Goal 16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development ...
All goals of the 2015 development agendas are to ensure sustainable development. All goals are equally important, however, here i would like to focus mainly on goal 16 which talks about broadly governance issues. The 16 targets underneath are key to ensure sustainability of any development initiative. The political will is very important in this case at the national level. How this can be ensured in a very complex political dynamics. Particularly where one party is dominating everything. This is not just because one party is grabbing all power rather it is mostly due to lack of capacity of other political parties. The CSOs are also not taking enough initiatives to ensure inclusiveness of all stakeholders/parties. Either they are so scared to take such initiative in a polarized situation or they just want to carry on their business without making their hands dirty in addressing these political issues. I must say without a strong political will making real differences are near to impossible. How this can be dealt with?
Kholisile Dingiswayo Mon 17 Aug 2015 12:45PM
Achieving the aspired arrangement as per goal 16 really depends on each individual breathing God's air on this planet. Most of times key issues in our lives are left to politicians to decide upon...and they live what matters most to them for us to decide! They decide our livelihoods, fate and futures simply because we vote for them...we give this immense power that only "we" have and until we decide how to use this power through non-party political aligned civil society organisations and other lobby groups, our hope for change in our lifetime will remain deferred.
Indeed peace and stability are sacrosanct because no prosperous societies can be built in war ravaged countries and poverty stricken communities. It is also very true that the willingness to uphold and observe the rule of law by those entrusted with the responsibility to govern our countries cannot be over emphasized. The fact that societies tend to hold "dear" their detractors and abusers more than they do themselves. The world has been complaining about societal ills ranging from dreadful diseases, poverty, socio-economic dysfunctional communities and collapsed families as well as environmental challenges in climate change but to many these issues have remained just that...issues. And until each of us take a stand and make our voices heard and actions felt we shall forever be victims of systems that depends on us for sustenance or eradication.
DOSSE SOSSOUGA Mon 17 Aug 2015 1:04PM
We are not politicians but we must work with politicians. It is why we must benefit of international protection. We must be diplomatics and not opposans. The SDGs are for us and for governments too. So we must work together, I think that the final document the world leaders will adopt take care of this aspects. How to protect the civil space is our need.
Dorothee GUENEHEUX Tue 18 Aug 2015 1:51PM
Probably solutions need to be found at the national level and adapted to each national situation - at CIVICUS, we have partnered with 4 national civil society organisations to organise governement- civil society roundtables on goal 16 and its implementation in these countries. These 4 roundtables happened in the last 2 months in Colombia, Argentina, Tanzania and India. For now, the results vary from one country to the next - but usually, there seems to have very little knowledge of the agenda outside of the ministries of foreign affairs. Trying to facilitate a dialogue with other institutions (such as courts, justice, etc.) and public servants and other sectors (media, academic...) could be a way to go. We should publish reports soon.
Siamul Huq Rabbany Tue 18 Aug 2015 2:16PM
Indeed the solution needs to be found at the local level. And at the same time it is also important to work with politicians or at least engage them in different ways.
Dear Dorothee, would love to know little more about the initiatives and it would be good to see the report when it is ready.
DOSSE SOSSOUGA Tue 18 Aug 2015 3:39PM
C'est bien, c'est comme cela que les résultats vont toujours différés d'un pays à l'autre, avec parfois des surprises dans le degré de compréhension des ODD. Au cas où le gouvernement et ses institutions se confronteront à des malentendus, la cohabitation pacifique entre la société civile et le gouvernement sera difficile. C'est pourquoi, on vous propose d'avoir des services contentieux pour intervenir en cas de besoin. Ces services doivent se situer au niveau global, au niveau régional, au niveau national et au niveau local. Justement, c'est pour faciliter ce dialogue que l'ONG: Amis des Etrangers au Togo (ADET) utilise des stratégies diplomatiques pour informer, d'avance, les autorités Togolaises, sur les ODD. Il reste les fonctionnaires, le monde universitaire, les médias, les autorités religieuses et traditionnelles, de même que le publique en général (urbain et rural). Il faut également envisager le degré de compréhension des gens et savoir que certains sont des Thomas de la Bible. Se lever tôt serait la meilleure solution car le chantier est vaste mais il y a peu d'ouvriers c'est à dire ceux qui maîtrisent les 17 objectifs et les 169 sous-objectifs. Merci
Dorothee GUENEHEUX Tue 18 Aug 2015 3:54PM
Thanks to both for your answers.
Our reports are not published yet, but in the meantime you may want to read a summary of a July event on goal 16 implementation here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ic7aaH1P84DGgjjOuswewPowWLBvgfHDUrw3SjPLIdw/edit
Coordinator Wed 19 Aug 2015 7:28AM
@dorotheegueneheux thanks for sharing information about this Goal 16 consultation and your thought on future work. Do keep us posted and share the final report once it is done! Perhaps you could also invite the national CSOs you have been working with to join this discussion?
Arslan Hyder Wed 2 Sep 2015 3:54PM
We have been working on this goal as volunteers here in sindh province of Pakistan. But unforyunaltely due to lack of funds we are unable to deliver it with higher efficiency
Majo Joseph Thu 3 Sep 2015 5:34PM
I do not agree with the idea that we are not politicians. I think everyone is a politician, the only difference is how we do our politics. Some do partisan politics, some are in governance while others in civil society. One of the most challenging issues to civil society movements in my country is the sustainability. Many CSOs are failing to actively engage in change making or die because of lack of resources. They are not profitable hence they depend on donors for their budgets. Where there is no budget, they can implement big projects. Local business persons are no usually willing to sponsor CSOs because of fear of being qua notated.
Busani Sibindi · Sun 16 Aug 2015 6:31PM
Indeed participation of all including those from minority political parties and even local governance is very essential in making the very ambitious agenda a success. However as rightfully stated above political complexities and dimensions do affect such an open platform. To stay relevant and welcome most certain CSOs have to compromise amongst many things their independence and indeed in some situations their mandate of holding governments accountable. Coming from a Political Landmine field like Zimbabwe where Ministers are not even assured of their positions and continue to be shifted and re - shuffled time and again. I would say stronger CSOs must be established and to a certain extent remain apolitical. Handling the politics of Polity does really imply taking political positions. It even means feeding into policy and influencing political will. It means adopting multiple level strategies and informed tactics to push an agenda without stepping into anyone's toes.