Global #inequalities2015 report launch

This ProgBlog article written by Alex Cobham of Save the Children, is part of the Wikiprogress post-2015 series. 

The global post-2015 consultation on inequality, led by UNICEF and UNWomen, delivered its report to the co-sponsors, Ghana and Denmark, in Copenhagen.

The meeting covered two days. The first included a livestreamed presentation of the report and a series of panels with the advisory group taking questions from the room and from around the world, on a series of panels which are being livestreamed – the opening presentations and the first panel can be accessed here.

Some highlights:

• There is broad support for a goal on inequality (including gender as well as economic inequality), and it is crucial that each goal contains disaggregated indicators and targets to capture the major dimensions of inequality also affecting ethnoliguistic groups, spatial groups and persons with disabilities.
• This demands a major investment in data, and an absolute end to the kind of approach that has seen some major households surveys exclude groups that are difficult to reach, or to reach with sufficient statistical rigor (persons with disabilities in particular).
• We should not, as Richard Morgan of UNICEF made very clear, get too hung up on goals, targets and indicators. The framework is not these – it is the Millennium Declaration. The importance of what we are now, globally, engaged in is that it will establish norms – goals etc can help with this, but are not the only components that matter.
• There is again, broad agreement, that the framework directly address the structural causes of inequalities – not least, globally, the transparency obstacles that facilitate the illicit financial flows that undermine both political governance and economic growth, and also prevent progressive distribution of the benefits of growth. (Which reminds me – here’s a handy new brief from TJN Germany on the importance of taxes for human rights.)
• Gender inequality is an absolute priority (there was a particularly powerful contribution from Kate McInturff on gender-based violence as ever-present, from the home to school or workplace and on the way, and a barrier to all other goals – from universal education to decent work, and so on).

The second day was the Leadership Meeting. Co-chaired by Michelle Bachelet of UNWomen, Tony Lake of UNICEF, Christian Friis Bach for Denmark and Paul Victor Obeng for Ghana, this brought together high-level participants from around the world, including ministers from Burkina Faso, Colombia, Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Tanzania and Uganda, a number of members of the High Level Panel on post-2015, and many international and development organisations from FAO to USAID.

After initial statements and the presentation of the consultation report by advisory group members, Sarah Cook of UNRISD and Jayati Ghosh of Jawaharlal Nehru University. In the discussion of the report that followed, there were a number of extremely powerful contributions that I can’t tell you too much about because this session was under Chatham House rules. However… there were a few striking features:

• Effectively no dissent from the proposal for a free-standing goal on inequality (except for the proposal that there be two!);
• Strong confirmation of the need for disaggregated targets and indicators across all other goals;
• Recognition of the need to invest in high-quality, consistently disaggregated data to make this work and to ensure accountability at local and national levels;
• Broad recognition of the importance of taxation, including from some of the more conservative as well as the more progressive discussants; and
• A clear demand for more research findings about success stories: the policies that have driven progress against inequality.

Finally, the co-chairs released their statement summarising their view on the discussion. It’s short, and well worth reading, so do! But here are some highlights (my emphasis):

Inequalities need to be tackled systematically and coherently, by addressing their structural causes, and through a new common and holistic development framework that is global in character and relevant to all countries…

In a new development framework, participants suggested that a self-standing goal to reduce inequalities could help ensure the political will necessary to do this. Targets aimed at universal access to basic services and resources, and ‘getting to zero’ – such as eradicating extreme poverty, hunger and preventable child and maternal deaths – are necessary to ensure that no one is left behind. Such targets could be reinforced by indicators that specifically measure progress in reducing disparities and that specifically track progress among the most impoverished, marginalised and excluded groups and individuals.

Inequalities are not a necessary consequence of, nor a precondition for economic growth, but a result of particular policies and structural conditions. Inequalities can therefore be reduced through targeted and transformative policies and actions, including the promotion of inclusive and intergenerational growth and decent work while simultaneously addressing the priority needs and rights of poor, vulnerable and marginalised people. Striving to reduce inequalities is not only right in principle; it is also right in practice.

