Switzerland has committed to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals laid out in the 2030 Agenda, an international agreement that pledges to leave no one behind as countries work towards these goals. In line with the 2016 Nairobi Declaration of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation, the SDC believes that the leave no one behind pledge is essential for successful development co-operation. The SDC has therefore updated its institutional guidance for reducing poverty to make it more practical, more user friendly, and more in line with the 2030 Agenda.

“Social links”, according to the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), can be personal, local (community-based) or national. These links are considered crucial for political stability and social resilience: when established with the consent of all individuals, they are the basis for everyday democracy from the ground up.

Indigenous peoples comprise 5% of the global population, but 15% of the world’s poor. They face high risks of exclusion due to social, cultural, economic and political characteristics that are distinct from the majorities in their surrounding societies.

While persons with disabilities account for a large proportion of the world’s population, they have been consistently left out of the gains made by global development. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) requires that international development programmes be inclusive of, and accessible to, persons with disabilities. The CRPD particularly emphasises the importance of mainstreaming disability issues, thus ensuring that disability is an integral part of sustainable development.

The global economy is finally recovering from the crisis of 2007-08 and the subsequent Great Recession, with growth rates comparable to the pre-crisis period. But focusing narrowly on GDP growth hides the fact that income and wealth inequality is at its highest point for 30 years in many OECD countries. Some government policies and business actions have fuelled a “winner-takes-most” system. Today, the average disposable income of the richest 10% of the population is now around 10 times that of the poorest 10% across the OECD, up from seven since the mid-1980s. The picture is even more troubling in terms of wealth: the richest 10% in wealth terms own around 50% of all household assets, while the bottom 40% own barely 3%.

Around the world, the poorest and most vulnerable workers often earn their livelihoods in those industries with the most severe risks (OECD, 2015[1]).Workers in the informal sector face particularly high risks to their human and labour rights, often having to accept low wages, unsafe working conditions, and other disadvantages. On the other hand, efforts to reform supply chains and eliminate these risks may have the end result of excluding these workers altogether. Constructive engagement with the informal sector requires a multi-pronged approach that promotes the formalisation of informal workers alongside skills upgrading, access to social services, and social dialogue.

It is projected that more than two-thirds of the world’s population will be living in urban areas by 2030. The unprecedented speed, size and impact of urbanisation has been observed globally. Amid this, unplanned urbanisation can often leave behind certain areas or people. Considerations of affordability and accessibility - such as setting affordable fees for basic infrastructure services like public transport, water and electricity - are necessary for inclusive urban development. It is, moreover, crucial to ensure the sustainability and resilience of cities in order to ensure that urbanisation leaves no one behind.

Development challenges remain enormous in Malawi, with the country ranking 171 in the United Nations Development Programme’s 2018 Human Development Index (UNDP, 2018[1]). Malawi records some of the highest poverty, child marriage and child-bearing rates in the world making these issues a core concern for development. Adolescent pregnancies represent a quarter of all pregnancies in Malawi, and 29% of youth aged 15-19 have had a baby. The associated health burden is substantial, as adolescent pregnancies account for 20% of maternal deaths, and the rate of obstetric fistula among this group is significant.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognises that minorities, which include religious minorities, risk being left behind across the world. This risk is particularly high in fragile contexts where discriminatory policies and growing persecution and violence reduce the well-being and security of minorities, including Christian minorities. For example, many Christians are leaving the Middle East because of the general atmosphere of violence and economic malaise, while others worry about persecution (The Economist, January 2, 2016[1]).

Every year, 12 million girls are married before the age of 18 (UNCF, 2018[1]). Rooted in gender inequality, child marriage Child marriage is any formal marriage or informal union in which at least one of the parties is under 18 years of age. Joint general recommendation No. 31 of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women; General comment No. 18 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on harmful practices. is a gross human rights violation that continues to leave girls behind - especially those from poor, rural, vulnerable and disadvantaged populations. It denies girls their rights to health, education and opportunity, while undermining the achievement of half of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and holding back economies (Wodon et al., 2017[2]). Yet until recently child marriage was widely considered taboo, and there were limited efforts to tackle it.

Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are a diverse group of diseases that threaten 1.5 billion people worldwide and thrive in conditions of extreme poverty. While NTDs account for about 170 000 deaths a year, they contribute more significantly to blindness, severe disfigurement, disability, stigma and discrimination - often making it impossible for those affected to escape poverty. By keeping children out of school and adults out of work, and excluding the diseased from society, NTDs deprive families, communities and nations from reaching their social and economic potential. These diseases persist despite proven, low‑cost solutions for prevention and treatment.

