Colouring the Future: Why the United Nations plan to end poverty and wars is working

By Gary Rynhart

The world is in a mess – but the United Nations has a plan to fix things. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are little talked about but they are ambitious, utopian and cover a vast range of seemingly intractable issues. What is more, this book argues, they will probably work.

Gary Rynhart has worked within the UN system for two decades, wrestling with difficult problems in many different countries around the world. He is optimistic that a combination of the SDGs and the fresh perspective of the young can deliver the massive changes that the world so badly needs.

The book begins by providing an insider’s insight into how big global deals like the SDGs are negotiated behind the scenes. It continues by looking in turn at critical issues and showing how UN agencies have tackled them in the past and plan to do so in future in the arenas of human rights, decent work, democracy, conflicts and disasters. It concludes by examining the political context: a world dogged by populism and fake news but in which the engagement of Generations Y and Z promises to ride to the rescue.

• Language: English
• Publisher: New Internationalist
• Release date: Jan 16, 2020
• ISBN: 9781780265605

Gary Rynhart

Gary Rynhart has worked with and in the UN system for nearly 20 years. He has held a variety of roles from international policy level, down to running technical programmes in countries. Working for the UN, he has been based in Geneva, Beirut, Bangkok and Pretoria. He currently lives in South Africa.

Book preview

C

ontents

Introduction

The Sustainable Development Goals

About the International Labour Organization

I Negotiations

1 The Nigel

How the SDGs were developed

II Human Rights

2 Harley Davidsons & abayas

Gender equality

3 The skunk of the world

Inclusivity and discrimination

4 Trapped

Slavery in the 21st century

III Decent Work

5 The red silk dress

Decent working conditions in factories

6 Farm to factory

How technology is changing the traditional model of economic development

7 One good trick

The informal economy goes online

IV Democracy and Institutions

8 Waithood

Jobs for young people

9 The Maoists

Doing business in difficult places, Part I

10 A year in black

Why institutions matter

V Conflicts and Disasters

11 Planet B

Climate Change

12 Stuck in the jam

Life on the road for 70 million refugees

13 Hope dies last

Doing business in difficult places, Part II

14 Bottom of the class

Fragile States

VI Unknown Knowns

15 Trump Town

Statistics, lies and fake news

VII Quo Vadis

16 Generation Y & Z to the rescue

How the new generations might save the planet

Epilogue

References

Acknowledgements

Introduction

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the United Nations’ plan to solve the big issues of our time, such as extreme poverty, malnutrition in children, ending deadly diseases, providing more and better education, decent work for all, climate action, and ending wars.

The SDGs were agreed in 2015 with the objective of being achieved by 2030. They are ambitious, noble, utopian, and cover a huge amount of seemingly intractable issues. What might surprise many people is that there is a good chance they will succeed.

I work for the International Labour Organization (ILO), one of the UN organizations (there are many) that is tasked with trying to achieve the Goals. This book, which I wrote in a personal capacity, is a set of thematic essays that outline how progress is being made on the Goals (or where more needs to be done).

The essays are neither deeply technical in nature, nor do they provide analysis on what should or should not be done on a given issue. In addition, as they cover a huge array of topics, by definition they can only give a superficial view on each.

These essays merely try to tell stories about some of the global development issues that underpin the SDGs. Issues that are often difficult to access or contextualize for people that are not familiar with development organizations and their work. In the References section there are a number of articles, books and reports listed that can provide information and analysis on how the SDGs are progressing.

The first essay outlines how (what can be perceived as) abstract international treaties and frameworks such as the SDGs are actually negotiated and agreed. These treaties and frameworks are then the basis for any actual work to address the problems and issues that have been identified. This opening essay provides an example of one negotiation process that was eventually included in the SDGs.

The next 13 essays are then grouped around four thematic areas:

There are three essays on human rights issues: ‘Harley Davidsons & abayas’ concerns gender equality and violence and harassment against women; ‘The skunk of the world’ deals with discrimination, prejudice and racism; and ‘Trapped’ is on slavery and forced labour, in particular how it is used in the production of modern-day goods and services.

The next three essays deal with issues around decent work: ‘The red silk dress’ looks at working conditions in textile and garment factories; ‘Farm to factory’ examines the impact of technology on the workplace and how it will change economic development models; ‘One good trick’ looks at the informal economy and how modern technology is shaping it.

There are then three essays related to democracy and institutions: ‘Waithood’ looks at the role independent institutions played in the Tunisian revolution of 2011-12 which was a harbinger for the Arab Spring. It looks at it through the lens of one of the catalyst issues, namely young people with limited economic opportunities. ‘The Maoists’ is an essay on democratic transition in Nepal. ‘A year in black’ provides a number of examples of the roles of institutions in political transitions and explains how the ILO supports these institutions.

