Discussion
30 Apr - 10 May 2019

e-Consultation on Draft SDG 16+ Report

SDG 16 Hub
SDG 16 Hub • 30 April 2019

This e-Consultation is now closed.

 Join the SDG 16 Hub to receive updates on the launch of the Global Alliance                     SDG 16+ Report

e-Consultation on priority areas for action from the draft SDG 16+ Report now open!

Your opportunity to shape the Global Alliance's HLPF 2019 report. 

 

Welcome to this -e-Consultation! This consultation is open from 30 April - 10 May 2019. Contributions can be made by anyone by registering and using the comment space at the bottom of this page. Please note that all contributions are publicly visible.This process ensures the integrity, transparency and inclusiveness of this discussion.

Register with the SDG 16 Hub here. Please, direct any questions you may have on registration to info@sdg16hub.org 


The Global Alliance for Reporting Progress on Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies is producing the SDG 16+ Report for HLPF 2019 (working title). 

The report seeks to provide an overview of existing analysis and experiences on SDG 16 gathered since 2015. While it will be launched at the UN High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development in July this year, its key messages will already be presented at major events in the run-up to the HLPF. Read more about the report here

To shape the key messages of the report, the Global Alliance is keen to receive feedback on the report's emerging findings from a wide range of stakeholders. 

 

The following 'Key Actions for Country Progress on SDG 16+' are emerging from our research  (see here for a more detailed description of each):

  • Ensure implementation mechanisms for SDG 16+ are fit for purpose
  • Utilize human rights mechanisms to achieve the SDGs
  • Involve sub-national stakeholders
  • Partner and meaningfully involve a broad range of stakeholders
  • Invest politically and financially in data and statistics
  • Prioritise data disaggregation to ensure no one is left behind
  • Involve a broad range of data producers to address data gaps

 

We invite you to share your thoughts on these 'Key Actions':

  • Are they clear and well formulated?
  • Do they capture well the key challenges and opportunities countries face in achieving SDG 16+? Are these relevant? Are some missing? What is needed to open opportunities and overcome challenges?
  • Do you recommend we review additional material? If so, please explain why and provide a source. 

 

We thank you in advance and look forward to your contributions!

 

                                                                                                 Photo credit: @UNDP PNG

Comments (15)

Javier
Javier

Hola a todos y todas, celebro esta posibilidad de intercambio que sin lugar a dudas nos enriquecerá.

En función de mi experiencia se está realizando un esfuerzo importante por parte de los sistemas de administración de Justicia para dar cumplimiento al ODS 16+ en sus múltiples metas e indicadores. 

No obstante, se trata de un objetivo tan amplio que por momentos parece una entelequia difícil de alcanzar.

En esa línea, a mi juicio sería importante difundir con mayor énfasis los efectos concretos que para la vida cotidiana de las personas tiene este objetivo, especialmente para aquellas poblaciones más vulnerables.

Menciono uno de múltiples ejemplos que pueden citarse: En mi país y creo que en el resto de América Latina se ha vuelto frecuente que las personas acudan a la Justicia para solicitar el acceso a medicamentos de alto costo que no están incluidos en los formularios obligatorios de los ministerios de Salud Pública.

En ocasiones cada vez más frecuentes la Justicia accede a esa solicitud. Ello genera una legítima discusión con respecto a los finitos recursos con los que cuenta el Estado, pero no cabe duda que logra mejorar sensiblemente la calidad de vida una persona.

Eso sería impensable sin un sistema judicial independiente que obligue a otras dependencias estatales a proporcionar el fármaco. También sería imposible sin instituciones fuertes que, a pesar de las diferencias, cumplan con las resoluciones judiciales.

De esta manera se observa cómo un aspecto en un plano institucional abstracto baja a tierra y se hace carne en la realidad cotidiana de una persona concreta.

Ejemplos de éstos hay muchísimos porque el sistema de Justicia atraviesa la vida de todas las personas.

