* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
In 2015 enough was done to get us on track, and in 2016 more will need to happen to ensure progress
2015 started with a question. Eva Tolage, a 15-year-old girl from rural Tanzania, asked: what will you do to end extreme poverty? So how did you do and how did we do? She sent a letter to ONE members asking this question in January, and then in September she wrote to President Obama. Whilst many topics are important right now, hers is the key question of our age.
Three moments from 2015 provide potential answers. The agreement of the new Global Goals for Sustainable Development; the Paris climate deal; and the reaction to refugees. Here’s a take on these moments and what must happen next.
The Global Goals were born on September 26th as Pope Francis, Malala Yousafzai and world leaders jammed into the UN. Within days, three billion people were informed of these new Goals, and encouraged to care about achieving them. They offer mainly measurable targets, covering a broad scope of concern: from ending poverty, hunger and preventable diseases; to offering meaningful work and education to the growing youth population in regions like Africa, all delivered through open institutions where people can hold power accountable. It’s a vision of the world we want, not the world we have.
To achieve this vision, we need great political leadership within governments. We also need innovation and far-sighted investment from business. To encourage both these things global civil society must become more organised, informed and effective in holding power to account. It won’t be easy, and it will require specific and measured steps to achieve the Goals.
We started the task this year with the full replenishment of the vaccines alliance, GAVI, in January. We’ll need to repeat a similar feat in 2016 by fully funding the life-saving Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria. The Nutrition for Growth Summit around the Rio Olympics will also need strong pledges and high ambition. We must force the World Bank and the African Development Bank to focus more on financially and economically empowering the poorest by harnessing the latest technologies. Cross cutting all this will require a renewed honesty about fighting corruption, a problem which grew during the last commodity super-cycle. The London anti-corruption summit in May 2016 must make progress against impunity for corrupt elites. We’ve started the Global Goals, but it will take more than wishful-thinking to make progress in 2016. We’ll need accountability, and we’ll need to do it together.
The next ‘2015 moment’, the Paris climate deal, was a huge breakthrough. It’s a credit to the activists on the ‘outside’ and advisers on the ‘inside’ -of government and the private sector and especially across the UN system, who overall had a great year. But pay attention to the details – the $100bn for climate finance is vague. This promise must result in more money for the poorest nations to fight poverty, not less. Currently the poorest countries only get 30% of global assistance.
The last issue, refugees, remind us all of a basic need: a sense of safety; a sense of home. As many across the world gather for holidays, thoughts will go to those far from their homes. Our support for refugees must grow, but need not do so at the expense of the world’s poorest. Some nations are cutting funds to fight poverty to pay for refugee costs at home. Humanity must have the heart to do both.
Eva’s question wasn’t fully answered this year, and it won’t be in 2016 either. It’ll take 15 years to know whether we listened to her. In 2015 enough was done to get us on track and in 2016 more will need to be done to ensure we make progress. Poverty is sexist: girls like Eva have the toughest time of all, for poverty hits women and girls hardest, which is ironic given that investing in them is the best way to beat poverty. If we support all the Evas across the world, we strengthen communities and countries so there are fewer failed states, fewer living in poverty, fewer fleeing their homes in fear. When we answer her question, when we invest in her future, we advance human potential and security for us all.
Jamie Drummond is co-founder and executive director of ONE
