Until recently, the human rights of half the world’s population – women – were not universally protected, nor accepted in most parts of the world. In 2014, the United Nations (UN) released a publication, “Women’s Rights are Human Rights,” to further the international understanding of women’s human rights. The framework outlines key areas of women’s rights that must be addressed by all states around the world.

In 1948, the UN established in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that all human rights applied to both men and women, using inclusive wording that eliminated the question of human rights applying only to men. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1966 and other human rights treaties followed suit to be more inclusive of women in both its wording and the rights it guarantees (i.e. marriage rights, maternity and child protection, etc.). An official declaration of women’s rights was officially adopted in 1967 by the UN titled the Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, proclaiming discrimination against women as a barrier to “the full development of the potentialities of women in the service of their countries and of humanity”.

Out of the fact that women’s rights are indeed human rights, women’s rights have become more widely understood as inalienable and of utmost priority for international development.

There are several key priorities toward the advancement and inclusion of women globally:

• Identifying and citing private party violators of women’s rights, (i.e. individuals, small organizations, businesses, etc.)
• Standardizing women’s rights – regardless of culture and traditional customs and practices
• Ending discrimination that neglects women and prohibits their decision making influence, as well as their social and economic empowerment

Advocacy has a huge role to play in the achievement of gender equality. Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5, which is to assure we “achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”, specifically targets several ways in which we can end gender inequality. We must end discrimination against all women, eradicate violence against women, ensure the opportunity for women to be leaders and decision-makers, protect all women’s right to reproductive and sexual health, guarantee women’s economic rights, and certify that the legal systems in place can protect these rights. Below are eight human rights that must immediately be achieved in each country to ensure the achievement of gender equality internationally.

1. Education – Barriers to universal education must be eliminated. This includes child marriage, teen pregnancy, child labor, discriminatory policies, poor access to schools, and cultural tendencies.
2. Political Roles – Women should not only have the right to vote, but also be constitutionally allowed to run for government office. (See SDG 5.5)
3. Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) – A women should be able to receive sexual and reproductive health care wherever she lives, including family planning and informative services. This care must also be provided by trained and safe providers. (See SDGs 3.7, 3.8, & 5.6)
4. Adequate Standards of Living – Women must have access to basic resources such as food, clothing, and housing. These resources ultimately affect a woman’s economic prosperity, lifelong health, and her social capital. A food security system and economic opportunities must be in place to achieve adequate standards of living.
5. Prevent and End Violence Against Women – Often occurring from entrenched patriarchy, violence against women further burdens vulnerable and impoverished populations. Victims of domestic abuse, female genital mutilations (FGM), and rape suffer severe psychological and health repercussions that can hinder development advancements. States must prioritize preventing violence against women and girls. (See SDG 5.2)
6. Immigration and Displacement Protection – States involved in the origin, travel, and destination of migrant and displaced women should all be held accountable for protecting women against harm. Migrant and displaced women are at a higher risk of physical and sexual abuse, discrimination, depression, forced prostitution, and unacceptable working conditions due to their citizenship status.
7. Protection in Conflict and Crises – Conflict can normalize and amplify the mistreatment of women, who are “often used as a tactic of war”. Woman are more vulnerable to rape, sexual violence, trafficking, and other human rights violations in these situations. Legal action and victim protection must be available and effective to protect women in these situations.
8. Access to Legal Assistance and Justice – To achieve gender equality, we must have effective and accessible law and justice procedures to protect women at the local, national, and international level. Justice systems must be non-discriminatory, accessible to all women, and states must make it a priority to educate both women and law officials on the rights women are entitled to. (See SDG 5.c)

Women are capable of lifting their families, communities, and countries out of poverty. They have the ability to change the world if their human rights are recognized as not only important, but inalienable. We must ensure that humans rights are inclusive of women globally and that they enable women reach their full potential as agents of change.

To learn more about the SDGs, click here.

Image courtesy of UN News Centre.

