Case Studies On Leaving No One Behind

These case studies complement the 2018 Development Co-operation Report: Joining forces to leave no one behind.

These case studies complement the 2018 Development Co-operation Report: Joining forces to leave no one behind. Case study contributors share knowledge and lessons on what it takes to answer the pledge of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to leave no one behind through national and sub-national policies, strategies and programmes as well as international development co-operation projects, programmes and partnerships. The insights, good practices and lessons shared in these case studies were provided by diverse actors. These include official development co-operation ministries and agencies from members of the OECD and the Development Assistance Committee, international organisations, developing country governments, civil society organisations, business, and research bodies. The case studies highlight experiences from projects and programmes in leaving no one behind and reaching the furthest behind. They are organised and presented under two broad categories: 1. Reaching and including people and places; 2. The enabling role of international co-operation: policies, partnerships and data.

When Member States of the United Nations approved the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015, they agreed that the Sustainable Development Goals and Targets should be met for all nations and peoples and for all segments of society. Governments and stakeholders negotiating the 2030 ...

The ambitious 15-year agenda known as the Sustainable Development Goals, adopted in 2015 by all members of the United Nations, contains a pledge that “no one will be left behind.” This book aims to translate that bold global commitment into an action-oriented mindset, focused on supporting specific people in specific places who are facing specific problems. In this volume, experts from Japan, the United States, Canada, and other countries address a range of challenges faced by people across the globe, including women and girls, smallholder farmers, migrants, and those living in extreme poverty. These are many of the people whose lives are at the heart of the aspirations embedded in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. They are the people most in need of such essentials as health care, quality education, decent work, affordable energy, and a clean environment. This book is the result of a collaboration between the Japan International Cooperation Research Institute and the Global Economy and Development program at Brookings. It offers practical ideas for transforming “leave no one behind” from a slogan into effective actions which, if implemented, will make it possible to reach the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. In addition to policymakers in the field of sustainable development, this book will be of interest to academics, activists, and leaders of international organizations and civil society groups who work every day to promote inclusive economic and social progress.

Digital transformation is revolutionising economies and societies with rapid technological advances in AI, robotics and the Internet of Things. Low and middle-income countries are struggling to gain a foothold in the global digital economy in the face of limited digital capacity, skills, and fragmented global and regional rules.

In Africa, women are critical agents of change in the fight against rural poverty, hunger and malnutrition. They are the backbone of their households, communities, and rural economies covering important roles in food production, processing and marketing, and also in the nutrition of the family. However, with food systems rapidly modernizing and dramatic effects of climate change and environmental degradation becoming the “new normal”, they continue to face multiple challenges due to persisting gender discriminations. Over the years, remarkable political commitments to improve women’s condition and status have been made, but substantial gender gaps still remain in the access and control over productive resources and assets, services and markets. Overcoming these challenges will require addressing the root causes of gender inequalities through innovative and gender-transformative approaches. According to FAO’s latest estimates (SOFI, 2019), the number of people suffering from hunger has been rising. Just this trend - and the awareness that we lost a decade of progress - is sufficient to underscore the immense challenge of achieving the Zero Hunger target by 2030. The situation is most alarming in sub-Saharan Africa, where the number of undernourished people has steadily increased since 2014, to 237 million in 2018. These findings are in line with the 2019 SDG report. It shows that we are still lagging behind in achieving the SDGs as the global response has not been ambitious enough.

Little did Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and other ‘gentlemen scientists’ know, when they were making their scientific discoveries, that some centuries later they would inspire a new field of scientific practice and innovation, called citizen science. The current growth and availability of citizen science projects and relevant applications to support citizen involvement is massive; every citizen has an opportunity to become a scientist and contribute to a scientific discipline, without having any professional qualifications. With geographic interfaces being the common approach to support collection, analysis and dissemination of data contributed by participants, ‘geographic citizen science’ is being approached from different angles. Geographic Citizen Science Design takes an anthropological and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) stance to provide the theoretical and methodological foundations to support the design, development and evaluation of citizen science projects and their user-friendly applications. Through a careful selection of case studies in the urban and non-urban contexts of the Global North and South, the chapters provide insights into the design and interaction barriers, as well as on the lessons learned from the engagement of a diverse set of participants; for example, literate and non-literate people with a range of technical skills, and with different cultural backgrounds. Looking at the field through the lenses of specific case studies, the book captures the current state of the art in research and development of geographic citizen science and provides critical insight to inform technological innovation and future research in this area.

How does the nexus between security, human rights and good governance play out in the sustainable development context? Based on state-of-the-field, interdisciplinary research with a global perspective, Leaving no one behind, leaving no one unaccountable offers the first comprehensive account of the role of ombuds institutions in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, launched by the United Nations in 2015. With their unique position in-between three branches of power, the mandate to oversee public administration (including the security sector) and protect human rights, ombuds institutions are well-placed to play an important role in national efforts to fulfil the SDGs. The book takes the specific angle by looking at SDG-16, devoted to effective, accountable and inclusive institutions, through the lens of security sector governance. It brings granular analysis of all SDG 16 targets, demonstrating how ombuds institutions could contribute to achieving each of them. The book develops an innovative conceptual framework, by looking at both implementation and accountability. The former is captured under the title of ‘leaving no one behind’ and the latter under ‘leaving no one unaccountable’. Leaving no one behind is a central credo of the 2030 Agenda. It is highly relevant for SDG-16, as well as security sector governance, due to the centrality of the principles of responsiveness, inclusiveness and participation. The book attests that for a number of the SDG 16 targets, ombuds institutions should primarily serve as accountability mechanisms. It argues they should work with, pressure, and make public administration accountable, in cases when the administration as the primary duty-bearer fails to protect the rights of citizens and when their actions fall short of the standards needed to achieve the SDGs. As this book demonstrates, many SDG 16 targets are rather vague, and limited guidance exists on how to measure and achieve them, especially in fragile contexts. It thus provides guidance and recommendations to ombuds institutions and other actors on how to best support each other in achieving SDG-16. Leaving no one behind, leaving no one unaccountable is a key resource for scholars, policymakers and activists concerned with effective, accountable and inclusive institutions, and those interested in political science, security studies, human rights and development studies.