Inclusion and innovation: a call to action

Abstract

Social inclusion is at the heart of sustainable development. Inclusion implies that a concerted effort is required to bring in the “excluded,” marginalized or disenfranchised. Inclusion implies that there are structural and systemic barriers that reinforce this exclusion, making it challenging to be inclusive. The United Nations (UN) 2015 Sustainable Development Goals keeps social inclusion at the core of its 17 goals, that sustainability, prosperity and growth should be shared across all inhabitants of this world. Social indicators reveal that while we are living longer and, in many countries, healthier lives, the distribution of wealth has become less equal, and social and economic opportunities for growth and wellbeing are becoming unequally accessible to large proportions of our global population. It would suffice to say that inclusion has become one of the most pressing political and economic problems of society today.