Jon-Andreas Solberg and Douglas Ragan co-authored a very enlightening  post on UN-Habitat Youth covering five principles of youth-led development that are being utilized by youth programs globally and has begun to influence policy at the local, national and global level. These principles (listed below) originated from an initiative started in 2007 when representatives from  UN-Habitat´s One Stop Youth Resource Centres gathered together in Kampala, Uganda to discuss ways to promote and sustain the capacity for youth to operate as leaders today. The post leads to the key point that “youth…should be recognized as key development partners and asset and rights-holders, just as anyone else, young and old, women and men.” 

Kampala Principles for Youth-led Development:

1.        Youth define their own development goals and objectives;
2.        Youth have a safe and generative physical space;
3.        Adult and peer-to-peer mentorship;
4.        Youth act as role models for other youth;
5.        Youth are integrated into local and national development programs and     policies.

The full article, including a detailed look at each principle, can be found here.

Let the work begin! The Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), a Global Initiative of the United Nations, has released a guidebook  “Getting Started with the Sustainable Development Goals” (SDGs) to help all stakeholders understand and implement the Post-2015 development agenda. The year 2016 marks the end of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the official launch of the Post-2015 SDGs to be achieved by year 2030. Listed below are key takeaways from the guidebook on how to embark on this collective agenda efficiently:

1. Execute Goal-Based Planning  

Having a goal and target framework like the SDGs is beneficial because it provides a shared narrative of the complex, yet important challenges that must be addressed and understood. For example, the guidebook explains that evidence from the MDGs dealing with public health shows that communities were able to mobilize around time-bound goals.

“The shared focus on time-bound quantitative goals will spur greater mobilization, promote innovation, and strengthen collaboration within epistemic communities or networks of expertise and practice.” (Getting Started with the SDGs, pg. 9)

2. Implement Locally-Focused Development

For the SDGs to be  implemented at the local level, local authorities and communities must take responsibility for leading initiatives. For example The Hunger Project’s Epicenter Strategy  unites 5,000 to 15,000 people in a cluster of villages to create an “epicenter” where communities are mobilized to lead their own initiatives around their basic needs.

 “A bottom-up approach can be successful in achieving transformational sustainable pathways through direct contact with communities, which informs national-level policy decisions” (Getting Started with the SDGs, pg.11)

To learn more about these strategies and alike, check out the Movement for Community-Led Development that was recently launched at a side event for the 70th Session of the UN’s General Assembly.

3. Prioritize the implementation of the SDGs

These 17 audacious, yet achievable goals and 169 targets provide a framework for future development initiatives. As a side note the UN’s Inter-agency Expert Group (IAEG) on SDG Indicators plans to confirm most indicators for the 169 targets by  March 2016 for use by Member States and development actors. The Hunger Project and its advocacy partners such as CONCERN, World Vision, Save the Children and Action Against Hunger have been advocating for specific indicators to accurately measure community advancements in nutrition, and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH).

Given this feat, stakeholders should take stock of where their respective country, sector, or community stands in regard to the 17 SDGs. As shown in Table 1 below The Global Reporting Initiative, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, and the Global Compact has developed a set of key performance indicators with which businesses, as well as, civil society, faith-based groups,and  knowledge institutions can utilize to determine their contribution to each of the 17 SDGs.

“A quick ‘temperature check’ of the key dimensions of sustainable development, including economic development, social inclusion, and sustainable environmental management, can help develop a shared understanding of priorities for implementation.” (Getting Started with the SDGs, pg. 13)

Table 1: Indicators for a quick assessment of a country or region’s starting position with regards to sustainable development

Source: Getting Started with the Sustainable Goals: Guidebook for Stakeholders, pg .14

4. Prepare to Monitor Progress on SDGs and Strengthen Statistical Systems

The SDGs cover a wide range of cross-sector challenges which present a need for demographic, economic, social, and environmental data. For data to be useful in influencing policy and decision-making, it must be timely. Table 2 depicts key data sources for monitoring the SDGs to build and modernize the statistical systems that capture the data.

