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Research Facility on Inequalities: First Phase (2017-2020)

Première phase de la Facilité de recherche sur les inégalités, AFD-Union européenne
© Kibuuka Mukisa Oscar / AFD

Endowed with 4 million euros delegated by the European Commission's Directorate-General for International Partnerships (INTPA), the first phase of the Research Facility on Inequalities was set up for the 2017-2020 period. Coordinated by AFD, this first phase has enabled 22 projects to be carried out in some thirty countries and the publication of around one hundred research papers and public policy dialogues.

An addendum to the initial agreement was also signed in 2020 between the European Commission and AFD. This addendum is accompanied by additional funding of 520,000 euros enabling AFD to continue the research work on inequalities undertaken during the first phase of the Facility.

Objectives and actions

The objective of the first phase of the Facility was twofold:

  1. To better understand socio-economic inequalities, their determinants, their evolution and their effects in order to better respond to them in terms of public policies
  2. Promote common strategies on inequalities between EU Member States, in the framework of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals. The final objective was thus to better coordinate the various European strategies and to strengthen the contribution of the European Union's development cooperation agencies to the reduction of inequalities.

Within this framework, the following activities were carried out: 

  • Conducting thematic and global research on the determinants and dynamics of socio-economic inequalities in developing and emerging countries, in partnership with research centres.
  • Implementation of research projects in partnership with research centres and governments in selected countries and cities to meet the needs of the countries studied and to create an opportunity for policy dialogue with partner governments on the subject of inequality.
  • AFD supports partner countries and development institutions in integrating research results into national policies and development cooperation strategies.

New funds granted by the European Commission to AFD in 2020 through the addendum will also enable the activities carried out during the first phase to be expanded. The aim of this addendum is twofold:

Download the synthesis for 2017-2020

Return to the Facility’s presentation page

 

3 types of projects were implemented in the first phase of the Research Facility on Inequalities: 

  1. Global projects to study the determinants and dynamics of socio-economic inequalities in developing and emerging countries.
  2. City and country projects that respond to the needs of partner countries and aim to support them in developing public policies to reduce inequalities. These projects were carried out in close collaboration with the governments concerned.
  3. Projects that provide tools for better analysis of inequalities in order to better respond to them in terms of public policies and development strategies. 

FOCUS ON...

Tools to analyse inequalities

These projects have led to the formulation of inequality diagnostics, fiscal incidence analyses and the development of methods to measure the distributive effects of development cooperation projects. The first phase of the Facility also led to the preparation by the European Commission of a handbook on how to reduce inequalities through development cooperation.

New research projects using the methodologies developed during the first phase of the Facility are carried out in the framework of the addendum.

Research Facility Inequalities - Map of Projects
© AFD

Four additional projects are being carried out in the framework of the call for research proposals “Advancing the inequality agenda through collaborative research: identifying the priorities for a Global Team Europe Approach on inequalities”, launched by the Strategic Committee of the Research Facility on Inequalities. These research projects are coordinated by AFD and co-financed by the European Commission, AECID and ENABEL:

Find below the publications associated with each research project supported by the Research Facility.

100+ research papers and policy briefs have been published

More than 100 research papers and policy briefs have emerged from the 22 projects conducted during the first phase of the Research Facility on Inequalities. These deliverables are based on the results of research and consultations conducted between 2017 and 2020. They aim to inform governments and development actors on the implementation of more inequality-sensitive public policies. 
 

Read the final synthesis

Housing

1. Impact of affordable housing on inequalities in Durban, Johannesburg, Cape Town - South Africa

Water

2. Inequalities in urban water services in La Paz and El Alto - Bolivia

Labor market

4. Understanding the dynamics of the earnings distribution in South Africa

Social policies

5. Analyzing inequalities from the perspective of health, education and employment trajectories in Burkina Faso

Structural transformations

6. Structural change, growth models and inequalities in Cameroon

Social cohesion

7. Inequalities in access to basic services and impact of public policies in Côte d'Ivoire

Inclusion

8. The dynamics and interactions of income inequality and inequality of opportunity in Ghana

Taxation

9. Inequalities diagnostic and fiscal incidence study in Kenya

Social mobility

10. Inequalities, social mobility and perceptions in Mexico

Sustainable agriculture

11. Agroecology public policies and income inequalities in rural regions in Senegal

Territorial development

12. Economic, social and regional inequalities in Tunisia

Analysis framework

13. Multidimensional inequalities study in Vietnam

Health

14. Assessing equity in health spending in Sub-Saharan Africa - Burkina Faso, Malawi, Zambia 

Education

15. Public policies, private higher education development and inequalities (India, Mali, México, Peru, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Senegal, Vietnam)

Taxation

16. Understanding the role of taxation in the fight against Inequalities

Social protection

17. The distributional impact of social protection: short and longer-run inequalities in Ethiopia, India and Peru

Regional policy

18. Analysis of multidimensional inequalities and impact of regional policies on inequalities in Central America and West Africa

West Africa Report: 

Central America and Dominican Republic Report:

Climate change

19. Climate variability and inequalities in Indonesia and in Vietnam

20. Inequalities and environmental changes in the Lower Mekong River Basin

Inequalities diagnostic

21. Inequalities diagnostics: A tool for analyzing inequalities in Africa - South Africa, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique

Fiscal incidence analysis

22. Fiscal incidence analysis in South Africa, Kenya and Marocco

Project's distributional impact

23. Distribution impact of development cooperation projects

Inequality initiatives mapping

24. Inequality mapping : a research facility to better understand inequalities 

Several conferences and webinars have been organized:

After three years of research, the final conference of the first phase of the EU-AFD Research Facility on Inequalities was held online from March 22 to 25, 2021. It provided an opportunity to share the results of the Facility’s studies, discuss them with a broad audience, and launch debates on the most effective strategies to reduce inequalities.

