Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Citation:

Goetz, Anne Marie, and Rob Jenkins. 2016. “Gender, Security, and Governance: The Case of Sustainable Development Goal 16.” Gender & Development 24 (1): 127–37. 

Authors: Ann Marie Goetz, Rob Jenkins

Abstract:

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development includes among its 17 key objectives the goal of creating peaceful societies based on inclusive and effective governance. However, none of the targets included under this ‘peace and governance’ goal (Goal 16) call for specific measures to ensure women's equal participation in governance institutions and peace processes. This article identifies some of the reasons why gender-specific targets were not included, despite considerable advocacy by United Nations and civil society actors. These include: the relatively strong governance orientation of the gender-equality goal (Goal 5), the political tensions surrounding Goal 16 prior to its adoption, the compression necessitated by the merging of what had originally been two separate goals (on peace and governance, respectively), and the 2030 Agenda's tendency to focus on ends rather than means. Despite the lack of gender-specific targets, we argue that if sex-disaggregated indicators are employed to measure progress in achieving the targets under Goal 16, gender-equality advocates will have a strong basis for demanding that efforts to improve governance address the systematic constraints and biases that confront women's ability to take part in public decision-making, receive justice, and contribute to the maintenance of peace.

Keywords: governance, peace, conflict, SDG 16, women's collective action

Topics: Development, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Justice, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Year: 2016

Citation:

Stuart, Elizabeth, and Jessica Woodroffe. 2016. “Leaving No-One Behind: Can the Sustainable Development Goals Succeed Where the Millennium Development Goals Lacked?” Gender & Development 24 (1): 69–81. 

Authors: Elizabeth Stuart, Jessica Woodroffe

Abstract:

This article considers what the Leave No-one Behind agenda means, and how it interacts with the gender equality agenda. It starts with a brief assessment of what the Millennium Development Goals have delivered for women and girls by way of comparison. We then go on to look at the Sustainable Development Goal framework, in relation to both gender equality and Leave No-one Behind. This is followed by an assessment of what is needed to put this rhetoric into practice, through national plans, policy changes, data, financing, and political will.

Keywords: intersectionality, poverty, Gender, SDGs, Leave no-one behind, women

Topics: Development, Economies, Poverty, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Year: 2016

Citation:

Koehler, Gabriele. 2016. “Tapping the Sustainable Development Goals for Progressive Gender Equity and Equality Policy?” Gender & Development 24 (1): 53–68. 

Author: Gabriele Koehler

Abstract:

This article examines the new agenda for sustainable development adopted by the United Nations, to see if it contains policies for gender equity and equality as well as for sustainable development in tune with planetary boundaries. It finds that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are not ambitious and lack a systematic policy approach. It therefore examines other internationally agreed conventions that address gender equality and sustainable development concerns, and contain policies. I examine the universe of policies needed to make sustainable gender equality real, for all women, going beyond the current economistic rationale. The article concentrates on several ‘domains’ widely considered to be core to the empowerment of women: namely work and incomes, access to health services, and the environment. I conclude by arguing that, by incorporating other, more progressive conventions and declarations, the SDGs can be used creatively and subversively, to move towards gender and climate justice.

Keywords: policy, Rights, Gender, climate change, SDGs, United Nations

Topics: Development, Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Gender Equity, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Year: 2016

Citation:

Fukuda-Parr, Sakiko. 2016. “From the Millennium Development Goals to the Sustainable Development Goals: Shifts in Purpose, Concept, and Politics of Global Goal Setting for Development.” Gender & Development 24 (1): 43–52. 

Author: Sakiko Fukuda-Parr

Abstract:

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) differ from the MDGs in purpose, concept, and politics. This article focuses on the gender agenda in the SDGs as a reflection on the shifts from the MDGs to the SDGs. It argues that the SDGs address several of the key shortcomings of the MDGs and incorporate a broader and more transformative agenda that more adequately reflects the complex challenges of the 21st century, and the need for structural reforms in the global economy. The SDGs also reverse the MDG approach to global goal setting and the misplaced belief in the virtues of simplicity, concreteness, and quantification. While the SDGs promise the potential for a more transformative agenda, implementation will depend on continued advocacy on each of the targets to hold authorities to account.

Keywords: global goals, MDGs, SDGs

Topics: Development, Gender, Women, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Year: 2016

Citation:

Razavi, Shahra. 2016. “The 2030 Agenda: Challenges of Implementation to Attain Gender Equality and Women’s Rights.” Gender & Development 24 (1): 25–41. 

Author: Shahra Razavi

Abstract:

Moving beyond the narrow goals and targets of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the top-down manner in which they were defined, the 2030 Agenda promises to address many of their shortcomings. Not only has the process of defining the new agenda been more inclusive and its scope a universal one, but it is also anchored in human rights principles, while its goals and targets draw attention to a far more variegated set of structural concerns. This is evident in the remarkably broad scope of the targets under the gender-specific Goal 5. But the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), like the MDGs, are somewhat silent on the policies needed to achieve the goals and targets. When it comes to the gender-specific elements, while the SDGs do a far better job than the MDGs in drawing attention to key structural constraints that hold back women's enjoyment of their rights, on some of the more contested issues they hardly advance the agenda beyond what has been the ‘agreed language’ for decades. At the same time, the hard-won gains and vision of the SDGs, including SDG 5, may be difficult to realise unless the dominant economic model that forms the backdrop is changed, and stronger accountability mechanisms are put in place. In the absence of robust accountability mechanisms, the risk of dilution and selectivity in the process of implementation looms large.

Keywords: 2030 Agenda, Gender, inequality, women, sustainable development, human rights

Topics: Development, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Rights, Women's Rights, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Year: 2016

Citation:

Esquivel, Valeria. 2016. “Power and the Sustainable Development Goals: A Feminist Analysis.” Gender & Development 24 (1): 9–23. 

Author: Valeria Esquivel

Abstract:

This article offers a power analysis of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) process and outcomes, from a feminist perspective. Many see, in the SDGs, several opportunities for progress on gender equality and women's rights, if not for transformation. Yet there are many reasons for scepticism, as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development's vision is not always met with strong enough language, clear policies or funding provisions. Realising the ‘transformative potential’ of the Agenda in the decade and a half to come will be far from a technocratic exercise – and this is particularly true for the full realisation of women's rights. A first step is to consider how structural power relations are challenged or reinforced in the Agenda and the SDGs, and in plans for their implementation and resourcing.

Keywords: power, empowerment, justice, Gender, growth, human rights

Topics: Development, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Rights, Human Rights, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Year: 2016