On September 24, a group of world leaders came together to respond to the UN Secretary-General’s call for a decade of accelerated actions for Sustainable Development Goals by releasing a statement that affirms their commitment to promote equality and inclusion. At the invitation of Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, heads of state and government from Ethiopia, Spain, Sierra Leone, and Namibia; the Vice President of Indonesia, the Deputy Prime Minister of Ireland, and the Foreign Minister of Timor-Leste; and representatives from Uruguay and Tunisia gathered in the SDG Action Zone for a photo celebrating the release the statement, which was also endorsed by the Republic of Korea.
On September 10, 2019, the President of the United Nations General Assembly, along with the Presidents of the Economic and Social Council and the Security Council and the Secretary-General of the United Nations, convened for the second in a series of high-level dialogues to discuss the challenges facing multilateralism and the role of the United Nations in preserving it. The dialogue on “Reaffirming the Commitment to Multilateralism through the Strengthening of the International System and Institutions" was co-organized by the Permanent Missions of Ecuador, Norway, and the Russian Federation, in association with the NYU Center on International Cooperation (CIC).
Inequality and exclusion are among the most pressing political issues of our age. They are on the rise and the anger felt by citizens towards elites perceived to be out-of-touch constitutes a potent political force. Policy-makers and the public are clamoring for a set of policy options that can arrest and reverse this trend.
This challenge paper is an output for the Grand Challenge on Inequality and Exclusion, an initiative of the Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies, and outlines ideas for solutions to inequality and exclusion that are strongly grounded in analysis.
In the sixth briefing in CIC's series on prevention, we take stock after the July 2019 High-level Political Forum on the instrumental role that development initiatives can play in conflict prevention. As highlighted in the 2011 World Development Report and the 2018 UN–World Bank Pathways for Peace report, often root causes are related to lack of equitable access to economic opportunities, or a combination of political and economic inequalities that fuel grievances. Some risk factors may therefore need to be addressed with development tools. Drawing on field research and on member state reporting at the recent High-level Political Forum, this briefing highlights development measures countries have taken to support prevention, and highlights ways the UN system can better assist these efforts.
In this policy briefing, our fifth in our series on prevention at the UN, we draw on examples from Côte d’Ivoire and Timor-Leste to illustrate how countries have developed integrated actions on prevention that cut across sectors, including security, development, and human rights. We then highlight options for the UN to better support these strategies through cross-pillar approaches and identify practical ways forward for governments implementing prevention approaches.