A mi juicio es bueno identificar y difundir situaciones de esta naturaleza para que se comprenda mejor la importancia del ODS16+ y la opinión pública pueda apropiarse de él y reclamar a las autoridades públicas y a las organizaciones de la sociedad civil su cumplimiento.

 


Agata Walczak
Agata Walczak Moderator

Estimado Javier, le agradezco mucho su respuesta en nombre del Equipo del Informe ODS16+.

Estamos totalmente de acuerdo con la nececidad de comunicar el impacto de SDG16 en la vida cotidiana de los ciudadanos. Los estudios de caso reunidos en el informe muestraran los esfuerzos políticos (tales como las instituciones y procesos judiciales, así como las estructuras de los gobiernos locales) para hacer que las instituciones estatales y los procesos políticos sean más incluyentes y que respondan mejor a las necesidades de los ciudadanos. Se enfocan en áreas importantes como, entre otros, la provisión de bienestar social o las políticas contra la violencia y trata de personas. Así mismo, dado que el FPAN de 2019 realizará una revisión del ODS 16, Alianza Global ODS 16, el autor de este informe, está lanzando una campaña pública que muestra cómo el Objetivo 16 atraviesa la vida de todas las personas.

Saludos cordiales,

Agata

Sònia Puyol
Sònia Puyol

Hello, and thank you for this opportunity to express our opinion!

As a municipality, we think that there should be added another key action in SDG 16 in order to achieve peaceful and inclusive societies, which is committing citizens and local communities with fair international relations. In this sense, co-responsibility and activism from citizens and local governments are encouraged to promote the culture of peace and defend collective rights internationally. Specifically, educational and cultural activities should be carried out to raise awareness of the interaction between our personal and collective behaviors and habits, on the one hand, and the global impact, on the other.

Related to data, we think that the national Statistics Offices should collaborate with and  give support to local statistics offices, which should be present and have an important role in transferring local data to national and global institutions. To do so, municipalities and local authorities should be given more resources, training and technical support from national and international authorities.


Victoria Jennett
Victoria Jennett Moderator

Dear Sònia,

Thank you for your contribution! 

I am interested in hearing any examples you have from your work of involving local communities and citizens in educational and cultural activities to raise awareness of global rights and responsibilities. Please do send any case studies or project/programme examples to our email address: sdg16.report@undp.org

I also agree with your points on data and indeed the report reflects the opinions of participants at our Technical Consultations, especially the TC in Tunisia on localisation, that national statistics institutions must collaborate with, coordinate with and support, with financial, training and technical resources, local authorities to gather and analyse data.

All good wishes,

Victoria

Saionara König-Reis
Saionara König-Reis

Dear Global Alliance and SDG16+ colleagues,

Thank you for leading on this important report and for opening the opportunity for stakeholders to contribute to it. This collaborative effort will surely provide for a robust result.

We are glad to see reflected under the Key Action on human rights mechanisms the role of National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) as central actors in monitoring SDG implementation and in amplifying opportunities for engagement of marginalized individuals and stakeholder groups in the various SDG processes. Given the mutually reinforcing nature of human rights and sustainable development, NHRIs are in fact crucial elements of the good governance and institutional accountability architecture that is necessary to achieve the SDGs without leaving no one behind.

To maximize the catalytic effect of NHRIs on the implementation and monitoring of SDG16+, it would be relevant to include in this report that due to its unique mandate NHRIs can also contribute with data disaggregation efforts, as well as being data providers on e.g. non-discriminatory laws and policies (16.b, 10.3 and 5.1) and on SDG indicator 16.10.1. (on the number of verified cases of killing, kidnapping, enforced disappearance, arbitrary detention and torture of journalists, associated media personnel, trade unionists and human rights advocates). In addition, NHRIs are direct SDG 16+ implementors as they e.g.:

  • Facilitate access to justice, redress and remedy on complaints related to human rights violations, including NHRIs’ key role in conflict situations, prevention and peacebuilding (overview of NHRIs’ role in this area available here, collected in the context of the Human Rights and Conflict Project from the European Network of NHRIs (ENNHRI))
  • Advise governments on a human rights based SDG implementation (for example on poverty reduction and measurement in Europe: here),
  • Promote responsible business conduct in line with human rights and SDG standards,
  • Protect human rights defenders (as reflected e.g. in GANHRI Marrakesh Declaration and ENNHRI Regional Action Plan).