Partner researchers, academic experts, development practitioners, and policymakers exchanged views on the findings and discussed the implementation of policies that could help reduce inequalities.

Find out more

The seventh webinar of the EU-AFD Research Facility on Inequalities was held on Monday, July 6, and focused on the project Inequalities and Environmental Changes in the Lower Mekong Basin.

This webinar marked the final session of the first series.

Huynh Thi Phuong Linh, a researcher at the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD) in Hanoi, presented the paper "Inequalities and Environmental Changes in the Mekong Region: A Scoping Review."

The sixth webinar of the EU-AFD Research Facility on Inequalities was held on Monday, June 29, and focused on the project The dynamics and interactions of income inequality and inequality of opportunity in Ghana.

Nkechi Owoo, researcher in the Department of Economics at the University of Ghana and associate researcher at ACEIR, presented the paper "Exploring the Dynamics of Micro-Level Consumption Inequality in Ghana" (in English).

The fifth webinar of the EU-AFD Research Facility on Inequalities was held on Monday, June 22, and focused on the project Analysis of multidimensional inequalities and impact of regional policies on inequalities in Central America and West Africa.

Ana Claver Muñoz and Cristina Rovira Izquierdo, respectively Manager and Project Officer on Inequality at OXFAM Intermón, presented the paper "Multidimensional Inequality in Western Africa" (in English).

The fourth webinar of the EU-AFD Research Facility on Inequalities was held on June 15 and focused on the project Understanding the role of taxation in the fight against inequalities.

Marin Ferry, Lecturer at Université Gustave Eiffel and Associate Researcher at IRD-DIAL, presented the paper "Inequality in Public Good Provision and Attitude Towards Taxation: Sub-National Evidence from Africa" (in English).

The third webinar of the EU-AFD Research Facility on Inequalities was held on Monday, June 8, and focused on the project Inequalities in urban water services in La Paz and El Alto - Bolivia.

Sarah Botton (Research Officer at AFD) and Patricia Urquieta (Researcher at CIDES-UMSA) presented the research paper “Inequalities Related to Urban Water Services in La Paz-El Alto, Bolivia”.

The second webinar of the Research Facility on Inequalities took place on June 1 and focused on the project Understanding the dynamics of the earnings distribution in South Africa.

Rocco Zizzamia, researcher at ACEIR, SALDRU-UCT, and the University of Oxford, presented the research paper "Earnings Inequality over the Life-Course in South Africa", co-authored with Vimal Ranchhod.

The first webinar of the EU-AFD Research Facility on Inequalities, focused on the project Inequalities, Social Mobility, and Perceptions in Mexico, was held on May 25.

Aurora Ramirez Alvarez, Assistant Professor of Economics at El Colegio de México, presented the research paper "Perceptions of Inequality and Social Mobility in Mexico", co-authored with R. M. Campos-Vazquez, A. Krozer, R. De La Torre, and R. Velez-Grajales.

In November 2019, the EU and AFD organized a conference in Paris on inequality and redistribution in low and middle income countries, with the objective of bringing together academia, political actors, and civil society to engage in discussions on this topic.

Download the programme

The “Inequalities and Social Cohesion” conference aimed to foster dialogue between practitioners and researchers on these critical issues and to bring the debate into the public sphere.

The two-day event was held in Paris:

  • December 6 was a scientific day, dedicated to researchers and experts, and took place at AFD headquarters.
  • December 7 featured high-level public roundtables at the Institut du Monde Arabe.

Find out more

AFD held the first public conference of the Facility in January 2018. The event aimed to present the Facility’s activities and research agenda, and to situate them within the broader landscape of current research on inequalities.

Governance and partners

Schéma de la gouvernance VA
© AFD

The first phase of the Research Facility on Inequalities was organized around 4 committees:

  1. An executive committee: Composed of AFD, DG INTPA and AECID. This committee met twice a year to ensure the management of the projects financed.
  2. A strategic committee: Composed of AFD, DG INTPA and organizations active in the field of inequality. This committee met once a year to define the strategic priorities of the first phase of the Facility and to ensure coordination of Member States around the 2030 Agenda on inequalities.
  3. A scientific committee: Provided by UN Wider through its network of researchers. Its role was to support AFD in the selection and the scientific monitoring of research projects.
  4. A "Development Policies" working group: Composed of AFD and the governments involved in the country and city research projects. Its objective was to reflect on how the results of the projects could be used in the development of inclusive public policies.

 

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For further reading

The Extension of the EU-AFD Research Facility (2020-2025)

EU-AFD Research Facility on Inequalities 2017-2020 synthesis

Published on March 22 2021

Reducing Inequalities: Insights from the EU-AFD Research Facility

Published on October 2 2025

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