The World Bank's conference on Social Capital and Poverty Reduction was held on June 22-24, in Washington. It was a fruitful and enjoyable gathering, featuring presentations from twelve projects carried out in fifteen countries as part of the Bank's Social Capital Initiative, a stimulating keynote address from Robert Putnam, a few new conceptual frameworks, and rich discussions on the implications of social capital for states, civil society, and firms. A full report will be included in the next issue of Nexus for the benefit of those who were unable to attend. I have been reading the social capital literature for some time now, and it seems to me that one issue in particular has received inadequate attention, namely equity and distributive justice. The idea of equity is rarely seriously addressed and I think it should be, even if it is only to honestly acknowledge that it is unimportant, irrelevant or simply impractical, rather than continue with the current practice of paying lip sympathy to it, as most development actors do.
Inequality surely matters a great deal.
You'll be pleased to learn that the next World Development Report, on poverty, will be giving special attention to inequality. Empirically, we know that national-level indicators of inequality, such as the Gini Index, on aggregate show remarkably little change over time. In 1951, India had a Gini Index of .35, and by 1991 it was down only a few points to .325. My sense is that, even if global telecommunications clearly makes everyone more aware of broader cultural divides, the consequences of inequality are experienced most profoundly at the local level, where differences in access to transport, hospitals, schools, working conditions, and sanitation are experienced most keenly. You are right to stress that equity issues have been given inadequate attention to date in the social capital literature, but I think this is beginning to change.