“As one impressive example [of geo-referenced data], the Nigerian Senior Special Advisor to the President on the MDGs, with support from the Earth Institute’s Sustainable Engineering Laboratory, developed the Nigeria MDG Information System, an online interactive data platform. Using this system, all government health and education facilities as well as water access points were mapped across Nigeria within a mere two months” (Getting Started with the SDGs, pg. 28)

Table 2. A toolkit of data instruments for monitoring the SDGS

5. Build Goal-Based Public-Private Partnerships

Evidence from the MDGs suggests that a diverse range of partnerships can emerge from international collaboration such as bilateral partnerships between states and combinations of public, private, and multilateral actors. It is key to note that effective partnerships are not centrally planned and they do not require one actor to oversee all operations. Each sector has a variety of capabilities, therefore the partnerships will vary depending on the engagement. To that regard, Figure 2 illustrates seven core processes identified by the SDSN that depicts the basis of goal-based partnerships.

“As outlined in the document Goal-based Investment Partnerships: Lessons for the Addis FfD Conference[3.14], each sector has unique features and requirements for success, so there cannot be a one-size-fits-all approach to building global public-private partnerships.” (Getting Started with the SDGs, pg. 29)

Figure 2. Core components of goal-based partnerships

 

Great progress has been achieved through the MDGs, however  much more has to be done. Now in the era of the  Post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals there is a call for more innovate approaches to finishing the fight “…for people, prosperity and the planet”  by 2030.  This is a call for building the capacity within local communities to transform the world we live in, from within, starting with the strategies in these takeaways.

Two years ago, USAID implemented a Gender Equality and Female Empowerment policy. Women Thrive recently released a paper examining the successes and shortcomings of the policy, entitled “The Path to Inclusive Development: Assessing the First Two Years of USAID’s Gender Equality and Female Empowerment Policy.”

The paper notes the importance of this policy, saying that it demonstrates USAID’s desire to lead the U.S. government into an era of inclusive participatory government. The gender policy works alongside and reinforces other USAID initiatives. In particular, the gender policy advances the USAID Forward aid reform agenda.

To determine whether the policy had a tangible effect, Women Thrive applied five qualitative indicators: implementation strategy and leadership, the amount and quality of resources, capacity building, the level of collaboration, and the success of monitoring and evaluation. The paper notes the successes of the policy, praising USAID for taking a flexible approach instead of a one-size-fits all model, its excellent design and implementation of gender resources, increase in local capacity building, strengthened collaboration with partners, and increase in sex-disaggregated data.

The report is not without its criticisms, however, saying that USAID must increase capacity building for mission and implementors as well as with men and women at the local level.

Women Thrive gives eight recommendations to USAID for the next stage of Gender Policy Implementation, which include translating annual estimations for gender programming into obligations and permanently filling gender leadership positions with experts at each mission.

1. Translate annual estimates for gender programming contained in the Congressional Budget Justification into actual obligations.

2. Permanently fill key gender leadership positions with qualified experts, including the Senior Gender Advisor in the Bureau of Policy, Planning and Learning and Gender Advisors at each mission.

3. Improve collaboration with and capacity building of civil society, especially local grassroots, women’s and gender-focused organizations.

4. Strengthen gender-focused reporting and disseminate country gender assessments and project gender analyses where appropriate. Mandate the collection and analysis of sex-disaggregated data for implementing partners and USAID. Regularly report results on the Foreign Assistance Dashboard.

5. Require “Gender 101,” and “Gender 102” trainings for all USAID staff and “Gender 103” training for all gender advisors. Develop sector specific trainings and incentivize their use by all staff and implementing partners.

6. Engage gender-focused economic development specialists to improve gender integration within economic growth program design, monitoring and evaluation. Create a clear strategy for how to address the issue of gender integration within economic development projects writ large.

7. Work closely with other agencies and private sector partners to collaboratively lead gender integration in joint initiatives such as Feed the Future, Power Africa, Partnership for Growth and the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition.

8. Operationalize the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) for missions and implementing partners. Adapt WEAI for use within and across other bureaus and sectors, such as for economic growth writ large, to develop a more comprehensive understanding of women’s vs. men’s empowerment.

There are also three recommendations on how the U.S. Congress can support USAID’s Gender Policy Implementation, which include supporting the President’s 2015 budget request for USAID funding.

1. Support the President’s FY15 budget request for USAID funding to ensure that the agency has the resources to fully implement its Gender Equality and Female Empowerment Policy.