The final four thematic essays look at the negative impacts of climate disasters, wars and conflicts, seeking to demonstrate how integrated and connected these issues are. ‘Planet B’ focuses on how vulnerable communities are preparing for and coping with the worst aspects of climate change. ‘Stuck in the jam’ examines the issue of refugees in terms of where they come from and why they are in the situations they find themselves in. ‘Hope dies last’ explores life in the occupied Palestinian territory. Finally, ‘Bottom of the class’ looks at the most vulnerable countries – Fragile States.

The two concluding essays outline the progress the SDGs are making and also how generational change is providing a critical context in how they are perceived and in terms of their eventual success or failure.

Each essay is based on the personal experiences of the author and his colleagues, working in different regions and countries. While they deal with difficult and at times heart-wrenching issues, the essays are mostly hopeful. The issues tackled, such as children working when they should be in school, people in enslaved conditions and others stuck in refugee camps for years on end, still exist. It’s terrible. But good work is being done and progress is being made.

These essays mostly focus on that last point: progress.

The Sustainable Development Goals

In September 2015 Heads of State and Government agreed the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This agenda includes 17 Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs, which set out quantitative objectives across the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of sustainable development – all to be achieved by 2030.

The Goals provide a framework for shared action ‘for people, planet and prosperity’ to be implemented by ‘all countries and all stakeholders, acting in collaborative partnership’.

The SDGs build upon the success of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that were agreed upon in 2000 to halve extreme poverty by 2015. The MDGs focused on the many dimensions of extreme poverty, including low incomes, chronic hunger, gender inequality, lack of schooling, lack of access to healthcare, and deprivation of clean water and sanitation, amongst others.

The 17 SDGs came into force on 1 January 2016. They are ambitious and far-reaching, attempting to address social, economic and environmental concerns. They are universal and apply to countries at all stages of development.

The Goals promote prosperity while protecting the planet, putting forward the idea that ending poverty must be aligned with strategies for economic growth and addressing social needs and environmental concerns at the same time.

The Sustainable Development Goals are further broken down into 169 targets. To add to this there are 232 statistical indicators or performance metrics to benchmark progress towards the Goals. A huge infrastructure has been constructed around SDG data-collection efforts. While the focus of SDG monitoring is at the national level, there are a whole range of ancillary actors, at all levels, contributing to the process. At the end of each essay, I give a short flavour of progress on the goals that are referenced.

About the International Labour Organization

The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a Specialized Agency of the United Nations. It was established in 1919 by an Article of the Treaty of Versailles as an institution that could act as a bulwark in preventing social fissures bubbling into open conflict. The core mandate of the ILO is founded on tackling social injustice, the root of many conflicts.

A key principle of the ILO is building consensus based on democratic participation in decisions by the key social and economic actors. This approach tries to bring balance to the relationship between State and market, between society and individual and, today, between economic, social and environmental policies for sustainable development.

The ILO is unique in the UN system in that it is tripartite, meaning it has three parties who make up its governance structure – representatives of trade unions, business and governments. Trade unions and business groups have 25 per cent of the votes respectively on the ILO’s Governing Body, with governments having 50 per cent. Governance structures in all other international organizations are made up uniquely of governments.

In recognition of its economic and social role, the ILO was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1969. The Nobel Committee cited the organization’s founding ideals as central to the decision to bestow the honour. ‘Beneath the foundation stone of the ILO’s main office in Geneva lies a document on which is written: Si vis pacem, cole justitiam – If you desire peace, cultivate justice. There are few organizations that have succeeded to the extent that the ILO has, in translating into action the fundamental moral idea on which it is based,’ said the Chair of the Nobel Committee, Aase Lionaes, in her speech.

The ILO is 100 years old this year (2019). A glimpse of its history reflects the major events of the past 100 years: the Great Depression, decolonization, the Cold War, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of apartheid in South Africa.

The ILO had a role in them all.

I  Negotiations

‘Everybody gets a taste.’

Tony Soprano

1 The Nigel

How the SDGs were developed

Proposer: ‘We support the well-being of dogs.’

Delegate A: ‘…And cats?’ Can we include cats?’

Chair: ‘Sure, of course. We support the well-being of dogs and cats.’

Delegate B: ‘Why are you taking such an exclusionary approach and focusing just on the needs of cats and dogs, both of which have long remained supreme in the pet world? I suspect this is yet another attempt to sideline other animals at the favoured expense of dogs and cats. I think this is a conspiracy.’

Chair: ‘OK, let’s try the following: We support the well-being of all animals.’

