Introduction

Social justice is one of the basic elements to ensure equitable outcomes, reduce income and wealth disparities among members of society. It enables populations, including the poor and most vulnerable, to benefit from the equitable distribution of income, wealth and resources, while achieving balanced and better access to economic and social rights, particularly rights related to income, health, education, WASH and social protection.

The Copenhagen Declaration issued by the World Summit for Social Development in 1995 identified social justice and social development as two essential elements for sustainable human development. In addition, SDG # 10 seeks to reduce inequality and ensure equal opportunities, for empowerment and promoting social, economic and political integration for all.

Equality in development is, meanwhile, one of the issues that are widely and continuously debated among development, economic and social scholars, especially in light of increasing inequality in income distribution between countries, with rich countries becoming richer and poor countries becoming poorer.

It is an issue that requires further research, analysis and study, especially in light of the exceptional circumstances in Yemen, considering the surging poverty rates, shrinking economic growth and the deteriorating educational, health and social protection services. In general, there still exit several challenges that hamper the achievement of equality and equity in Yemen, including the deteriorating infrastructure, and urban-rural inequalities in accessing resources and economic opportunities. This is in addition to poor governance, transparency, accountability, as well as the fight against corruption, high poverty and employment rates, and thus poor access to equal opportunities for all.

To improve the level of developmental justice in Yemen, several measures can be taken, including providing education and training opportunities for all age groups and regions, enhancing access to basic services, promoting community participation in designing and implementing development projects, strengthening good governance, equal distribution of resources, and improving equality levels.

Hence, this issue of the Yemen Socio-Economic Update (YSEU) sheds light on the issue of social justice and equity in economic and social development. It also analyzes the reality of social justice and equity indicators in Yemen, and the major challenges ahead. Finally, it furnishes a set of recommendations and proposed actions to come up with effective policies that ensure social justice and distribution of development returns.