Month: March 2020

On January 1st, 2016, the 193 member countries of the United Nations approved, at a summit held in New York, the “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. This document is a continuation of the previous Millennium Development Goals, containing an extension that includes cross-cutting themes like climate change, economic inequality, innovation, sustainable consumption, peace and justice. Unlike its predecessor, with 8 goals and 28 established targets, the SDGs consist of 17 goals and 169 targets, which are integrated, correlated and thought with a holistic vision.

Given the situation we are living, we believe it is important to review the impact that the SDG: Good Health and Well-Being has within the Argentine territory. The third goal seeks “To ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages” and according to the United Nations this goal is essential to achieve the 2030 goals since it ensures the building of prosperous societies.[1] However, considering all the inequalities that continue to persist in access to healthcare worldwide, this is one of the goals that presents greatest obstacles. As of today, the gap between the countries with longer life expectancy and those with lower represents a discrepancy of 31 years. [2]

Argentina, as a member of the United Nations is part of the countries committed with the Sustainable Development Goals. Goal 3 has received particular attention by having 12 aims adopted as of December 2018. [3] From the National Council for the Coordination of Social Policies, in charge of the Presidency, it was made available a website (https://www.odsargentina.gob.ar/) in order to publicize the actions carried out at national level. According to the information shared on the site, we can see how the government works on them according to three categories: Government Aims, Government Priorities and SDGs. On a scale of 100 priorities  it can be noted that goal 3 is involved in 5 of them. Among them we can find: 24. Promotion of Research and Development; 43. Universal Health Coverage; 47. Public Participation; 53. Gender Policies and in position 56, the Public Healthcare System in Greater Buenos Aires. The scale goes highest to lowest priority, being the first one that of greatest urgency. The information can also be found in the Monitoring Platform for the SDGs in Argentina[4].

Nonetheless the achievement of the SDGs is a topic that does not only involve the state level, but it also permeates all sectors. In this sense, both the civil society and the private sector are involved.

Taking this into account, at RACI we count with the SDGs Platform. This is a digital platform open to all civil society in which any organization can register and upload the projects in which they work, providing they are in line with the goals of the 2030 Agenda. By taking the information gathered from it as a parameter, it is important to note that today the goal 3 is the second one on the most represented goals scale with 117 uploaded projects, being goal 10. Reduced Inequalities the one with the most projects (118).

On the other hand, by taking the Local Private Social Investment Directory (ISPL) as a source of information, it is possible to note that within the private sector the work of the entities included in this study makes Goal 3 third on the most represented SDG scale. This trend is repeated in both companies and foundations. Following the data of the ISPL, it is also necessary to consider that between 2014 (first edition of the ISPL Directory) and 2019, the topic “Health” has slightly increased its importance in both foundations and companies.

Comparative 2014 – 2019:

It is interesting noting that although both in the data acquired in the SDGs Platform and from the ISPL Directory the third goal is of great relevance, this data is not representative at a federal level. This is because in both cases the bulk of the registered actions is in Buenos Aires and the Autonomous city of Buenos Aires. This particularity highlights the main obstacle of the third goal: inequality in terms of access.

If you wish to obtain more information about the SDGs and their implementation, we invite you to visit our Virtual Library. Here you will find the latest edition of the Local Private Social Investment Directory as well as consult all our bibliography in PDF format and for free. In turn, if you have not yet registered your Social Cause Organization on the SDGs Platform (www.plataforma-ods.org), we invite you to do so. When added you will be able to start uploading projects and framing them within the goals of the 2030 Agenda. By taking part in the Platform we are contributing to generate information accessible to everyone and, in turn, to make visible the action we carry out from civil society.

