1 Peace is the cure How SDG 16 can help salvage the 2030 Agenda in the wake of COVID-19 November 2020 2 International Alert British Council International Alert works with people directly The British Council builds connections, affected by conflict to build lasting peace. understanding and trust between people in the UK and other countries through arts and We focus on solving the root causes of culture, education and the English language. conflict, bringing together people from across divides. From the grassroots to policy level, We help young people to gain the skills, we all come together to build everyday peace, confidence and connections they are looking from the ground up. for to realise their potential and to participate in strong and inclusive communities. We Peace is just as much about communities support them to learn English, to get a high- living together, side by side, and resolving quality education and to gain internationally their differences without resorting to recognised qualifications. Our work in arts and violence, as it is about people signing a treaty culture stimulates creative expression and or laying down their arms. exchange and nurtures creative enterprise. www.international-alert.org www.britishcouncil.org 3 Peace is the cure How SDG 16 can help salvage the 2030 Agenda in the wake of COVID-19 November 2020 4 Contents Abbreviations 5 Preface 6 Executive summary 7 1. Why peace matters now more than ever 10 2. Fail better? Weaknesses and obstacles in integrating peacebuilding from the MDGs into the SDGs 14 2.1 A changing geopolitical landscape and security context before COVID-19 14 2.2 The intersection of politics and peacebuilding: Falling out of frame 16 2.3 Fragmented and overly technical: A barrier to integrating peace 17 2.4 The risk of repeating mistakes of the MDG era 20 2.5 A chapter break in history? The SDGs and COVID-19 in FCAS 21 3. Making peace count in salvaging the SDGs during COVID-19: First-cut conclusions 24 3.1 Commit to peacebuilding as an essential element of an effective global public health response in FCAS, and surge a conflict-sensitive, politically smart approach to salvage the SDGs 25 3.2 Double down on SDG 16 as the focal point for achieving the SDGs in FCAS 26 3.3 Leverage the rich diversity of actors for the 2030 Agenda 28 3.4 Do not strip out funding for SDG 16, mainstream peacebuilding as a core component of aid 29 Abbreviations 5 2030 Agenda 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development COVID-19 Coronavirus disease Crisis Group International Crisis Group CSO Civil society organisation DFID Department for International Development DRC Democratic Republic of Congo FCAS Fragile and conflict-affected states INCAF International Network on Conflict and Fragility IRC International Rescue Committee MDG Millennium Development Goal ODA Official development assistance ODI Overseas Development Institute OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development PBF Peacebuilding Fund SDG Sustainable Development Goal UN United Nations UNSG United Nations Secretary General VNR Voluntary national review 6 Preface This report is inspired by the 2018 Peace evolved to take into account the impact of the Perceptions Poll.1 More than 100,000 people coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on the SDG across 15 countries took part, including from landscape, acknowledging that those living in conflict-affected states ranging from Colombia fragile and conflict-affected contexts will more and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), keenly feel the impacts of the pandemic. to Lebanon and the Philippines. The report’s starting point was that the 2030 A partnership between International Alert, the Agenda for Sustainable Development (2030 British Council and global polling company Agenda) was already in jeopardy, and our RIWI, the poll highlights the highly nuanced position is that this is at least partly due to way in which people understand peace. the lacklustre performance globally on SDG 16. COVID-19 has upped the urgency around Findings illustrate that people’s perceptions responding to this deficit, with the pandemic of peace go well beyond just security, or the compounding existing conflict and threatening absence of violence. The multiple dimensions the erosion of fragile development gains. that make up peace, for many people, are very much in line with the holistic framework of the Ultimately, this report is intended as a Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). discussion prompt for stakeholders interested in a course correction to the 2030 Agenda Following the poll, we were keen to better that helps ensure that those living in fragile understand the relationship between the and conflict-affected contexts are not left implementation of the SDGs and peace (in behind, and in a way that reinforces responses particular, the role of SDG 16 in sustaining and longer-term resilience to the COVID-19 peaceful and inclusive societies). pandemic. Initially, this report focused on identifying lessons from the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) era