The empowerment and advancement of women and girls is crucial… A new Post-2015 Development Agenda should therefore include not only a universal goal for gender equality and the empowerment and advancement of women and girls, but also ensure that gender and other dominant inequalities are mainstreamed in all relevant areas through disaggregated targets and indicators.

Promoting greater equality across sectors and policies, within countries and between countries must be an integral part of a future set of international development goals. Addressing inequalities both within and between countries will require fair and just rules and practices in international relations in areas including trade, finance, investment, taxation and corporate accountability.

Jayati has posted her thoughts on Guardian Development, and covers many important areas of the discussion and the future agenda.

I would only add that my immediate reflection on the inequalities consultation is optimistic. When the consultation started, I think there was quite a widely held view that a freestanding goal on inequality was politically impossible. (There’s a separate discussion to be had about whether a separate goal is needed, at least technically, if you have appropriate disaggregation throughout the framework; but for me, the importance of a goal lies above all in setting or confirming the norm that inequality is an obstacle to human development and to the achievement of rights.) Save the Children’s own ‘first draft’ proposal certainly reflected that calculation.

Now, however, it feels very much that things may have changed. As I argued in my remarks, the report didn’t only bring together important research but more importantly it reflected the results of participation and showed a clear political position.

For what it’s worth, my feeling now is that it would be very difficult for the High Level Panel to seek to exclude the idea of a free-standing inequality goal (and I’m delighted that Save UK has called on David Cameron to support this). Of course, the HLP is only one contribution to the process, and the subsequent intergovernmental negotiations are where things will stand or fall; but the HLP’s credibility as a reflection of the broad consultation would be seriously damaged now were it not to reflect the emerged consensus. It will also be interesting to see how structural, global policy issues are dealt with – above all, perhaps, around taxation.

In any case, there is now a powerful basis for civil society and others globally to mobilise around the treatment of inequality in the eventual post-2015 framework. (Can I mention that I feel quite proud of Save the Children for its contribution? Only one among many, but the organisation has really made great strides in developing its position over the last year, as seen in the Born Equal report which supports much of the consultation report.)

Last word on this: the consultation owes its success in very great part to the outstanding joint leadership of Saraswathi Menon of UNWomen and Richard Morgan of UNICEF, and they deserve enormous praise. Thank you both!

Alex Cobham

This article was first published on Uncounted, 18 February 2013 - This blog is about inequality and development and those who are uncounted. It is written and maintained by Alex Cobham, Save the Children's Head of Research. Uncounted aims to stimulate debate but is not a reflection of official Save the Children policy

The OECD Global Forum on Development (GFD) is currently running an online consultation* entitled “Reducing poverty is achievable: Finding those who are hidden by inequalities” on the Wikiprogress platform. You can post a comment in a few clicks by going to the “Contribute!” section of the online consultation page, make sure your voice is heard. 

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Uncounted sexual violence

“We could scream but no one will hear us, they cover our mouths and threaten us.”

Unnamed child, Colombia

When we consider that 75 to 95 percent of rapes are never reported to the police in England , it will come as no surprise that we know very little about the full extent of sexual violence committed in conflict and post-conflict settings, let alone how many survivors of sexual violence in conflict are children. While many of these crimes go unreported and unpublished – a horrific example of the “uncounted,” for which this blog is named – we know enough to be able to say that incidents of rape and sexual abuse during conflict and instability are pervasive in countries from all regions of the world and that children often make up a significant number of survivors of sexual violence, and sometimes the majority.

