Some groups are at a higher risk of exclusion and inequality, but the status of excluded often transcends a single group affiliation and lies at the intersection of multiple identities.  Being a female – as a factor – may not automatically put someone at a high risk of exclusion from the labour market. But being a Roma woman from an under-served rural community in Central and Eastern Europe increases the risk dramatically.

The traditional group-based approach to ex/inclusion is primarily concerned with identification and support, through social insurance, of excluded groups vulnerable to uninsured risks. More recent approaches focus on individual risks, pointing out that the group-based lens may not provide strong evidentiary basis to weigh policy options in the case of multiple sources of exclusion.  Applied individually, both of these approaches may suffer from errors and blind spots. Yet a combination of the two – i.e., an approach of intersecting risks and drivers – is feasible and has a solid policy value.

Four inclusive policy markers are used to operationalize this dimension.

Drivers of exclusion – which may be entrenched in values, behaviours, institutions and/or policies themselves – help exclusion risks materialize. Two key considerations elaborate on what is to be tackled in this regard.