A central feature of the SDGs is interlinkages; the goals, targets and indicators are interconnected, with the implementation of each supporting the attainment of the others. Given this interconnectivity, when working towards implementation, various goals, targets, and indicators should be considered in tandem, to safeguard against the potential undermining of essential objectives and the effectiveness of the broader agenda. The preamble of the 2030 Agenda affirms that āthe interlinkages and integrated nature of the Sustainable Development Goals are of crucial importance in ensuring that the purpose of the new Agenda is realized.ā In other words, all 17 SDGs depend upon one another; no single goal can be fully realised alone.Ā
SDG16 was designed to be an enabler, or in other words, to provide support for the achievement of other Goals. SDG16 targets critically important issues that have significant implications for people worldwide, including violence, insecurity, conflict, injustice, exclusion, inequality, discrimination, weak institutions and poor governance. These issues also undermine government capacities to achieve sustainable development across numerous fronts: ensuring identity and reducing bribery and corruption to remove barriers to accessing education and essential services; ensuring public participation to give people a voice and a role in decision making; ensuring access to information to facilitate oversight and transparency; ensuring peopleās fundamental freedoms to give them the opportunity to challenge decisions; ensuring access to justice for people to protect and assert their rights.
SDG16 is rooted in a human rights-based framework to address issues of universal relevance, significant to individuals in all nations. Sustained peace and non-violence, access to justice, rule of law, effective and accountable institutions, inclusive governance, participatory decision making and respect for human rights are all needed in order to advance other areas of sustainable development.Ā They are all key elements of SDG16 that ensure that the foundational objectives of āleaving no one behindā and āreaching the furthest behind firstā are upheld.
The success of SDG16 is equally reliant on the other goals. Progress on targets for peace, justice and inclusion directly affects outcomes for all other SDGs, while social, economic and environmental progress plays an equally important role in creating the conditions necessary for peace, justice and inclusion.Ā
From SDG16 on SDG16+
Of the 169 targets of the SDGs, 36 directly measure an aspect of peace, inclusion or access to justice. The Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies, a group of 43 UN Member States, international organisations, global partnerships, civil society and the private sector, has identified 24 targets from seven other goals ā including SDGs 1, 4, 5, 8, 10, 11 and 17 ā that directly measure an aspect of peace, inclusion or access to justice. These additional 24 targets, together with the 12 targets from SDG16, are collectively known as āSDG16+.ā Accordingly, SDG16+ encompasses a total of 36 targets from across the SDGs that directly contribute to building more peaceful, just and inclusive societies. As a framework, the SDG16+ targets provide a more comprehensive picture of the actions that are needed to realise peace, inclusion and justice for all, especially for those furthest behind.Ā This report will focus on progress on the SDG16 targets but refer to SDG16+ as relevant.
SDG16+: Examining the interlinkages with all other SDGs
The following chart illustrates some of the interlinkages between SDG16 and the other goals.Ā It is not meant to represent an exhaustive list of interlinkages or provide a deep analysis of positive or negative relationships or trade-offs, but instead is indicative of potential areas of intersections between SDG16 and the entire 2030 Agenda, utilising existing reflections on interlinkages undertaken by key experts around these issues.Ā
SDG1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere
Peace is fundamental to eliminate poverty. The war in Ukraine has caused an estimated 100 million people to remain in extreme poverty. Effective and accountable institutions are necessary to ensure social protections to those in need and to also reduce bribery and corruption to facilitate better services that ensure support is given to those who need it. Reducing illicit financial flows also enables governments to provide resources to those that need it. Access to justice helps secure land tenure.
SDG2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
Food security depends heavily on peace. As the war in Ukraine has shown, global food security can be strongly impacted by regional conflict. The illicit arms trade also creates instabilities that affect food security. Fair representation in international institutions helps correct and prevent trade restrictions. Nationally, effective and accountable institutions are needed to provide support for those in need.
SDG3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
Ensuring healthy lives requires peace. Effective, accountable and inclusive public institutions are necessary for universal health services. Corruption and bribery are major barriers to health care. As the COVID-19 pandemic revealed, access to information is essential for sexual and reproductive health services, medical research and risk management.
SDG4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
Birth registration is essential to ensure access to education. It also facilitates the identification of future needs for providing education facilities. Schools need to be safe from violence. The elimination of the use of child soldiers depends on reducing armed conflict. Education is critical for sustainable development and lifestyles, upholding human rights, achieving gender equality and promoting a culture of peace and non-violence.
SDG5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
Inclusive decision making is strongly related to ensuring womenās full and effective participation in society. Access to information is a key component of ensuring universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights. Access to justice is essential for ending discrimination and reinforcing policies for gender equality and empowerment. Reducing violence and trafficking are necessary to end gender-based violence and exploitation
SDG6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
Effective, accountable and transparent institutions are necessary to ensure that access to safe and affordable drinking water, safely managed sanitation services, and improved water quality is available to all. Responsive and participatory decision making is needed to ensure that local communities are able to effectively participate in water and sanitation management.
SDG7: Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
Peace is required to ensure that energy costs are stable. Good public services and transparent budgets are needed to develop and build infrastructure fairly. Minimising corruption is needed to ensure that benefits and costs are shared fairly. Public participation is needed to eliminate perverse subsidies which promote carbon-intensive energy suppliers over clean fuels and technology.