2. Codify the position of Senior Coordinator for Gender Equality and Female Empowerment to ensure that high-level gender leadership becomes a permanent function within USAID.

3. Engage USAID more regularly in both public and private dialogue to understand gender policy implementation challenges, learn, and disseminate success stories. Support gender funding obligations.

The full study can be downloaded here.

Image courtesy of Women Thrive.

The World Bank recently released a report called Voice and Agency: Empowering Women and Girls for Shared Prosperity, compiling data and studies about the challenges that women and girls face worldwide. The report finds that education is key to advancing the role of women around the world. Girls with little education are at greater risk of child marriage, domestic violence and poverty, which harms both them and their communities.

Group President of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, launched the report with Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka. Kim said that “expanding women’s ability to make decisions and take advantage of opportunities is critical of opportunities is critical to improving their lives as well as the world we all share.”

Though there have been key improvements to women’s rights, many challenges remain.

The key facts in the report include:

• Gender-based violence occurs globally, and often occurs within a woman’s own home. Domestic violence is widespread.
• Work choices are restricted for women because of laws or social norms.
• There is a widespread lack of reproductive and sexual rights, such as the inability to refuse sex with a partner.
• Teenagers in developing countries are more likely to get pregnant. In one year, one in five girls in developing countries under 18 gives birth. Half of all teen pregnancies in the developing world occur in South Asia.
• Women do not have the same level of access to technology and ICT (information communications technology) as their male peers.
• Property ownership increases the social status of women and thus their agency.
• “Poverty increases gender gaps.”
• Women’s groups and collective action build momentum for reform.

This is an urgent agenda that needs to be addressed by politicians and lawmakers. This is not a zero-sum game because gender equality helps men and boys as well. Increasing education and achieving gender equality are longstanding development goals.

More and better data is needed to close the gender gap. There is a need for gender disaggregated data. To address this need, the World Bank has introduced a Gender Data site and Clinton has announced a new initiative, Data 2X, to develop new standards for data collection.

You can read the full report here.

Image courtesy of the World Bank. 

The International Food Policy Research Institute has launched a 2013 Global Food Policy Report yesterday. The report was launched at the event held at the Institute’s Washington, DC main office. Among the speakers during the report launch event were  Dr. Shenggen Fan, Director General of the Institute, and guest speakers Homi Kharas from Brookings Institution, Asma Lateef from Bread for the World institute and Tjada McKenna from the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAIDs) Bureau for Food Security. Dr. Fan presented an overview of the major food policy developments presented in the Report and discussed about post-2015 development efforts that can help achieve the aspirational target of eliminating hunger and undernutrition in a sustainable manner by 2025 (IFPRI, 2014). Following Dr. Fan the guest speakers provided their own perspective on food and nutrition security, and they later responded to participant questions and suggestions.

To download and read the full report, click here.

To download and read the overview booklet, click here.

To watch the full report launching on YouTube, click here.

The release of report is pivotal as the process of defining the  post-2015 agenda and the new sustainable development goals (SDGs) are underway. Among others, the report calls for the need to improve nutrition at a global level and advocates for inclusion of nutrition in policy dialogue and development programs to end hunger and under-nutrition by 2025. According to Fan, “divergent views on agriculture, food, and nutritional goals in the post-2015 framework show that despite good information for debate, we still far from consensus on final decision.” citing the lack of coherence on strategies and goals. Further more, on the path to ending hunger and undernutrition, we should also ensure environmental sustainability(IFPRI, 2013).  The report suggests that the post-2015 agenda needs to be grounded in a multi-sectoral approach that (1) focuses on clear goals and targets, (2) uses comprehensive data and indicators that can be monitored and measured accurately, (3) supports partnerships among all stakeholders, and (4) promotes accountability (IFPRI, 2014).