Further, it is important to recall that the “existence of independent NHRIs in compliance with the Paris Principles”* is a global indicator for the achievement of SDG 16, which reaffirms that sustainable development cannot be achieved without a strong and independent NHRI. Nonetheless, it is striking that only app. 39% of the UN member states have an NHRI with A-status. Additionally, if we project current trends (2015-2018) of new establishments as well as up and down-gradings of NHRIs into the future, only 54% of UN member states would have an A-status NHRI by 2030.

Given the evident synergies between human rights and SDG16+ and the numerous contributions of NHRIs to increase efficiency and coherence of both SDGs and human rights implementation, the review of SDG 16 at this year´s HLPF is a key opportunity to renew states´ commitments in establishing NHRIs in full compliance with the Paris Principles. Therefore, we also suggest including in this document a recommendation for states to:

     (1) report in their VNRs on the existence and engagement of A-status NHRI in SDGs processes - or their challenges and efforts in that regard -, and

     (2) to develop suitable modalities allowing for the participation of Paris Principles compliant NHRIs, GANHRI and the four NHRI regional networks in the global review and follow-up of the 2030 Agenda, in particular the HLPF, on the basis of those participation modalities afforded to PP compliant NHRIs and their networks at the Human Rights Council.

You can find more information about the data mentioned here and the role of NHRIs as accelerators, guarantors and indicator of Sustainable Development in this short paper here.

*The Paris Principles constitute authoritative and reliable metrics, adopted by the UN General Assembly, to measure the independence, investigatory powers, mandate and capacity of NHRIs, classifying them as A (fully compliance), B (partially compliant), and no status.

Please feel free to reach out if you need any additional information.

Warm regards,

Saionara König-Reis

The Danish Institute for Human Rights (with contributions from ENNHRI)

Victoria Jennett
Victoria Jennett Moderator
Thank you Saionara for this very informative summary of the role of NHRIs and the many contributions that NHRIs make to achievement of the SDGs. We will certainly take on board your comments when expanding on NHRIs in the full report. Thank you also for the lead to the short paper on NHRIs as accelerators, guarantors and indicators of sustainable development. Your contribution is much appreciated. Kind regards, Victoria
Felipe Ajenjo
Felipe Ajenjo

I agree with previous comments about the need to promote SDG16 and 2030 agenda in the community and engaging actors at different levels of government, focusing on what will mean for people to achieve SDGs and specifically SDG16.

Also, as it is stated in Key Action 4, I find crucial to highlight the importance of building partnerships both with public institutions and beyond them in order to work consistently on promoting strong institutions for peace, justice, security and inclusion. As SDG16 comprehends a broad range of targets and indicators, leadership is diffuse and organizing and monitoring efforts from different actors in the public sector alone is very difficult. It is more likely to find isolated or sectorial initiatives. Private sector and civil society might attempt to contribute but certainly need some support to make a significant impact, especially in areas where an institutional response is needed. Moreover, growing distrust in institutions and growing perception of corruption makes difficult to engage actors from outside government to coordinate actions. In this scenario, from our experience in Chile, working on corruption and transparency with different actors might be a good starting point to build up trust among actors and from there to work on different issues related to SDG16. It is a problem that threatens every institution and will get together people who usually work in a separate way. It certainly requires commitment from government and other public institutions to promote changes in this area but has the potential to build strong alliances.

Victoria Jennett
Victoria Jennett Moderator

Dear Felipe,

Thank you for highlighting an important limitation on partnerships between governmental and non-governmental actors: if the government is not trusted partnerships will not be formed. Partnerships working on anti-corruption efforts including building accountable, transparent institutions as well as building representative, inclusive, responsive institutions and processes (the essence of SDG 16) is indeed as you say a good starting point to build trust and from which to work on different SDG 16+ issues. Thank you for your feedback.

