Leaving no-one behind: can the Sustainable Development Goals succeed where the Millennium Development Goals lacked?

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.

El presente artículo examina el significado de la agenda No Dejar de Lado a Nadie y cómo la misma interactúa con la agenda de igualdad de género. A manera de comparación, el artículo comienza realizando una breve valoración de lo aportado a las mujeres y las niñas por los odm, efectuando posteriormente una revisión del marco de los ods en aspectos relativos a la igualdad de género y a No Dejar de Lado a Nadie. Por último, analiza qué será necesario para poner en práctica esta retórica a través de planes nacionales, cambios de política, información estadística, financiación y voluntad política.

Cet article demande ce que signifie l'ordre du jour Leave No-one Behind (Ne laisser personne à l’écart) et comment il interagit avec l'ordre du jour d’égalité de genre. Il commence par une brève évaluation de ce que les OMD ont obtenu pour les femmes et les filles en guise de comparaison. Nous examinons ensuite le cadre des ODD, par rapport à l’égalité de genre et à Leave No-one Behind. Vient ensuite une évaluation de ce qui est requis pour mettre cette rhétorique en pratique, grâce à des plans nationaux, des changements de politiques générales, des données, des financements et la volonté politique.

KEYWORDS:

• Intersectionality
• poverty
• gender
• SDGs
• Leave no-one behind
• women

Notes on contributors

Elizabeth Stuart is a research fellow and team leader, Sustainable Development Goals at the Overseas Development Institute in London. Postal address: ODI, 203 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8NJ, UK. Email: [email protected]

Jessica Woodroffe is the Director of the Gender and Development Network. Postal address: Gender and Development Network, 33–39 Bowling Green Lane, London EC1R 0BJ, UK. Email: [email protected]

Notes

1 See, for example, the Post 2015 Women's Coalition at www.post2015women.com/response-to-outcome-document/; Association for Women's Rights in Development at www.awid.org/search/node/SDGs; Women's Major Group at www.womenmajorgroup.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Emilia-Reyes-WMG-SD-Summit-2015.pdf; and UK Gender and Development Network (GADN) at www.gadnetwork.org (all last checked by the authors 8 October 2015).

2 See examples cited in Stuart et al. (2015) and the UN Global Pulse website, www.unglobalpulse.org/ (last checked by the authors 7 December 2015).

3 This is in the draft dated 5 October 2015, available at http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2015/adp2/eng/8infnot.pdf (last checked by the authors 13 December 2015).