Inequality and Social Justice
In this edition of the Namibian
Journal of Social Justice, we grapple
with Namibia’s most urgent social
justice question, namely inequality.
Despite being classified as a higher
middle-income country, levels of
marginalisation and exclusion in
Namibia remain very high. The
Human Development Index (HDI) for
2019 was 0.646, ranking at 130 out of
189 countries. The IHDI (inequalityadjusted HDI) falls to 0.418, however,
a loss of 35.3% (cf. an average loss for
medium HDI countries of 26.3%).
This profound level of inequality is
consistent with Namibia’s unflattering
Gini coefficient ranking (a measure of
income inequality) of second-highest
in the world (Bertelsmann Stiftung,
2022; World Bank Group, 2021; Human
Development Report, 2020).
Namibia, like most of southern
Africa, is still trapped in an unequal
economic development model, and
hence displays persistently high levels
of inequality. This inequality affects
groups differentially, depending on
their social class, race, gender, ethnicity
and geographic location. The multidimensional nature of inequality is
revealed in unequal access to productive
resources, particularly arable land;
unequal wealth ownership; highly
skewed levels of income; unequal access
Editorial
to housing, education, health care and
other services; a lack of comprehensive
social security coverage; high levels of
unemployment, informal employment,
and wage inequality; differential and
unequal access to labour rights; and
persistent racism (World Bank Group,
2021; Martin, 2022; Stiglitz, 2015).
There are additional trends that
impact on inequality, for example the
growing technological and digital
divides that polarise labour markets
and exacerbate wage inequalities.
Technological advancements in digital
innovation, artificial intelligence,
robotics, biotechnologies, and satellite
technologies find applications in
agriculture and manufacturing, and
can facilitate mass access to services.
However, unequal ownership, access
to, and control over such technologies
currently exacerbate inequalities (UN,
2020). Poverty and inequalities are
also increased by climate change and
environmental destruction. Those
who contribute least to ecological
destruction suffer the greatest losses in
livelihoods, incomes, health, education,
nutrition, and infrastructure during
adverse climate events. Climate change
also exacerbates the inter-generational
transfer of poverty and inequality
(United Nations, 2020). Inequality
also affects the resilience of poor and
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Namibian Journal of Social Justice – Vol 2, November 2022
marginalised groups to mitigate and
adapt to climate change (Ahmed et al.,
2022).
Through scholarly articles, case
studies, opinion pieces, and visual art,
various contributors explore different
aspects of inequality to comprehend its
multiplicity and intersectionality. An
overarching theme that emerges out of
many of the articles is indifference. As
inequality widens, those in power and
those who benefit from the status quo
remain largely indifferent to it. There
is a reluctance to adopt redistributive
measures that would promote social
and economic justice and that could
significantly alter the growing gap
between rich and poor.
This volume does not
comprehensively cover all aspects
of inequality in Namibia. Central
themes of racism, climate change,
digital divides, unequal technological
access, reproductive justice, and the
psychological and sociological impacts
of various forms of inequality are not
fully covered in this edition. These
omissions are not by design. Despite
appeals, articles on these topics were
not submitted. This underscores the
need for more research and greater
public and policy discourse on the
various aspects of inequality. We hope
that future editions can overcome such
shortcomings and plug the obvious
gaps.