A rape victim with a children’scounsellor - South Kivu, easternDRC - Hidden Survivors 

The following snapshots – outlined in our new briefing Hidden Survivors launched today – offer some indication of the prevalence and scope of the problem:

• During the post-election crisis in Côte d’Ivoire between 1 November 2010 and 30 September 2011, children made up 51.7% of cases of sexual violence. In more than half of the cases of sexual violence against children, the survivors were below 15 years of age.
• In 2008 in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the United Nations Population Fund recorded nearly 16,000 cases of sexual violence against women and girls. Of those instances, 65% involved children, mostly adolescent girls
• In 2006, the Lancet published research estimating that nearly one-fifth of girls were raped in the greater Port-au-Prince areas during the armed rebellion between February 2004 and December 2005

While there is ample evidence of sexual violence against women and girls, there is little systematic documentation of the existence of or impact of sexual violence on men and boys. The evidence that does exist, however, points to a serious – if under-reported – problem. In the DRC it has been estimated that men and boys make up 4-10% of survivors of sexual violence who seek treatment. In Afghanistan, the UN Special Representative on Children and Armed Conflict and others have repeatedly brought attention to the sexual abuse of boys. There have also been reports of sexual violence against boys as well as girls in the current conflict in Syria.

Given the extent of the scourge of sexual violence in conflict and its impact on children we welcome the UK Government and William Hague’s personal commitment to placing this issue at the top of the agenda for the UK’s Presidency of the G8 next year. This week a group of around 60 experts on the issue of sexual violence in conflict from around the world gathered at Wilton Park to help the Foreign Office develop and shape this important initiative.

While the appearance of Angelina Jolie was the only aspect of the conference that captured media attention, there was much that was encouraging about the discussions at Wilton Park from a children’s rights perspective. William Hague recognised in the opening statements of his speech that children make up 50% of the survivors of sexual violence in DRC, for example. And the Minister of Gender and Development from Liberia spoke at length about the appalling impact of sexual violence in homes in post-conflict Liberia on children, pushing the issue beyond the confines of “rape as a weapon of war” and into a broader set of familiar development concerns such as grinding poverty, breakdown of social norms, and lack of respect for women’s rights.

We do have lingering concerns that the UK Government’s initiative on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict will – ironically, given the name – not go far enough towards prevention of sexual violence and instead focus on a narrow element of reducing impunity: that of increasing international prosecutions. Using international prosecutions to send a message at the highest levels that sexual violence in conflict will not go unpunished is an important part of the story, but it is only part.

So how do we lessen the extent to which survivors – and especially child survivors – of sexual violence in conflict and post-conflict settings that go uncounted (both as part of ensuring that those affected by these crimes receive the support and services they require but also as part of challenging the culture of impunity)? How do we prevent pervasive sexual violence from taking root in conflict and post-conflict settings in the first place?

Counting is a big part of the story. We have the tools to gather the data and monitor incidents of sexual violence, and other grave violations of children’s rights, but the relevant bodies within the UN and beyond often lack the funding and political support to fully exploit the potential of their mandates, as the SRSG on Children and Armed Conflict explained during her talk at Save the Children on Friday November 16th.

And we know that where there are no age-appropriate services for health or psychological care, where judicial systems are not designed to meet the needs of children, and where societies do not recognise the particular vulnerabilities that children face, reporting of abuse and exploitation of children will remain low. These systems and services will need funding from donors in many cases. And supporting governments to introduce and strengthen age- and sex- disaggregated data collection will need to be part of the response.

Increased funding, and a better understanding of how funding is currently allocated is also vital. Protective sectors like child protection and education – which play an important role in preventing children from being subject to sexual violence in the first place, as well as an important part of a the response mechanism for children who do survive violent abuse – for example, were the two worst-funded humanitarian sectors in 2009 – only 32% of requirements were met and many projects within that were only partially funded. Beyond these figures, we don’t actually know how much was spent on programmes that specifically aim to tackle sexual violence in conflict – so disaggregated data on funding for child-focused sexual violence programmes also needs to be publically available.

Sexual violence is one of the most shocking crimes committed during conflict. It happens all over the world – from Afghanistan to Colombia to Somalia – and its consequences linger long after the fighting has stopped. But it is not inevitable. And our shock and horror at the thought of children suffering these crimes should not mean they go uncounted.

Alison Holder

This article was first published on Uncounted - This blog is about inequality and development and those who are uncounted. It is written and maintained by Alex Cobham, Save the Children's Head of Research. Uncounted aims to stimulate debate but is not a reflection of official Save the Children policy