This is the report of the fourth meeting of the International Forum for Social Development, United Nations. The meeting, entitled 'Equity, Inequalities and Interdependence', was held at the United Nations headquarters in New York on 5-6 October 2004. The International Forum for Social Development is a project launched in 2001 by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the Secretariat of the United Nations. Intended to assist in the implementation of the Copenhagen Declaration and Programme of Action adopted by the World Summit for Social Development, 1995, the Forum brought together representatives of governments, international organizations and the civil society for informal debates on global issues of development and social progress. The fourth meeting of the Forum was focused specifically on the issue of equity and equality in the current world conjuncture. For the current meeting, IDEAS contributed two documents on inequality in Asia, covering both eastern and southern regions. The countries studied included China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
 
May 2, 2005.