The following are suggestion on approaches to accelerating the pace of hunger and undernutrition reduction:

– Country-led strategies and investments

– Evidence-based policies and policy experiments

– Knowledge sharing and transfers

– Data revolution, and

– Enhanced role of private sector

 Attention was also given to agriculture which employs majority of the global poor and the role it plays to end hunger and under-nutrition over  the next ten years leading to 2025. “Growth in agriculture sector is shown to reduce poverty three times faster than growth in any other sector-manufacturing, industry, or service.”(IFPRI, 2014). The report discusses how agricultural intensification and innovative farming to accelerate the end of hunger and under-nutrition by 2025. The report states that for  agriculture to address under-nutrition and hunger, scaling-up agricultural production and increasing productivity should couple with production of vegetables, fruits and other nutritious food.

To download the full pdf version of the report, click here.

The following is 2013 Food Policy Timeline (source: IFPRI)

Source: @IFPRI 2013 GLOBAL FOOD POLICY REPORT

The eighth session of the United Nations’ (UN) Open Working Group (OWG) took place at the United Nations’ headquarters in New York from 3 February to  7 February 2014 . OWG is one of the main outcomes of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), held in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012, and member states agreed to launch a process to develop a set of sustainable development goals (SDGs) (UN, 2014). The OWG was formally established on 22nd of January 2013 by decision 67/555 of the General Assembly, and a 30-member OWG of the General Assembly is tasked with preparing a proposal on the SDGs to bring about coherence and integration sustainable development programs in the post-2015 development agenda (UN, 2014).

During OWG’s eighth session, the assembly considered policy briefings and recommendations from development experts , scientists, civil society organizations (CSOs) leaders, educators and development practitioners. Among these are the United Nations Non-Governmental Liaison Service (UN-NGLS) policy briefing on oceans and seas.

To read more on UN-NGLS policy briefs to the OWG click here

The Eighth session of the OWG on Sustainable Development Goals will deal with the following topics:

• Oceans and seas, forests, biodiversity

• Promoting equality, including social equity, gender equality and women’s empowerment

• Conflict prevention, post-conflict peacebuilding and the promotion of durable peace, rule of law and governance

To read and download statements and presentations on the 8th session of the OWG on sustainable development, click here

The following are few summaries of the past seven OWG sessions (Adopted from OWG Co-Chairs Summary)

First OWG Session (14 March 2013 – 14 March 2013)

• Member States’  responses  to  questions  on  priority  areas  and  underpinning  principles;  balancing  the economic, social  and environmental dimensions of sustainable development; applying  global, universally applicable goals at the country level; and incorporating existing goals and targets into the SDGs while ensuring coherence with the post 2015 development agenda.

• Members agreed that discussions  must  be  open, transparent and inclusive, and that civil society, the private sector, and other groups have much to  contribute.

• 

  Many statements reaffirmed the criteria for SDGs mandated by the Rio+20 outcome: that the SDGs should be coherent with and integrated into the UN post-2015 development agenda and harmonize with efforts to achieve the MDGs without diverting attention or resources for their achievement.

Second OWG Session (17 Apr 2013 – 19 Apr 2013)

• Members agreed that the MDGs are the point of departure for their work to develop SDGs, and completion of the unfinished business of the MDGs on poverty eradication and other important social objectives must figure centrally in the post-2015 agenda, and SDGs must be universal and applicable to all countries, which means that they must be flexible  enough  to  have  ownership  of  countries  at  different  levels  of  development  and with different national priorities

• SDGs  will  need  strong  bottom-up  engagement  through  broad  consultation  in  their formulation. The voices of the poor and vulnerable need to be heard.

• It  was  suggested  that  in  a  sustainable  development context , poverty  eradication  can  be seen in relation to the three dimensions – in terms of access to essential social goods and services  (health,  education,  water  and  sanitation),access  to economic  opportunities  and productive assets, and access to natural assets, or resources, and their benefits.

Session 3 (22 May 2013 – 24 May 2013) : Food security and nutrition; sustainable agriculture; desertification, land degradation, and drought, and Water and Sanitation

• Recognition of need for a holistic approach to the close interdependency among food, land and water,as well as between these and others not yet discussed, e.g.energy, health, biodiversity and climate change.

