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The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will not be achieved without collaboration between all, and an intersectional approach that accounts for complex identities, communities and experiences. Age, disability and gender are some important aspects of the 2030 Agenda. Yet these issues are often conflated and affect people simultaneously.
The side event, “Beyond Slogans - Good Practise to Count Us All In,” during the 2017 High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) addressed the importance of working together on these cross cutting issues and what must be done to ensure that the SDGs are achieved. It is vital to ensure full participation of older persons, persons with disabilities, and women as they are key agents of change. For policy to be sustainably and inclusively developed these groups should be consulted at all stages of the policy development process.
The European Disability Forum (EDF) discussed the magnitude of gender issues, especially focussing on the intersection with age and disability. Today, around 600 million women and girls live with a disability, and of these 600 million, 60% are about 60 years old and two thirds live in extreme poverty. The EDF highlighted the under representation of disabled women globally and regionally, as there are no organisations that specifically represent women living with disabilities. They noted the severity of this under representation in social terms, pointing to the fact that the voices of disabled women are not heard; they are hardly considered in the disability movement and are overshadowed in the women’s movement.
Collecting quality data is one of the key ways to ensure these issues to be best understood. If done properly, voices from all groups will be heard and included in sustainable development policies.
A representative from the Permanent Mission of Mexico to the United Nations spoke about Mexico’s progress in collecting data to better inform policy development. Among other initiatives, one of the most successful mechanisms has been housing the Monitoring Committee for the SDGs directly in the Office of the President of Mexico. This has resulted in greater levels of coordination between different branches of the government, including the Ministries that cover ageing, disabilities, and gender issues.
Dr. Kamiya from the UN Department of Economic Social Affairs (DESA) presented a new joint effort on older persons in Africa by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and DESA’s Division for Social Policy and Development (DSPD). This project will provide Member States with standardized methodology to produce, analyse and deliver harmonised data on the situation of older persons in Africa. The outcomes from this project will include age and gender sensitive data that will provide evidence to guide policy development, as well as comprehensive indicators of the socioeconomic and health conditions of older persons.
Data on older persons and people living with disabilities and how gender affects those issues is lacking. Speakers and attendees agreed that collecting accurate disaggregated data is key to developing effective strategies to eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development for all. Failing to disaggregate data causes marginalised groups to get lost in general statistics. As a result, they are then left behind when policies are created. Disaggregating data will create a greater understanding of these issues that would allow policymakers to better address the needs of older persons, persons living with disabilities, and women.
See also a contribution from Gray Panthers, Age and Youth in Action.
For more information on the work of the UN on Ageing, please visit: social.un.org/ageing.
Source: UNDESA, UNSDN