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At the heart of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is the mantra, ‘leave no one behind’
Thomson Reuters Foundation: Cecylia, a Roma woman, left her home in southern Poland to escape the kind of racism that led to her being so badly beaten by communist police that she lost an unborn child.
She has lived in Britain since 2008, where life is tough but preferable. Like many Roma migrants in London, the cleaner in her mid-50s struggled with a new language to learn, officialdom and a spell of unemployment.
“A lot of Roma can’t speak English very well, and sometimes they can’t help themselves,” said Cecylia, who declined to give her full name, fearing recrimination for speaking out.
Moved by the hardships facing her fellow Roma – many of whom live in poor housing, doing low-paid menial jobs – Cecylia works with the Roma Support Group, which offers advice and lobbies the British Government for better community services.
If fully implemented, a new set of UN development goals could end the social exclusion and poverty of marginalised groups like the Roma worldwide.
The 17 goals, ranging from ending extreme poverty and hunger to achieving gender equality and combating climate change, are due to be adopted by UN member states later this month.
At the heart of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is the mantra, ‘leave no one behind’.
The promise of inclusion marks a big shift from the previous Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which targeted only parts of the population, and could be met “at the expense of some of the most vulnerable communities,” said Christian Aid Poverty Advisor Helen Dennis.
Under the new SDGs, governments will “endeavour to reach the furthest behind first”. Another major difference is that the SDGs will cover wealthy states too – unlike the earlier goals.
Data gaps
Campaigners hope the SDGs will encourage governments and donors to focus on the most vulnerable, hard-to-reach groups such as poor women in rural areas. But a lack of official data on these groups is a major stumbling block.
Today one in three births around the world are unregistered.
“This means millions of children don’t exist officially. That affects their access to legal rights, healthcare, even a vote,” said David McNair, director of transparency and accountability at the anti-poverty campaign group, ONE.
This may be due to weak government systems, or because individuals do not know how to register with the authorities. Others may choose not to out of fear of persecution.
ONE is throwing its weight behind an international push to build up data collection in poor countries, using technology such as mobile phones and satellite mapping.
Experts have welcomed the SDGs’ commitment to review progress based on data broken down by income, sex, age, race, ethnicity, migration status, disability and other factors.
In theory, disaggregated data should help governments design tailored policies to help the poorest of the poor.
But Carl Soderbergh, director of policy for Minority Rights Group International, warned that gathering more information could compromise the security of some indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities who may view official interest with suspicion.
Caste out
In recent years, for example, far from reaping any benefits from the MDGs, a growing number of marginalised groups has come into conflict with governments over plans to extract natural resources from their lands, Soderbergh noted.
“It has been catastrophic in terms of communities having their lands taken from them ... ending up in urban areas without the skills they need to make a go of it, and the risk of losing their culture or religious practices as well,” he said.
Although indigenous peoples are clearly referenced in the SDGs as a section of society that should be assisted, several states opposed direct mention of other vulnerable groups, including LGBT people and castes, observers said.
One of the most persecuted groups are India’s 170 million Dalits, who suffer discrimination because of their traditional occupations such as street sweeping and grave digging.
Despite laws to prevent violence against the “untouchable” lowest Hindu caste, 13 Dalits are murdered and six abducted each week, while three women are raped each day, according to the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights.
Dalit women are especially vulnerable due to both their gender and caste, said N. Paul Divakar, the campaign’s general secretary.
“If the barriers these people face - in access to services, development and justice - are not addressed by this (SDGs) framework globally, regionally and nationally, we are not going to actualise this aspect of ‘leave no one behind’,” the long-time Dalit rights defender told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Tool for action?
Since the SDGs will not be legally binding, states face no sanctions if they deliberately exclude unfavoured groups.
India’s Divakar said the goals could be used to put pressure on countries, giving civil society and media the tools to hold governments to account, or even to argue against them in court. But that may depend on the public knowing about the SDGs in the first place.
In northern Ghana, most rural people have not heard of the term, said Clara Osei-Boateng of SEND-Ghana, which works to boost incomes, education and health in the disadvantaged region. Many here are disappointed with development efforts, after an authority set up in 2010 to channel funds to the agricultural area was crippled by corruption and mismanagement.
Ghana overall has managed to cut poverty by half since 1992, but in its Upper West Region, nine out of 10 people are still classed as poor, Osei-Boateng said.
They need “basic, basic things”, from clean drinking water to good roads and support for small farmers.
Leaving no one behind may be a core element of delivering the SDGs, but the test will be whether northern Ghanaians, Dalits and Roma see their lives improve as a result. “We still need to give some proper meaning to it and that is where the challenge lies,” said Christian Aid’s Dennis.
Barcelona (Thomson Reuters Foundation): In late September, world leaders will meet at the United Nations in New York to adopt a new global plan of action for ending poverty, known as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
What are the SDGs? A set of 17 goals and 169 targets aimed at resolving the social, economic and environmental problems troubling the world. Covering the next 15 years, the SDGs replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which expire this year.
Who decided the SDGs? Governments came up with the idea at the Rio+20 conference on sustainable development in Brazil in 2012. A working group with representatives from 70 countries then drafted a proposed set of goals.
At the same time, the United Nations ran public consultations around the world and an online survey asking people about their priorities for the goals.
This summer governments negotiated a final version of the SDGs, due to be adopted by 193 countries at a 25-27 September summit at the United Nations in New York.
What did the MDGs achieve? The United Nations says the MDGs led to achievements including: a drop in the number of people living in extreme poverty by more than half, to 836 million in 2015, gender parity in primary schools in the majority of countries, a reduction in the rate of children dying before their fifth birthday by more than half since 1990, a fall of 45% worldwide in maternal mortality, over 6.2 million malaria deaths averted and 37 million lives saved by tuberculosis prevention and treatment and access to improved drinking water sources for 2.6 billion people between 1990 and 2015.
So why do we need the SDGs? Around 800 million people still live in extreme poverty and suffer from hunger, with fragile and conflict-torn states experiencing the highest poverty rates; between 2008 and 2012, 144 million people were displaced from their homes by natural disasters, a number predicted to rise as the planet warms, bringing more extreme weather and rising seas; water scarcity affects 40% of the global population and is projected to increase; some 946 million people still practice open defecation; and gender inequality persists in spite of more representation for women in parliaments and more girls going to school.
If we meet the SDGs, how will the world improve? The 17 goals aim to achieve these wider aims by 2030: end poverty and hunger everywhere, combat inequalities within and between countries, build peaceful, just and inclusive societies, protect human rights and promote gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, ensure lasting protection of the planet and its natural resources and create conditions for sustainable, inclusive and sustained economic growth, shared prosperity and decent work for all.
What’s new and different about the SDGs? The United Nations says the SDGs go much further than the previous goals, because they address the root causes of poverty and pledge to leave no one behind, including vulnerable groups
They also emphasise the need to tackle climate change urgently and protect the environment through a shift to sustainable consumption and production.
The SDGs are intended to be universal, applying to all countries rather than just the developing world.
They recognise the key role of the private sector in pursuing and financing sustainable development, in partnership with governments and civil society. (Sources: United Nations Development Programme and other UN agencies. Further information: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org)