Protracted displacement can exacerbate the risk of being left behind - not only for the displaced, but also for vulnerable people in the host communities. Early in the Syrian displacement crisis it was evident that the local communities in the Syrian Arab Republic’s (“Syria”) neighbouring countries could not sustain the enormous socio-economic burden of offering protection to millions of Syrian refugees. The scale of displacement from Syria challenged already fragile systems to deliver basic services and equally fragile social contracts between state authorities and communities. International humanitarian interventions would therefore need to target not only the Syrian refugees, but also vulnerable Lebanese, Iraqis and Jordanians. Moreover, humanitarian interventions would have to be combined with a longer-term development response to address the negative socio-economic impact in neighbouring countries as well as the development needs of the displacement-affected communities.

Rather than being an official report of the dialogues, this is an authored case study, and does not express the official position of the Brazilian Cooperation Agency, nor that of any of the individuals who have actively participated in the dialogues or the institutions they represent. The “Dialogues on International Development Cooperation” were also supported by the Seoul Policy Center, DFID and BMZ.

Congenital heart disease is the most common birth defect, with an incidence ranging from 19 to 75 per 1000 live births (Mendis, Puska and Norrving, 2011[1]). This incidence is more important in the highland regions of Bolivia, a fact that affects infant mortality in the country. In Bolivia, 24 babies out of every 1000 live births die before the age of one, giving the country one of the highest infant mortality rates in Latin America.

At the heart of the Sustainable Development Goals is the concept that development occurs only when it includes everyone, leaving no one behind.

www.theigc.org/research-themes/cities/cities-that-work.

www.fourthsector.org

In least developed countries (LDCs) and small island developing states (SIDS), increasing numbers of people are at risk of losing their lives as a result of weather- and climate-related hazardous events. This trend can, in part, be attributed to a low or basic capacity to use risk information and to provide early warning. LDCs and SIDS are prioritising improvements to early warning systems for climate change adaptation, as reflected in their Nationally Determined Contributions to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Although investment to strengthen climate services has increased, these countries’ funding needs remain unmet. Closing the funding gap requires building on existing investments, leveraging additional funds, and improving effectiveness.

Achieving the overall objective of Swedish development co-operation, “to create preconditions for better living conditions for people living in poverty and under oppression”, requires understanding of who is living in poverty, how that poverty is experienced and the underlying direct and indirect causes. The 2030 Agenda pledges to “leave no one behind” and recognises that poverty is multidimensional. However, Sida lacked a framework and practical tool for better targeting the poor, better understanding what main constraints they face, and better directing policies and projects at all levels.

In 2011, the Philippines introduced a means-tested social pension. The programme is restricted to older people who have disabilities, are frail or in poor health, who have no regular source of income, no pension and no regular support from family. This has left millions of older Filipinos barred from enrolling in the programme.

Approximately one in five Cambodians lives in poverty, with up to 50% defined as multi‑dimensionally poor or vulnerable. While market liberalisation in the late 1990s led to rapid economic expansion, not all Cambodians benefited. Numerous social protection programmes for the poor were set up, including free health care and school scholarships. However, each programme and implementing organisation had its own criteria and process to identify beneficiaries. This was inefficient, confusing, and often did not reach the most vulnerable. Increasing labour migration, whether abroad or between urban and rural work, added complexity to attempts to identify and provide access to benefits for poor households. A tailor-made and locally relevant package is required to ensure that these households, and their most vulnerable members, are not left behind in the development agenda.

Poverty data are incomplete. For example, despite increased recognition of the gender–poverty nexus within global development discourse, the conceptualisation and measurement of poverty remains insensitive to gender. The extensive evidence that speaks to the gendered nature of poverty is not yet reflected in global or comparable national data. UN Women’s Progress of the World’s Women 2015-2016 report noted that while “women’s socio-economic disadvantage is reflected in pervasive gender inequalities in earned income, property ownership, access to services and time use … [t]he absence of sex disaggregated data makes it difficult to establish if women are, across the board, more likely to live in poverty than men” (UN Women, 2015, p. 44[1]). It remains a challenge to turn evidence from the lived experience of individuals into the kind of information required at key decision-making tables, such as government budget committees. In allocating finite resources for greatest impact, decision makers require information that clearly captures and conveys:

The information contained in this case study is drawn from Marie Stopes International (www.mariestopes.org) lessons learned reports on poverty targeting and outreach provided to DFID for the Preventing Maternal Deaths Programme Report. This work will be published by MSI in detail in 2019.

In 2016, AFD, the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation and the University of Cape Town’s Poverty and Inequality Initiative commenced work on a research project which aimed to answer three questions: What is the relationship between social cohesion and economic inequality? What kinds of institutional change do we need in order to promote social cohesion and reduce inequality? And how do we bridge the growing inter‑generational divide?