ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the evolution of the global governance of poverty and inequality and explores implications for the future. A particular focus is the shift from the relative neglect of poverty as a formal international issue in the 1950s, to a rich world-led, prioritization of extreme poverty reduction in the 1990s and the subsequent broadening to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) including the setting of an inequality goal in 2015. The chapter contends with the evolution, priorities, and failure of so called western dominated global governance institutions in mitigating poverty and inequality, shedding light on the rise of governance institutions from the Global South (e.g., China, India, Latin America), and the role that they play in the contemporary and future governance of poverty and inequality. Understanding the forces that have shaped the evolution of ideas, policies, and action on poverty and inequality reduction provides a base for examining the future of the global governance of poverty and inequality.