Kind regards,

Victoria

Stanislav Ivasyk
Stanislav Ivasyk

I would recommend to add the following key actions to the  'Key Actions for Country Progress on SDG 16+' emerging from the research:

1. Involve information campaigns and awareness rising mechanisms among society at large

Successful implementation of the SDG 16+ is impossible, if society doesn’t know about the SDG 16+ and the benefits that can obtained as a result of implementation of these goals. Information campaigns and awareness rising mechanisms help both to make population more aware of the SDG 16+ and to involve in their implementation.

For example, Ministry of Justice of Ukraine is leading the long-term national project “I HAVE A RIGHT!” The aim of the project is to raise the level of knowledge of the Ukrainians regarding their rights in various spheres of life, the legal consciousness of citizens and the ability of communities to protect their rights.

2. Adopt existing mechanisms, institutions, structures and service, including free legal aid provision, for implementing SDG 16+

Existing mechanisms, institutions, structures and service provided by state can also be suitable for the implementation of the SDG 16+. Nevertheless, they could require appropriate changes. In this respect free legal aid service granted by state are crucial for the implementation of the SDG 16+ as these service is aimed at guaranteeing equal access to justice for all citizens.

For instance, the research can describe successful example of certain countries.

In Ukraine, for example, the free legal aid provision system was adopted with regard lasting armed conflict.

In 2016-2017 new categories of vulnerable groups received free access to legal aid:

·       War veterans

·       Internally displaced persons

·       Victims of domestic violence

·       Children, including orphans, children who are in difficult living conditions and victims of hostilities

Moreover, starting from October 2015, the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine and the Coordination Centre for Legal Aid Provision work on the establishment of additional instruments for provision free legal aid to socially vulnerable categories of citizens. 

This instrument is a network of remote free legal aid centers and mobile free legal aid centers. Remote free legal aid centers on a constant basis operate at local self-government bodies, local centers of social services, healthcare institutions and other public and civil society partners. In their turn, mobile free legal aid centers are out-of-office consultations provided that can be provided from time to time at partner institutions or at the place of residence or stay to single persons, elderly people and persons with disabilities.


Stanislav Ivasyk,

Governmental Expert on Coordination of Policies in the Field of Justice, Directorate for Strategic Planning and European Integration, Ministry of Justice of Ukraine

Victoria Jennett
Victoria Jennett Moderator

Dear Stanislav,

Thank you for this important contribution and reminder that awareness-raising of rights and promises contained in SDG16+ remains a priority. You rightly point out that existing institutions , mechanisms, processes, services can be harnessed and adapted to deliver on SDG 16+. Thank you for the great example from Ukraine of reforming legal aid provision to enable vulnerable and marginalised groups to access justice. We appreciate your input to our e-consultation.

Kind regards,

Victoria

Marina
Marina

Dear Moderators, Colleagues responsible for this great task! 

To take a quick step not to lose this excellent opportunity to both learn from all of you and share what we in UNDP Armenia CO see and plan together with the Government. Below I share shortly our vision through a current project implemented together with Government and other national partners on SDG 16. We are happy if this is helpful and ready to be part of the continuous discussions on how best to measure the progress of implementation, seek for best data collection methods and indeed integrate SDG 16 into the broader national frameworks. 

The focus of the joint Project is on SDG 16 and the progress made towards achieving more peaceful, just, and inclusive societies, strong institutions and reduced inequalities, including featuring how rule of law can be an accelerator for overall achievement of the SDGs.

Nationalization and understanding of particularly SDG 16 as an umbrella for strong and inclusive institutions is critical particularly at this transition reform period, and as Armenia is still finalizing the SDG nationalization process. Strengthening national capacities to deliver on SDG 16 is not only a means of achieving specific targets and indicators within SDG 16 but also an enabler and an accelerator of progress across the 2030 Agenda.

