Delivering development justice? Financing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

The “supremely ambitious and transformative vision” embodied in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development includes a goal to achieve gender equality for all women and girls and a re-commitment to governments’ human rights obligations. At the same time, governments have agreed to a range of strategies for financing the Agenda that arguably undermine their ability to fulfil women’s human rights and advance a just and gender-equitable model of development.

This paper critically evaluates this potential contradiction with a focus on the key financing strategies of trade and investment liberalization, sovereign debt resolution, international private finance, and public-private partnerships, as well as the role of the global partnership for development. Recommendations are made to better align financing targets with the objective of supporting the enjoyment of women’s human rights. Finally, the paper reflects on the inherent limitations in the 2030 Agenda and the need for an urgent shift to a model of development justice.

This paper was produced for an expert group meeting convened by UN Women on 'Women's empowerment and the link to sustainable development', in preparation for the 60th session of the Commission on the Status of Women in 2016.