Delegate C: ‘What about fish? Whales, octopuses, seals and penguins. We care about them too, right?’

Chair: ‘Absolutely we do. The opening sentence then, I think we all can agree, will read: We support the well-being of all animals – whether land based or sea based.’

Delegate D: ‘What about birds?’

* * *

The above, or elements of it, will sound familiar to anybody who has sat through an international negotiation process. What can seem perfectly acceptable to some – We support the well-being of dogs – can present opportunity, problems or, importantly, positive or negative precedents to others.

It’s a minefield.

International treaties and frameworks are arrived at through such a negotiation process. It is a complex process of navigating different interests, sifting out the important issues from the not-quite-so important ones, all the while keeping everybody in the tent. It’s a long, occasionally exciting, often tedious and always very difficult process to manage.

This was how the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals were developed. That’s why they can sound a little awkward and unwieldy, but also why they will probably work.

The Sustainable Development Goals, the SDGs as they have become known, are basically an agreement between governments (191 of them) on how to end poverty and hunger, respect the environment and stop wars. It’s big stuff.

The cynical reader will probably be saying, ‘Hey, haven’t they already tried that thousands of times before, and it hasn’t worked?’

Well, yes and no. There are probably thousands of frameworks designed (through protracted negotiation processes) to tackle some of the big issues contained in the SDGs.

But the reason for optimism is that the SDGs are building on a recent near success, the Millennium Development Goals (or MDGs because the UN loves acronyms).

There were eight MDGs, also on big weighty issues of poverty reduction, social progress and health improvements. These were agreed following the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in 2000. All 191 UN Member States at that time, and at least 22 international organizations, committed to their achievement by 2015.

As I mentioned – we have been here before. The UN and its development agencies have been developing these glossy initiatives for decades. Indeed, they are part of its modus operandi.

However, something very strange happened with the MDGs – they kind of worked!

The main reason they worked was that each goal not only had specific targets but also dates for achieving those targets. In short, progress on the MDGs was more accurately measured and therefore the UN could show people value for money. It’s happening – here, look.

When measured against previous similarly charged declarations, initiatives and agendas the MDGs achieved really significant results.

MDG 1 (poverty): The number of people living on less than $1.25 a day has been reduced from 1.9 billion in 1990 to 836 million in 2015, almost halving the number of people suffering from hunger.

MDG 2 (education): Primary-school enrolment figures have massively grown, with the goal of achieving universal primary education almost achieved.

MDG 3 (gender): About two-thirds of developing countries have achieved gender parity in primary education, meaning boys and girls are getting schooled.

MDG 4 (child mortality): The child mortality rate has been reduced by more than half over the past 25 years – falling from 90 to 43 deaths per 1,000 live births.

MDG 5 (maternal health): The global maternal mortality ratio has fallen by nearly half.

MDG 6 (HIV/AIDS): The target of halting and beginning to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015 was not met but it was by 2017, and the number of new HIV infections fell by around 40 per cent between 2000 and 2013.

MDG 7 (environmental sustainability): Some 2.6 billion people have gained access to improved drinking water since 1990 (the target of halving the proportion of people without access to improved sources of water was achieved in 2010 – five years ahead of schedule).

MDG 8 (global partnerships): Between 2000 and 2014, overseas development assistance from rich nations to poorer ones increased by 66 per cent in real terms.

Now, all of the numbers above can be challenged. Critics say that a lot of this would have happened in any case without the MDGs. Indeed, an array of other factors could have been a driving point for progress on certain goals – maybe even the principal reason for the success of that Goal.

But hey, does it really matter? The point is, the most remarkable social, health and economic progress in human history has been made and the MDGs recorded it.

Rather than quibble about who did what and when and how, let’s celebrate the progress that has been made. It’s great news.

* * *

The successor to the MDGs, the SDGs, represent a global consensus on the core issues for humanity: tackling extreme poverty, malnutrition in children, disease; providing more and better education; decent work for all; climate action; and ending wars and conflicts. To get to that point of global agreement a messy consensus was required that followed a negotiation process like the one I described in the opening section.

These processes bring together a vast array of different and occasionally competing interests. Getting them all to agree requires immense skill and, above all, linguistic flexibility. The reason these documents sound so convoluted and opaque is because they are often deliberately designed that way.

Glance through one of these big international agreements online, from the Treaty of Versailles (1919) to the Paris Climate Agreement (2017), and do a search for the words ‘could’ and ‘may’; then do the same for ‘must’ and ‘will’. My guess is you won’t find too many ‘musts’ and ‘wills’ but you will find plenty of ‘coulds’ and ‘mays’. (Well, except for the bits related to Germany in