WIEGO is participating in an open dialogue series examining the inequality emergency and the institutional actions needed to dismantle it.
In 2025, the G20 released a landmark report in which experts sounded the alarm on the inequality emergency, and called for an International Panel on Inequality (IPI). The IPI would be a permanent body to assess and monitor inequality globally.
The report also found the richest 1% captured 41% of all new wealth since 2000, while the bottom half of humanity gained just 1%. On average, someone in the global top 1% became $1.3 million richer; a person in the poorest half gained $585.
The ‘Wax and Gold’ open dialogue series, hosted by Impact Trust, responds to this report and spans conversations about the inequality emergency diagnosis, through to the political, institutional and economic redesign necessary to solve it.
The Inequality Emergency: From Report to Redesign
Imraan Valodia, a WIEGO board member, will guide a conversation on Wednesday, April 22nd about the G20 report, with direct insight.
Professor Valodia is a member of the G20 Extraordinary Committee of Independent Experts on Global Inequality, and is centrally involved in the establishment of the IPI. He will discuss the report’s findings, the establishment of the IPI, and the tensions that will shape how this new institution takes form.
He will be joined by Jayati Ghosh, also a member of the G20 Extraordinary Committee and the IPI advisory board, and one of India’s most prominent development economists.
This discussion comes just before a vital South Africa convening in late April, where national leaders from Spain and Norway will come together to mark the path ahead for the IPI. The discussion will offer an engagement with the report’s findings and a space to explore the harder questions related to establishing the IPI.
Date: Wednesday 22nd April 2026
Time: 9am ET / 2pm UK / 3pm CET
Register here
The Invisible Economy: Inequality, Informality and Democratic Space
WIEGO’s International Coordinator Laura Alfers is speaking on a panel on Thursday, April 30th, that will examine the inequality emergency from the ground up, from the perspective of the workers most affected by it – those in informal employment.
The open dialogue will be guided by:
- Dr Laura Alfers, International Coordinator at WIEGO
- Dr Laila Iskandar, formerly the Minister of State for Urban Renewal and Informal Settlements in Egypt, and Minister of State for Environmental Affairs
- Naila Kabeer, Professor Emeritus at the Department of International Development and Faculty member of the International Inequalities Institute
It will be moderated by Jo Swinson, director of Partners for a New Economy.
This conversation will consider the pressures that make this issue urgent for workers in informal employment – such as whether employment can still serve as a pathway out of poverty amidst technological change, platform capitalism and the erosion of labour protections, and how worker organizations build power in the face of democratic erosion.
Date: April 30, 2026
Time: 8am ET / 1pm UK / 2pm CET / SAST
Register here