MADRID, Spain.
Mercedes Ruiz-Giménez, a member of the official Spanish delegation at the 70th General Assembly of the United Nations, in her capacity as President of the Coalition of NGOs for Development, reflects on what happened at the Assembly and analyzes the challenges facing humanity in the coming years to achieve the so-called Agenda 2030. She suggests an integrated approach to international policy, the implementation of national plans, as well as international policies aimed at meeting the objectives of Sustainable Development.
On Sunday the 70th UN General Assembly ended. It was not really an Assembly; the meeting gave the starting signal for a new international agenda to fight poverty and inequality and to protect the environment. The commitment made by 190 heads of state and government marked their responsibilities for the next 15 years. Now the important thing is to see how this path begins and, above all, where it will take us. The new path is marked by lights and shadows.
The direction will be given by the Sustainable Development Goals, 17 goals that include topics such as education, health, climate change, hunger, gender equality, peace, and the right to water, among others. The range is enormous, as are the huge challenges we face as humanity. The integrated approach to all of them will be key in an interconnected world like today.
The Agenda 2030 incorporates relevant developments over previous proposals that may be an opportunity for the process that is about to start. For the first time, a roadmap of this kind expects that the fight against poverty, human development, and the environment go hand in hand; although it seems obvious, it had not been considered as such until now. The second key element is the recognition that inequality among countries and within them is a central issue that must be addressed comprehensively and urgently. It is a universal agenda that affects all countries; that is, Spain will also implement an action plan to achieve the goals not only in international cooperation but also in relation to domestic public policy. This undoubtedly is a great achievement.
There are certain issues that remain in the air and can indicate an important brake for achieving the agreed objectives. The first is that the fulfillment of these objectives is voluntary; and as it relates to international commitments, it has been shown that good faith is not enough. Moreover, the mantra that economic growth as a solution to our problems is repeated, ignoring that growth by itself does not lead to well-being and, what is worse, we live on a planet where its natural resources are at the limit of exploitation -this issue has been denounced by Pope Francis himself at the headquarters of the UN. Another worrying element is how human rights have been losing strength over the negotiations. On the one hand, key parts of the text have disappeared and on the other, when speaking of access to education, health, and food the fact that we are dealing with fundamental human rights is not mentioned.
From words to deeds
We just took the exit, now we should know how we are going to make the trip. The implementation of this roadmap would require, first of all, profound changes in the international economic and political system and that, so far, does not seem to be a top concern. If we we do not tackle the causes, we will never put an end to their consequences. Business as usual is not an option.
It is time to move from words to deeds. And that happens, inevitably, by the creation of a National Implementation Plan in each country that is created with the participation of different constituencies: academia, civil society, parliament, unions ... And they may also consider all the public policies that may contribute to the fight against poverty and inequality, both within and outside our borders. It is the time of the so-called policy coherence; that is, to ensure that our economic, trade, energy, and migration policies are consistent with the defense of human rights here and anywhere in the world.
Carrying out such an ambitious agenda requires adequate funding; without the necessary means it is impossible for those commitments to become reality. It is worrying that this is one of the greatest weaknesses. Governments do not seem willing to make major changes in the rules without a deep change of the status quo; then the agenda is unlikely to be transformative. Public funding is the only one that can guarantee the necessary funding to implement the right policies.
The implementation of the agenda must be accompanied by policies against evasion and tax havens. We can not demand accountability from poor countries through what is called "domestic resource mobilization" without establishing measures against tax evasion and tax havens. In addition, a separate mechanism to address the unsustainable debt problems of States must be established - a serious problem that affects both impoverished countries such as European countries, as the Greek crisis has made clear; without this mechanism more powerful countries will continue to impose their conditions on the others.
Never before has the world been so interconnected as it is today. The approach to the problems that affect us as a society can only be global; tackling them from a local or national perspective would lead us to a dead end with patches and no real solutions reached. The new Spanish government will meet great challenges ahead. Being, as we are, one of the most unequal countries in Europe it will be very interesting to see when tracking the progress of the roadmap. Also, taking the pulse of Spain's position as an international actor will also be interesting. The establishment of a system of indicators will be essential for this kind of monitoring.
Civil society will be very aware of the decisions that will be taken (or not) to ensure that the proposals in this book -called Agenda 2030- are applied in both national and international policies. We hope that this space for participation in public affairs is guaranteed. This is to ensure that the political rights of the people and protection of the planet on which we live are guaranteed. Failure to do so would be a great loss. Too much!
Mercedes Ruíz-Giménez
President of the Coalition of NGOs for Development
Article published in Público el 29 de septiembre de 2015