In addition to the Government leading role and broader coordination on SDG framework, the NHRI that has a complaint handling mandate like the Armenian NHRI will be involved to monitor progress at the local, national, regional and international levels and disclose patterns of inequality and discrimination, including through innovative and participatory approaches to data collection, and reporting to national and international fora.

UNDP Armenia CO supports through the project:

Set-up policy dialogue platform for reform agenda and alignment with key national strategic packages: The Project supports set-up of policy dialogue platform on RoL and A2J with engagement of civil society and targeted area experts to facilitate and monitor the reform agenda taking SDG 16 and RoL as the guiding principles for reforms implementation and aligning with key national strategies.

Prototype new and efficient methods of data collection for SDG 16 implementation: UNDP CO supports to prototype efficient innovative methods of data collection and monitoring of implementation of SDG 16. In this process application of forecasting methodology through designed tools to measure people’s perceptions on justice delivery and rule of law to pin on entry points that can accelerate achievements and address bottlenecks of SDGs is foreseen. Once successful the methodology will be extended for monitoring and forecasting potential progress of the broader SDG framework. Results are expected by end of 2019.

Technical assistance to NHRI and NSC (National Statistical Committee) for HRBA approaches to data collection on SDG 16 and broader SDGs for improved monitoring, measurement and reporting on the RoL. 

Helke Enkerlin Madero
Helke Enkerlin Madero

Hello, and thanks for opening this discussion space!

The 7 key actions are very aligned with that the UNDP Mexico Country Office has experienced during the past years of implementing the 2030 Agenda.

Since 2017, the office has placed a strong emphasis on adapting and implementing SDG 16. The first step taken was to identify the most pressing national issues linked to this objective and build a baseline using existing indicators. The national public problems were identified through discussions with a broad base of stakeholders, that included government representatives and civil society organizations. The indicators were mostly taken from national statistics, leveraging our National Institute of Statistics’ existing surveys on victimization and experiences of corruption and census of government entities across levels and branches. This framework of prioritized national public problems and monitoring indicators has then served as a reference in our work with subnational governments.     

Related to the subnational and broad stakeholder engagements mentioned in the third and fourth actions, some subnational governments have undertaken their own SGD localization efforts, with a strong focus on inclusive decision-making and accountability in line with targets 16.6 and 16.7. At the municipal level, Juárez 2030 is a set of medium-term goals for the city of Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. The goals are aligned with SDG targets, and were decided on through a broad-based discussion process coordinated by a local organization—Plan Estratégico de Juárez—in which UNDP played a consultative role. More information on this process can be found at http://juarez2030.mx/.

At the metropolitan level, Cómo Vamos, Nuevo León also defined a set of prioritized goals for the city of Monterrey, Nuevo León, with a strong focus on governance and accountability. They have continued this project with an annual survey that captures citizens’ perceptions on security, justice and good government. More information on the survey is here: http://www.comovamosnl.org/av2018/. These local-level appropriations of the agenda reflect the growing awareness of the interaction between local behaviors and global impact, mentioned by Sònia in the comment above.

Mexico’s National Anticorruption System—created in 2015 to coordinate the network of actors working to prevent, investigate and sanction corruption—is also a great example of these key actions. The System brings together actors from the executive and judicial branches of the federal government and has a citizen committee tasked with overseeing the System’s operation, proposing anticorruption policies, and evaluation methodologies. The System also groups 32 Local Anticorruption Systems with similar structures, operating in each state.

Finally, a great national practice on investing in measuring SDG 16+ is the Center of Excellence in Statistical Information on Government, Crime, Victimization and Justice, a collaboration between Mexico’s National Institute of Statistics and UNODC. The Center’s main activities are closely aligned with measuring SDG 16+, including promoting international methodological standards to produce comparable statistics, and promoting the development and improvement of institutional capacities regarding victimization surveys. The Center reflects a strong commitment from the National Institute of Statistics to strengthen statistical and monitoring capacities in fields related to SDG 16, both nationally and regionally. More information on the center can be found here: http://www.cdeunodc.inegi.org.mx/.

