Search CIC
Assembly line of people building a ravine

Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies

Co-founded in 2017 and hosted by CIC, the Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies initiative is a high-ambition, multi-stakeholder partnership that brings together 43 United Nations member states and over 100 partners, from international organizations and civil society, to the private sector, committed to accelerating the delivery of SDG16+ (the Sustainable Development Goal targets for peace, justice, and inclusion). 

Grand Challenges

Accelerating action to implement the SDG16+ targets for peace, justice, and inclusion

The Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies is a high-ambition, multi-stakeholder coalition of 43 UN member states and over 100 partners, from international organizations and civil society to the private sector, committed to accelerating the delivery of SDG16+ (the Sustainable Development Goal targets for peace, justice, and inclusion).

In the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the world’s leaders set ambitious targets for reducing violence in all countries, ensuring equal access to justice for all, and building effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions – areas that still need accelerated action to tangibly improve people’s lives and help address our greatest global challenges.

Building on its 2017 Roadmap for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies, updated in 2019, the Pathfinders aims to showcase SDG16+ as the credible, accessible, universal, and necessary set of tools that will get our world on track. The roadmap identifies three Grand Challenges: Justice for All, Inequality and Exclusion, and Halving Global Violence. The Pathfinders works to advance the implementation of SDG16+ through these three Grand Challenges, each engaging with a cross-regional coalition of Member States and partners. At the global level, the Pathfinders spotlights actions and influences the agenda in multilateral fora to advance SDG16+; at the national level, the Pathfinders provides evidence-based policy solutions and facilitates exchanges on best practices. By amplifying ‘what works’, this program energizes champions and convinces skeptics alike of the critical importance of implementing SDG16+.

Our Latest Resources

All Resources
  • Publication: Report February 24, 2023 Inequality & Exclusion

    An Age of Crises: Prospects for inequality and division

    The double shock of the COVID-19 pandemic followed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine has been accompanied by an uptick in income and social inequalities. Looking across six areas—food and fuel shortages, inflation, debt distress, extreme climate-related events, and political unrest—there are very few countries that escape the reach of at least one crisis. New research from the Pathfinders team shows that in those countries for which complete data exists across six crises (90 in total), eight countries are at risk for being impacted by all crises at the same time. 72 out of these 90 countries (or 80 percent) are at high or moderate risk of suffering from at least three crises at the same time.

  • Publication: Report June 1, 2022 Inequality & Exclusion

    The Relationship Between Justice and Equality

    At the heart of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is a vision of a “just, equitable, tolerant, open and socially inclusive world in which the needs of the most vulnerable are met.” This is a powerful vision. It is also part of a long history of global reform which seeks to make justice systems more inclusive. The first modern definition of the objective of law reform (now a century old) focuses on a government limited by law, equality under the law, and the protection of human and civil rights.

  • Publication: Policy Brief May 18, 2022 Crisis Prevention and Peacebuilding

    Does Justice Mind? Understanding the Links between Justice and Mental Health

    Over the past two years, COVID-19 has deeply impacted mental health, both for individuals and entire communities, weakening trust between governments and people. This brief explores how justice systems and actors are interlinked with mental health and psychosocial wellbeing, and it makes the case for addressing the negative effects of these dynamics in a more systemized way.

Featured Events

March 13, 2023

Solidarity in Action: Countering anti-feminist trends around the world

Join Pathfinders’ Grand Challenge on Inequality and Exclusion on the sidelines of the sixty-seventh session of the Commission on the Status of Women, for a thought-provoking discussion on how to address the rise of anti-feminist movements around the world. 

March 28, 2023

Solidarity in Action (Part II): Recognizing unity in the achievement of racial justice

To mark the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, join the Pathfinders Grand Challenge on Inequality and Exclusion for the second part of the “Solidarity in Action” webinar series on countering divisive narratives, where we will hear from country experiences on how the current and evolving forms of racist narratives play out, pinpointing their similarities and differences, and its impact on progress. Crucially, we will identify the ways in which policymakers and civil society are successfully countering discourses of hate and prejudice, and building solidarity across race that resists racist dog-whistles and ‘culture war’ stories that threaten our path towards racial equality, and social justice.

Stay connected with Pathfinders