobilization), form (formal organization, alliances, networks) and scale (local, national, international). Which are the most effective roles for NGOs for promoting global equity and achieving the MDGs? How can these roles best be realized? How appropriate are NGOs as institutions on which to base action for global equity when many are unelected organizations, unaccountable to the people, and considerably influenced by donor interests?
13) December 11: Private Investments and Partnerships
Private social investing is an under-studied and poorly understood part of non-profit civil society. Although most societies have traditions of charity, modern philanthropic organizations have grown considerably in the past few decades. As new challenges emerge and philanthropic capacity increases, foundations have assumed key catalytic roles in new social ventures. Many now work to solve local and national problems. With globalization, however, philanthropy has becoming increasingly global in reach. What is the role of international foundations – like Gates, Soros, Turner, Ford, Rockefeller – in global equity? How relevant are indigenous and diaspora philanthropies in poorer countries? What has been the role of private social investment in crafting new initiatives, such as "partnerships" among governmental and private entities? And how likely are these innovative partnerships to make sustained and significant contributions to global equity?

The Challenge of Global Equity
REQUIRED AND RECOMMENDED READINGS

1) September 11: Global Equity and the Millennium Development Goals
Required Readings
United Nations (2000), Millenium Declaration. New York: United Nations. See UN Millenium Development Goals, available at
United Nations (2002), "Report of the Secretary-General: The Contribution of Human Resources Development, including in the Areas of Health and Education to the Process of Development", Economic and Social Council, Document E/2002/46, New York, July.
Vandemoortele, Jan (2002), "Are the MDGs feasible?" working paper, Bureau for Development Policy, United Nations Development Programme, New York, June. Available at
Robert Wade and Martin Wolf (2002), 3-Round Letter Exchange on World Poverty and Inequality, in Prospect Magazine, UK, available at **Note this is not in pack**
UNDP (2002), Human Development Report 2002: Deepening Democracy in a Fragmented World, chapter 1. New York: Oxford University Press, available at **Note this is not in pack**
Recommended Readings
Galbraith, James K. (2002), "A Perfect Crime: Global Inequality", Daedalus, Winter, 11-25.
Jencks, Christopher (2002), "Does inequality matter?" Daedalus, Winter, 49-65.
Birdsall, Nancy (2001), "Why Inequality Matters: Some Economic Issues", Ethics & International Affairs 15(2), 3-28.
2) September 18: Global Equity: Ethical Foundations
Required Readings
Pogge, Thomas W. (2002), "'Assisting' the Global Poor", mimeo.
Rawls, John (1999), The Law of Peoples, especially sections 3-4, 8, 15-16.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Rawls, John (1977), "The Basic Structure as Subject," reprinted in John Rawls (1996), Political Liberalism, Columbia University Press.
Anand, Sudhir and Amartya Sen (2000), "Human Development and Economic Sustainability", World Development, 28(12), 2029-2049.
Sen, Amartya (1992), Inequality Reexamined, chapters 2 and 3. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Recommended Readings
Bok, Sissela (2002), Common Values, Columbia: University of Missouri Press.
Dworkin, Ronald (1981), "What is Equality? Part 1: Equality of Welfare", Philosophyand Public Affairs, 10(3), 185–246.
Parfit, Derek (1997), "Equality or Priority?" Ratio (10), 202-221. (The Lindley Lecture, University of Kansas, 1991.)
Anderson, Elizabeth (1999), "What is the Point of Equality?" Ethics, 109(2), 287-337.

Arneson, Richard (2000), "Luck Egalitarianism and Prioritarianism", Ethics,
(reply to Anderson 1999).