These mechanisms and projects all evidence that coordination across sectors and levels of government is already recognized as crucial. However, we believe that—like many other countries—there are still challenges in really materializing this cooperation. In that sense, the first key action on fitness for purpose is even more relevant. Based on the CO’s experiences, we would recommend placing an additional emphasis on ensuring the institutional mechanisms that facilitate the necessary coordination are in place. This key action could focus specifically on implementation, and the data collection and analysis component could be incorporated into actions 5-7.

We look forward to reading the whole report, especially the country case studies!

Habib Mayar
Habib Mayar

Hello, 

Thanks for initiating the discussion on the report and the Key action identified therein.

The g7+ is an intergovernmental organization of conflict affected countries that's been at forefront of advocating for SDG 16 in the agenda 2030. The group committed to the contextualized implementation of the SDGs and agreed to produce a joint report of priority indicators that were jointly identified. The purpose of the reporting jointly on the priority indicators is to highlight collective progress and pace of implementation of in conflict affected countries which are in fragile situation. 

As a group we face 2 major yet common challenges that hinders the progress on SDGs. Addressing them should be considered among  the key actions that need joint commitment:

1. Dialogue and Reconciliation to address active conflicts: There are some countries that are going through active conflicts and wars which have resulted in chronic fragility and social and economic trauma. Without ensuring peace in these countries, progress across SDGs is either lacking or is unsustainable.

Hence we believe that facilitating dialogue and reconciliation to stop wars and make Peace should be an embedded and streamlined in the key actions. In order to live up to our commitment of leaving "no one behind", promoting Peace in conflict affected countries needs to be recognized as a priority. The g7+ established a council of Eminent Persons to support dialogue as it did in Central African Republic. We offered our support and called upon the UN Secretary General to institutionalize different tracks of diplomacy to promote and facilitate dialogue and reconciliation. A global alliance comprising of influential personalities and institutions can be established that promote and facilitate mediation and reconciliation. 

2. Partnership to strengthen Institutions: Decades of Wars and conflicts leave behind chronically fragile institution. The existing capacity of these institutions has been under strain due to the fragmentation caused by uncoordinated multiple actors without needed harmonization.  Lack of statistical capacity, for example, has made it difficult to produce timely data that can support evidence based policy. Our experience of gathering data against jointly agreed priority indicators, proved challenging due to the lack of data. Our ambition was to use national produced data and this way would be able to identify gap in statistical capacity. We tend to share the preliminary findings of the report during the HLPF 2019.

We believe that substantial investment is needed to be made in the institutional capacity of the National Institutions to be able to monitor SDGs. Action #5 might include establishment of Global Trust fund to support statistical capacity in conflict affected countries where the need is the most. 

The g7+ together with the OECD-DAC donors and civil society endorse the New Deal in 2011. The New Deal that is among the pioneer frameworks recognizing nexus between Peace and development is guides the effective engagement of actors in conflict affected countries. Its principles include Peacebuilding and Statebuilding Goals (Inclusive and Legitimate Politics, Security, Justice, Economic Foundation and Revenue and Services). The g7+ also committed to implement the SDGs in line with the Principles of the New Deal that ensures alignment with the National context. 

We look forward to reading the report and will be happy to see a new international vigor for the implementation of the SDGs.

Victoria Jennett
Victoria Jennett Moderator

Dear Habib,


Thank you for sending us these 2 actions recommended by g7+. We will take them into consideration in our final revision of the report.


Kind regards,

Victoria

Agata Walczak
Agata Walczak Moderator

Dear All, 

We would like to thank everyone who has responded to this e-consultation. Your feedback and additional examples are invaluable, and we are currently working on integrating them in the full report.

In the meantime, we invite you to stay tuned to the SDG 16 Hub where the final report will be published in July upon its launch at the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF 2019).

For now, you can access the report's preliminary findings at https://www.sdg16hub.org/node/384 and key trends on peace, justice and inclusion at https://www.sdg16hub.org/node/385. 

Kind regards,

The SDG 16 Report Team on behalf of the Global Alliance


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