SDG8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
SDG16 and SDG8 indicators overlap relating to measures to eliminate human trafficking and modern slavery, while institutions such as National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) can support the fight against modern slavery. Further, eradicating the use of child soldiers relies upon reducing conflict. Access to justice is necessary to ensure that discrimination against women and persons with disabilities is reduced. Minimised corruption is necessary to strengthen domestic financial institutions.
SDG9: Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation
Ensuring strong and transparent institutions, especially regarding the efficient management of budgets and reducing corruption, are necessary to develop quality, reliable, sustainable and resilient infrastructure. Reducing illicit financial flows opens up available money and helps ensure that it is not siphoned off. Full public participation is necessary to ensure that the initiatives are effective for the communities involved. Multi-stakeholder initiatives such as the Construction Transparency Initiative (CoST) bring together governments, companies and local communities to develop projects in an inclusive manner. Access to information facilitates scientific research.
SDG10: Reduce inequality within and among countries
Inclusive, participatory and representative decision making is necessary to empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all. The indicators for discrimination and harassment are shared in 10.3.1 and 16.b.1. Access to justice is necessary for both while NHRIs provide a necessary oversight of countriesā institutions. Reduction of illicit financial flows is needed to improve the soundness of global financial markets and institutions. Broadening the participation of developing countries in global institutions will improve representation decision making to deliver more effective, credible, accountable and legitimate institutions.
SDG11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
Significantly reducing violence and securing the rule of law is needed to ensure safe public spaces. Inclusive, participatory and representative decision making is interlinked with participatory, integrated and sustainable human-settlement planning and management as well as ensuring the participation of civil society in urban planning and management. Effective, accountable and transparent institutions are needed to safeguard the public services that maintain cities and human settlements.
SDG12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
There is a strong interlinkage between SDG12 and SDG 16.10 on improving public access to information. Reducing the use and release of chemicals is closely interrelated with public access to information through pollution registers and public access obligations in most international pollution conventions. Transparency is a key principle in sustainable procurement. Company sustainability reports, and ensuring sustainable lifestyle information and awareness though education, also improves public access to information. Improving countriesā scientific and technological capacities also requires access to information and knowledge.
SDG13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
Climate migration drives conflicts and attacks on human rights defenders. Access to justice is needed to reduce land grabs. Building successful resilience and adaptive capacity requires effective, accountable and transparent institutions. Local disaster-risk-reduction strategies need inclusive, participatory and representative decision making. Obligations on transparency in the UNFCCC and national policies require effective access to information and improved awareness-raising and education. NHRIs can play a key role in ensuring that institutions are accountable to climate commitments.
SDG14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development
Successful pollution control needs effective, transparent and accountable institutions. Sustainable management of fisheries requires stakeholder involvement including inclusive, participatory and representative decision making, as well as mechanisms promoting access to information such as the Fisheries Transparency Initiative (FiTI), a global multi-stakeholder initiative of governments, companies and civil society to promote sustainable fisheries. There is also a significant link between illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, corruption, and forced labour and human trafficking.
SDG15: Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and biodiversity loss
The reduction of violence, fighting corruption and transnational organized crime, and promoting rule of law are necessary to reduce deforestation, and land grabs and āgreen violenceā. Such activities especially impact indigenous communities and environmental defenders. The sustainable management of forests and protection of biodiversity requires inclusive, participatory and representative decision making, especially as both development and conservation efforts frequently discriminate against indigenous communities. Most countries have adopted Environmental Impact Assessments to protect biodiversity and ensure public participation and access to information.
SDG17: Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development
Domestic resource mobilisation requires an effective fight against corruption and illicit financial flows. Effective institutions with strong oversight of budgets are necessary to ensure that spending is limited within the confines of targets and used for proper purposes. Multi-stakeholder partnerships around transparency and public participation such as the Open Government Partnership have been effective in promoting development at the national level. NHRIs can play a key role in ensuring that institutions are accountable. Regarding birth registration, 16.9 overlaps with 17.19.2.
Interlinkages between SDG16+ and international law
SDG16+ is heavily linked with many aspects of international law. It (as well as many of the other SDGs) is underpinned by numerous international and regional treaties, agreements, declarations, and resolutions from the UN and regional bodies. These include:
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- Human rights law, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and their regional equivalents. Under these, many of the SDG16+ targets and indicators, such as the right to life and to be free of violence, protection of migrants, public participation, access to information, and access to justice, can be recognised as legal rights. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender while the International Labour Organisationās (ILOās) C169-Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention protects indigenous communities.
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- Multilateral Environmental Agreements like the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions provide for public participation and access to information. The regional Aarhus and Escazu Treaties give strong procedural rights including access to justice and protection of environmental defenders which are already in use for promoting sustainable development in their Member States.
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- Anti-corruption agreements like the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) and the United Nations Convention on Transnational and Organized Crime (UNTOC) prohibit bribery and fight against illicit financial flows.
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- The numerous related declarations of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), the Human Rights Council (UNHRC), the United Nations Environmental Assembly (UNEA), and related treaty bodies established a framework which the goals operate within, and give a legal support to, at both the international and national levels for areas such as, standards for the independence of human rights bodies, accountable institutions and the rule of law. Agreements like the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) and United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), as well as new emerging agreements on human rights, due diligence and Environmental and Social Governance (ESG) reporting, sets out standards for the private sector.
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These legal obligations provide a framework for civil society organisations and others to utilise in the pursuit of achieving the SDGs, especially regarding the enforcement of rights through access to justice as a legal right under international law and measured in SDG 16.3. To meet the targets set out in SDG16+ is to achieve the legal obligations that governments have already committed to in ratifying these treaties.
