Urgent Never More Urgent A Preliminary Review of How the U.S. Is Leaving Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous Communities Behind by The National Center for Faith Based Initiatives and the Sustainable Development Solutions Network Never Never More Urgent This report has been produced at the request of Acknowledgements the National Center for Faith Based Initiatives (NCFBI) via a collaboration between researchers from The authors are very grateful for advice and feedback SDSN USA (Alainna Lynch and Caroline Fox), and from several colleagues and partners. We would like Howard University (Dr. Helen Bond and Dr. Clarence give particular thanks to Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs Lusane) with Earl Hamilton (NCFBI). who provided feedback and input throughout the development of this report, and Dr. Sonia Sachs who The views expressed in this report do not reflect the lent expertise in review of the COVID-19 case study. views of any organizations, agency or programme Thank you to Guillaume Lafortune and Guido of the United Nations, nor of Columbia University Schmidt-Traub who developed the index methodology nor Howard University. It has been prepared by the on which this methodology rests. team of independent experts of the SDSN Secretariat. SDSN Network and Leadership Council Members We would like to thank Jada Kissi, Erica Finfer, and are not necessarily in agreement with every detail Anna LoPresti for their work in developing this research. of this report. Thank you to Giovanni Bruna and Cheyenne Maddox for their help with qualitative research for this project. Thank you to Giovanni Bruna, Rhea Madraymootoo, and Shloka Gidwani for their assistance in editing this report. This Report compiles the data analyses and resources from many agencies, research centers, civil society organizations, and others. The authors would like to acknowledge and thank the researchers for their work and contributions that were used in producing this report, in particular Laura Laderman, Justin Scoggins and Ihab Mikati. For a complete list of data sources, refer to Annex I. This report is designed by Stislow Design. FOR FAITHFAITH BASEDBASED INITIATIVESINITIATIVES EMPOWERING OUR COMMUNITIES • IMPACTING OUR WORLD Never More Urgent Sustainable development is the foundation of the United These data will also provide insight into the Nations’ agenda. It refers to human flourishing that disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Black, meets the needs of the present, without compromising Hispanic and Indigenous communities. Disaggregated the ability to meet the needs of the future. These needs data indicate that there are significant racial and are framed within the 17 Sustainable Development Goals ethnic disparities in access to testing of, treatment of, (SDGs) and the Leave No One Behind (LNOB) Agenda. In and outcomes from COVID-19 in communities of color. this report we affirm the potential of these communities as These disparities reflect long-standing inequitable a driver for sustainable development, through the specific policies and practices that should inform policy contributions that they can make throughout society. discussions around current realities on the ground. The purpose of our research was to distill five areas The report will build upon previous research on US where available data reveals the biggest gaps between cities and states to contextualize these data and Black, Hispanic and Indigenous communities and white underlying indicators within a national and global communities. We used disaggregated data from 37 framework. This report lays groundwork to contribute topics across ten Goals to find the biggest disparities, to the ongoing discussion of policy transformation, and and found they were spread across five main areas: to prepare a scorecard on how the US performs in Justice, Food and Housing Security, Education, relation to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Economic Security, and Health. These indicators and in Black, Hispanic and Indigenous communities. others will contribute to a forthcoming data dashboard depicting how well the US delivers the SDGs to identified communities of color. 12 Never More Urgent The National Center For Faith Based Initiatives • Create (where applicable) within local communities, (“National Center”) is a faith-based organization that an evaluation framework that produces data continuity creates coalitions of faith and community-based, and research metrics contiguous with the prototypical intermediary organizations dedicated to increasing United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, access to high quality, economic programming and allowing the National Center to report progress across “place-based” services in underserved communities. domestic domains with a view toward global indices. As a intermediary organization, NCFBI provides • Work with community stakeholders as “credible systemic, “backbone” services to targeted areas/ messengers” on the ground to design solutions and regions. In addition to pass-through funding for approaches to these issues, apply new strategies communities where capital is often difficult to obtain, and implement the appropriate initiatives to address the NCFBI supports community-based initiatives with local needs. several reinforcing functions including capacity training, • Work with organizations and communities to design advocacy, standard setting and quality assurance strategies that will engage leadership, practitioners through data collection and reporting; and by providing and other stakeholders in developing and implementing critical linkages to public and private sector partners a solution. and resources. • Support implementation, ongoing improvement and The National Center seeks to expand access to sustainability of the initiatives and the systems that high-quality programming through policy, practice support them. and communication that helps cities and regions better coordinate and scale successful approaches. Using this hands-on approach to identifying the most We at the National Center know from experience the pressing priorities, organizations and communities, power created by leveraging faith- and community- the National Center helps cities and regions better based programming and the communities they support. coordinate approaches to increase the scale, quality, Working in local communities through established and accountability of expanded initiatives, particularly intermediaries using place-based strategies, the by leveraging the combined power of communities National Center continues to: and the organizations that serve them. • Introduce state-of-the-art process tools and Using the tools of needs assessment, capacity training, organizational change methodologies commonly targeted technical assistance, knowledge sharing, used in the private sector. research, evaluation and advocacy, The National Center will continue to empower these strong coalitions as • Work closely with government entities, foundations and they relentlessly build strong communities and families. local communities to design and implement strategies and solutions to identified issues, problems within communities and the institutions that serve them. Never More Urgent The Sustainable Development Solutions Network Virgin Islands, and Washington DC. It joins the existing United States (SDSN USA) endeavors to build pathways Sustainable Development Solutions Network which for achievement of the United Nations’ Sustainable spans six continents and draws upon the knowledge and Development Goals in the United States by mobilizing educational capacity of over 1,000-member institutions. research, outreach, and collective action. SDSN USA is co-chaired by Jeffrey D. Sachs at Columbia The SDSN USA is a network of researchers, knowledge University, Dan Esty at Yale University, Helen Bond at creators and thought leaders working together to Howard University, and Gordon McCord at the University mobilize expertise on the SDGs in the United States. of California, San Diego. Find out more about SDSN Officially launched on December 4, 2018, the SDSN USA USA at www.sdsnusa.org. has nearly 140 members from 44 states, Puerto Rico, the Never More Urgent Dr. Helen Bond is an Associate Millennium Villages Project and the Nigeria Scale-up Professor of Curriculum and Initiative, based at Columbia University and Millennium Instruction in the School of Promise, managing projects and overseeing operations Education at Howard focused on scaling solutions to achieve the Millennium University in Washington DC Development Goals. Caroline holds a Master’s in Public and the former director of Administration in Environmental Science and Policy the Center for Excellence in from Columbia and a B.A. in Comparative Literature Teaching, Learning and from Smith College. Assessment. She is also a Fulbright-Nehru Scholar to India and the winner of the Earl W. Hamilton is the Chief Interdisciplinary Research Award at Howard for her Operations Officer of the research on the scholarship of teaching and learning National Center For Faith (SoTL). With a Ph.D. in Human Development, Dr. Bond’s Based Initiative. Mr. Hamilton expertise is education and human development, is strategist recognized Holocaust Education, teacher education, and preventing nationally for providing violent extremism through education (PVE). She is one innovative program design, of the contributing authors of the UNESCO publications, capacity building, policy and Teaching Respect for All: Implementation Guide and advocacy to projects that are Teacher’s Guide on the Prevention of Violent