as a basis for analysis. It has since 1 J. Egan, Peace Perceptions Poll 2018, London: International Alert, https://www.international-alert.org/publications/peace-perceptions- poll-2018 Executive summary 7 At the start of 2020, the 2030 Agenda – of the 21st century. The disease it causes encapsulated in the United Nations (UN) – COVID-19 – is highly infectious and much member states’ commitment to the 17 deadlier than seasonal influenza. It is already Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) reshaping politics, societies and economies – entered a ‘Decade of Action’ meant to both domestically and globally. Given a lack accelerate progress towards sustainable of immunity within populations, it is likely to development that would ‘leave no one behind’. remain a global threat for a protracted period. Yet it was already in deep trouble: the vast It also gravely impacts the 2030 Agenda – majority of the world’s extremely poor now live and nowhere more sharply than in FCAS. in fragile and conflict-affected states (FCAS). Countries where governance is often weak By 2030, approximately 80% of the most and contested; where violence can be vulnerable people globally would be trapped pervasive even if not a product of overt war; in countries experiencing chronic instability, where economies are brittle and riches can be violence and conflict.2 None of these states captured by elites; where public services such are on track to achieve a single Goal. The as healthcare can be more marked by absence 2030 Agenda will succeed or fail globally or access constraints; where large groups can based on its performance in those FCAS that suffer exclusion, discrimination, repression and seemed fated to be left behind. poverty – all these are extremely vulnerable to deep impact resulting from COVID-19. In The reasons behind this lack of progress conflict-affected countries, this vulnerability is are clear. Inherent weaknesses in global further exacerbated by one aspect of how the development efforts, during the time of the virus spreads: it tends to impact marginalised MDGs from 2000–2015 and implementation of populations more heavily, and features such the SDGs since 2015, bedevil efforts in fragile as overcrowded living conditions and a lack states. Conflict and related displacement of of access to good sanitation and healthcare people have surged to a new high; forced represent ideal transmission grounds. displacement reached unprecedented levels; planet-shaping dynamics such as climate The grave threat to the 2030 Agenda is real change and natural resource scarcity have and COVID-19 has multiplied it. Yet SDG 16 accelerated; and deglobalisation and the still represents the best strategy for delivering weakening of multilateral norms have all not only an effective public health response in exacerbated these trends. FCAS, but also in ameliorating the pandemic’s lasting impact on their development and its Yet, even at this stark moment when the 2030 potential to act as an incendiary driving even Agenda seems threatened, there is a ready greater conflict. Indeed, the UN Secretary solution that has been generating increased General (UNSG) and others have urged the attention and acceptance: leveraging SDG 16 – international community to not lose sight of the the commitment to ‘peaceful, just and inclusive SDGs, inclusive of SDG 16. societies’ – not just as a stand-alone aim, but as the key to unlocking progress across the Peacebuilding – the approach at the heart 2030 Agenda in FCAS. of SDG 16 – ensures a more effective public health response rooted in trust and social In November 2019, the first signs of a virulent cohesion. Governments or de facto authorities new viral infection surfaced in China. Into in fragile states suffering conflict or pervasive 2020, this virus, SARS-CoV-2, spread across violence are unlikely to possess the degree the world, causing the first pandemic outbreak of public trust needed to deliver effective 2 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), States of fragility 2018, Paris: OECD Publishing, 2018, https://doi. org/10.1787/9789264302075-en 8 outbreak control – as the Ebola crises in west to operationalise the ‘triple nexus’ Africa and DRC have demonstrated. Even of humanitarian, peacebuilding and well-resourced and good-faith public health development interventions. interventions can generate more conflict unless they are sensitive to the social fractures 4 Peacebuilding organisations should and root causes that drive that conflict in articulate in practical terms how SDG the first place, and which make violence 16 and a peacebuilding lens contribute seem a ready solution. This is a core tenet of to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda peacebuilding. The international community as a whole, and provide guidance on will not repair the damage done by COVID-19 effective integration into programming to SDG 3 (aiming to ‘ensure healthy lives across the SDGs. and promote well-being for all at all ages’) by focusing on a narrowly technical approach to 5 Donors should integrate peace public health.