A/HRC/37/54 has been argued that inequality causes underdevelopment. 32 It has also been argued that, since economic growth can strengthen human rights, explicit integration of a human rights orientation into growth strategies is an “opportunity approach”33 that would enhance the quality and equity of economic growth, including through equitably advancing the right to education, health, food, water, housing and social protection, akin to a human development approach. 34. Wealth and income inequalities had been widening within countries over the two to three decades prior to the latest financial crisis, both in the developing world and among the more developed economies. In a previous report, the Independent Expert found that economic inequality was both a result of and a contributor to financial crises. 34 In 2015, an analysis by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) showed that income inequality had a negative and statistically significant impact on medium-term growth. The analysis also indicated that a main factor behind inequality hurting growth is failure to make adequate education opportunities available to poorer households. 35 The authors of a related IMF study referred to a “tentative consensus … that inequality can undermine progress in health and education, cause investment-reducing political and economic instability, and undercut the social consensus required to adjust in the face of shocks, and thus that it tends to reduce the pace and durability of growth”.36 35. Equally critical to economic recovery and human development is the expansion of income and work opportunities for all. Poverty and exclusion from the labour market have been described as a waste of human resources with adverse impact on economic growth both through lack of their contribution to the economy and by their need for additional protection. The right to work and the maintenance of a dynamic labour market are critical to the health of a national economy. In that perspective, the United Nations Development Programme 2015 Human Development Report on work recommended that targets for job creation for women and men should be included among the indicators that finance departments and central banks monitor regularly to ascertain economic prospects. 37 V. Using human rights impact assessments to strengthen policy responses to financial crises 36. An impact assessment is a structured process for identifying, understanding, assessing and addressing the potential or actual adverse effects of policies, laws, programmes or projects. It can be carried out ex ante — to predict foreseeable impacts of proposed policy changes — or ex post — that is, looking back to assess and address the actual impact of policy change and implementation. While a human rights impact assessment builds on other types of impact assessments, it focuses on human rights standards, which offer a specific basis for assessing actions in the light of a State’s international obligations, and provides the following specific added value. 37. A human rights impact assessment can support governments and international financial institutions in complying with their international human rights obligations when carrying out economic reforms by providing a specific framework and process for testing how proposed policy responses and related budgetary adjustments measure up against those 32 33 34 35 36 37 William Easterly, “Inequality does cause underdevelopment: Insights from a new instrument”. Journal of Development Economics, vol. 84, No. 2 (2007), pp. 755–776. See Sigrid Alexander Koob and others, “Human rights and economic growth: an econometric analysis of freedom and participation rights”, Matters of Concern: Human Rights Research Papers No. 2017/1, Danish Institute for Human Rights. See A/HRC/31/60. See OECD (2015), www.oecd-ilibrary.org/employment/in-it-together-why-less-inequality-benefitsall_9789264235120-en; and OECD (2014), www.oecd.org/newsroom/inequality-hurts-economicgrowth.htm, https://www.oecd.org/els/soc/Focus-Inequality-and-Growth-2014.pdf. Jonathan D. Ostry and others, “Redistribution, inequality, and growth”, Staff Discussion Note (SDN/14/02) (IMF, February 2014). UNDP, Human Development Report 2015: Work for Human Development (2015). 11