• Smallholders,  including  importantly  women  farmers, pastoralists  and  indigenous  peoples,  deserve particular focus when crafting agricultural policies; access to land and credit need attention

• Addressing  the  drivers  of  land  degradation,  including  unsustainable  agricultural  and  livestock management  practices  as  well  as  mining  and  industrial  pollution,  yields  multiple  benefits

• Universal access would greatly reduce the burden of disease in many developing countries, especially in reducing child mortality. Need to attain universal coverage of safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene in an ambitious timeframe.

Session 4 ( 17 Jun  2013 – 19 Jun 2013 ) : Employment and decent work for all, social protection, youth, education and culture

• Reminded of the universality of the post-2015 agenda and the SDGs.  Some lessons from the MDGs –equitable access to services and going beyond aggregate measures Access is not enough – quality must also be addressed

• Decent and productive work is the most direct route out of poverty, based on robust, inclusive, job-creating growth. Enterprises and entrepreneurs are principal job creators. Unemployment, especially among youth, is a serious problem. A goal or targets related to jobs would need to address the situation of the working poor as well as the unemployed

Health, Population Dynamics

• Reference was made to universal health coverage; equitable access to quality basic health services; health  promotion,  prevention,  treatment,  and  financial  risk  protection.  Health  MDGs  could  be integrated as targets under an overarching universal health goal.

• The discussions highlighted the importance of equal access of women and girls to health-care services, including addressing women’s sexual and reproductive health, and ensuring universal access to safe, effective, affordable and acceptable modern methods of family planning.

Session Five (25 Nov 2013 – 27 Nov 2013 ) : Sustained and inclusive economic growth, macroeconomic policy questions (including international trade, international financial system and external debt sustainability), infrastructure development and industrialization

• Economic growth is a prerequisite for poverty eradication, which remains our overriding priority, and growth needs to be inclusive, sustained and sustainable, and cognizant of the need to promote harmony with nature. Reducing inequalities within and between countries facilitates the goals of poverty eradication and shared prosperity.

• Many countries particularly in Africa highlighted the need for economic diversification, moving from reliance on primary commodity exports to value addition. For this, productive capacities and technological capabilities need to be strengthened. Small- and medium enterprises (SMEs) are engines for job creation, requiring  better integration into national and global value chains.

• Sound domestic macroeconomic policies are essential for sustained, inclusive and sustainable growth and development. They need to be supported by means of implementation, including a global partnership, as well as an enabling international environment.

• Trade is a growth driver and, in this regard, an open, fair, rule-based, predictable, and non-discriminatory trading system needs to be maintained and enhanced.

• Access to safe, affordable and reliable energy is a prerequisite for growth and poverty eradication.  Universal access to modern energy services enjoys broad support as target,including electricity and clean cooking fuels where benefits accrue especially to women and children.

Session Six (9 Dec 2013 -13 Dec 2013) : Means of implementation

• Means of implementation are crucial for the achievement of sustainable development. Science, technology and innovation are drivers of social and economic development and have potential to be a game changer for all countries’ efforts to achieve sustainable development.

• A strengthened and more Global Partnership is required for the implementation of the SDGs, and the partnership should be equitable, inclusive, with mutual accountability and a fair sharing of responsibilities.

• The SDGs should address key vulnerabilities and build resilience, in order to promote inclusive and sustained growth in countries in special situations, benefiting women and vulnerable groups.

• Good governance at all levels based on human rights,rule of law, democracy, access to justice and to information, transparency and accountability, and peace and security is a prerequisite for sustainable development.

Session Seven (6 Jan 2014 – 10 Jan 2014) : Sustainable cities and human settlements sustainable transport/Sustainable consumption and production (including chemicals and waste)/Climate change and disaster risk reduction

• The world is rapidly urbanizing, and so cities are where “the battle for sustainable development will be won or lost”. Addressing the needs of the urban poor in informal settlements and slums is crucial for poverty eradication.

• Climate change poses a threat to sustainable development, putting at risk development gains and, among other things, threatening food security, intensifying water scarcity and flooding as well as worsening sea – level rise. The poorest are most at risk from disasters and disasters intensify poverty.

For detailed summaries of the OWG  Co-Chairs , click here.

References:

United Nations Sustainable Development Platform. (2014). Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals. Retrieved on February 6, 2014 from http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/index.php?menu=1549