Rawls, John (1971), A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Waldron, Jeremy (1999), 'Two Essays on Basic Equality', at
3) September 25: World Poverty: Alternative Estimates and Conceptions
Required Readings
Reddy, Sanjay and Thomas W. Pogge (2002), "Unknown: The Extent, Distribution and Trend of Global Income Poverty", available at
Chen, Shaohua and Martin Ravallion (2001), "How Did the World's Poorest Fare in the 1990s?" Review of Income and Wealth, 47(3), 283-300.
Deaton, Angus (2001), "Counting the World's Poor: Problems and Possible Solutions," World Bank Research Observer 16, 125-148. Available at this is not in pack**
Anand, Sudhir and Amartya Sen (1997), "Concepts of Human Development and Poverty: A Multidimensional Perspective", in Human Development Papers 1997: Poverty and Human Development, United Nations Development Programme, New York, 1-19.
Recommended Readings
Sen, Amartya (1984), "Poor, Relatively Speaking", in Resources, Values and Development.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Chen, Shaohua, Gaurav Datt, and Martin Ravallion (1994), "Is Poverty increasing in the Developing World?", Review of Income and Wealth, (40)4, 359-76.
Ravallion, Martin, Gaurav Datt and Dominique van de Walle (1991), "Quantifying
Absolute Poverty in the Developing World", Review of Income and Wealth 37, 345-361.
World Bank (1990), World Development Report: Poverty. New York: Oxford University Press (for the World Bank).
Reddy, Sanjay and Thomas W. Pogge (2002), "How Not to Count the Poor", unpublished manuscript, Columbia University. Available on Also read response by Ravallion, and response to response, both on the website.
Sala-i-Martin, Xavier (2002), "The Disturbing 'Rise' of Global Income Inequality", National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. w8904, April.
UNDP (1997), Human Development Report. New York: Oxford University Press (for the United Nations Development Programme).
Lipton, Michael (2001), "The 2015 Poverty Targets: What Do 1990-98 Trends Tell Us?", mimeo, Poverty Research Unit at Sussex. Available at
4) October 2: Global Income inequality: Evidence and Debate
Required Readings
Wade, Robert (2001), "The Rising Inequality of World Income Distribution", Finance and Development Volume 38, Number 4 **Note this is not in pack**
Bourguignon, Francois and Christian Morrisson (2002), "The size distribution of income among world citizens, 1820-1990", mimeo. Forthcoming in American Economic Review. **Note this is not in pack**
Milanovic, Branko (2002), "True World Income Distribution, 1988 and 1993: First Calcualtion Based on Household Surveys Alone", Economic Journal.
Sala-i-Martin, Xavier (2002), "The Disturbing "Rise" of Global Income Inequality", mimeo, Columbia University, New York, March
**Note this is not in pack**
Dowrick, Steve and Muhammad Akmal (2001), "Contradictory Trends in Global Income Inequality: a Tale of Two Biases", Australian National University Working Paper available at **Note this is not in pack**
Recommended Reading
Atkinson, A. B. and Brandolini, A. (1999), "Promise and Pitfalls in the Use of 'Secondary' Datasets: Income Inequality in OECD Countries", Journal of Economic Literature Vol. 39 No. 3.
Cornia, Giovanni Andrea with Sampsa Kiiski (2001), "Trends in Income Distribution in the Post World War II Period: Evidence and Interpretation", Paper prepared for the WIDER Development Conference 25-26 May 2001, Helsinki. Available at
Schultz, T. Paul (1999), "Inequality in the Distribution of Personal Income in the World: How it is Changing and Why", Journal of Population Economics 11(3), 307-344.
Milanovic, Branko (2001), "World Income Inequality in the Second Half of the 20th Century", draft World Bank Working Paper available at research/transition/
Australian Treasury (2001), "Global poverty and inequality in the 20th century: turning the corner?" Economic Round Up 2001 Centenary Edition
5) October 9: Health Equity and the AIDS Pandemic
Required Readings
UNAIDS (2002) "Report on the Global HIV/AIDS Epidemic, 2002", chapters 2 and 3. UNAIDS, available at **Note this is not in pack**
Helen Epstein and Lincoln Chen (2002), "Can AIDS Be Stopped?," New York Review of Books, New York, February 2002.
De Cock, Kevin M, et al (2002), "Shadow on the continent: public health and HIV/AIDS in Africa in the 21s Century" The Lancet, Vol 360, Issue 9326, pp 67-72.
OXFAM International (2002), "TRIPS and Public Health: The Next Battle", Policy Briefing Paper, **Note this is not in pack**
Mbeki, Thabo (2000a), Open letter to world leaders on HIV/AIDS in Africa. April 3 2000.
Available at this is not in pack**
Mbeki, Thabo (2000b), Speech at the Opening Session of the 13th International AIDS Conference. July 9, 2000. Available at this is not in pack**
Recommended Readings
World Health Organization (1999), "Globalization and Access to Drugs: Perspectives on the WTO/TRIPS Agreement," available at
OXFAM International (2001), "Eight broken Promises: Why the WTO isn't working for the Poor", Policy Briefing Paper # 9,available at
Medecin Sans Frontiers (2002), "From Durban to Barcelona: Overcoming the treatment deficit", XIVth International AIDS Conference Policy Paper, 7 July, 2002

Boulet, Pascal, Jos Perriens, and Francoise Renaud-Théry (2000), "Patent Situation of HIV/AIDS related drugs in 80 Countries". Available at
Attaran, Amir, Lee Gillespie-White (2001), "Do Patents for Antiretroviral Drugs Constrain Access to AIDS Treatment in Africa? JAMA Vol. 286 No.15,
Attaran, A and J Sachs (2001) "Defining and Refining International Donor Support for Combating the AIDS Pandemic," Lancet 2001; 357:57-61.
6) October 16: The MDGs and Health Equity
Required Readings
Evans, Timothy, Margaret Whitehead et al (eds)(2001), Challenging Inequities in Health: From Ethics to Action, chapters: 1-6, 21. New York: Oxford University Press.
Commission on Macroeconomics and Health (CMH) (2001), Macroeconomics and Health: Investing in Health for Economic Development. Geneva: World Health Organization (WHO). Available at report.cfm?path=cmh,cmh_report&language=English **Note not in pack**
Chen, Lincoln and Meghnad Desai (1997): "Success stories in social development" in Jolly, Richard and Santosh Mehrotra (eds) Development With a Human Face Oxford University Press, New York.
Walker, N., Schwartlander, B.,Bryce, J (2002), "Meeting international goals in child survival and HIV/AIDS", The Lancet. Vol 360, July 27. pp 284-289.
Graham, Wendy J and Marie-Louise Newell (1999), "Seizing the opportunity: collaborative initiatives to reduce HIV and maternal mortality", The Lancet. Volume 353 March 6, pp.836-839.
Sen, Kasturi and Ruth Bonita (2000), "Global health status: two steps forward, one step back", The Lancet, Volume 356 August 12 p.577
Recommended Readings
WHO (2000), The World Health Report 2000: Assessing Health Systems Performance, Geneva: WHO.
Anand, Sudhir et al (2002), Report of the Scientific Peer Review Group on Health Systems Performance Assessment, available at
Maine, Deborah and Allan Rosenfield (199?): "The Missing M in MCH" Lancet, ???
Heuveline P. Guillot M. Gwatkin DR (2002), "The uneven tides of the health transition" Social Science & Medicine. 55(2):313-22.
Svedberg, Peter (2000), "Poverty and Undernutrition: Theory and Measurement",Oxford Clarendon Press.
Devarajan, Shantayanan, Margaret J Miller and Eric V Swanson (2002). "Goals for Development: History, Prospects, and Costs." Washington DC: World Bank.