[1] United Nations: “GOOD HEALTH AND WELL-BEING: WHY IT MATTERS”. Available on https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/ENGLISH_Why_it_Matters_Goal_3_Health.pdf

[2]United Nations Development Programme (UNDP):  “Goal 3: Good Health and Well-Being”. Available on: https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/sustainable-development-goals/goal-3-good-health-and-well-being.html

[3] National Council for the Coordination of Social Policies: Voluntary National Review 2017 for the High-Level Political Forum on the United Nations Sustainable Development. July 2017. Available in Spanish on: https://www.odsargentina.gob.ar/public/documentos/seccion_publicaciones/ods/informe_voluntario__para_web_.pdf

[4] Available in Spanish on: https://www.odsargentina.gob.ar/VinculacionODS

The Thomson Reuters Foundation provides a free, pro bono legal assistance service worldwide, through its TrustLaw platform. Through it, it seeks to connect high impact organizations and social companies with pro bono legal advisors so that they can carry out their operations more efficiently and thus avoid having to allocate resources for legal advice.

The TrustLaw program was created to spread the pro bono practice and drive social change through the world. On the one hand, it provides free legal assistance so that NGOs and social enterprises can streamline their operations and reduce expenses. On the other hand, it promotes research, as a tool to achieve legal and political reforms and strengthen the rule of law in order to boost its mission with a positive impact. At the same time, it develops training spaces and events to give practical guidance on legal issues to NGOs and social enterprises. Finally, TrusLaw give tools and resources to its members to address their needs and strengthen pro bono activity.

A few examples of research cases in Latin America are: a) the right to proper housing in Latin America and b) Legal Guide for social enterprises in Argentina.

To access this service, free of charge, the following requirements must be met:

• social organizations must be legally constituted and registered in a country;
• have a social, environmental or humanitarian mission;
• be sustainable;
• have an action plan that includes beneficiaries, impact and activities;
• they must not be political, discriminatory, or proselytizing.

In addition, social organizations must complete a brief one-time membership form on the official website of the foundation. And, for their part, social enterprises must make a public demonstration that they will reinvest most of their profits to social, environmental or humanitarian ends.

The TrustLaw platform is a powerful and essential tool for those NGOs and social enterprise. In this way, they can distribute resources more efficiently to their mission and build communication networks between legal advisors committed to the social sector and social organizations.

For more information, visit the Thompson Reuters Foundation website: http://www.trust.org/trustlaw/.

CIVICUS, in collaboration with global organizations, investigated and collected data in order to estimate the extent to which human and citizen rights, freedom of expression, demonstration and association are respected in the world. With this information, it creates the CIVICUS Monitor, a tool that observes the state of the civic space of each country, classifying it into five categories according to its state: open, narrowed, obstructed, repressed or closed.

One of the conclusions is that 24 countries have a closed civic space, 38 countries have a repressed space and 49 have one obstructed. Only 43 countries receive an open rating and 42 a narrowed rating. This means that only 3% of the world population lives in an open civic space. More specifically, the data gathered on the right to protest show that 96 countries (out of the 154 countries in this study) have used coercion to suppress protests: arresting protesters, stopping protests, or violence against protesters.

Regarding freedom of expression, the study showed that a large number of States censure it so as not to jeopardize the existing state and economic power, registering that there are 123 affected countries. Globally, the people or groups of people hat are affected the most by state attacks are journalists, human rights defenders, women’s rights groups and defenders, LGBTQI groups (except in Europe and Central Asia) and workers’ rights groups. The censorship methods used by States are varied and consist of: prohibiting the dissemination of information, spreading false information on social networks to dilute the true from the false, blocking social networks, prohibiting or suspending the media, prohibiting the projection of films that do not correspond to the government’s ethics, detaining people who take videos or photos that can be broadcast in public space and thus compromise the situation of the country in question, block the use of VPN applications, prohibit citizens from traveling abroad and thus emit slanderous information about their country of origin.

In conclusion, although the fundamental right of self-determination is not respected by most countries, citizens around the world continue to protest despite the repression. However, CIVICUS has seen significant improvements in respect for human rights in regions around the world, such as defamation laws in Sierra Leone, the Dominican Republic and the Maldives, and the legalization of same-sex marriage in Taiwan. In the past year, CIVICUS Monitor has also documented 11 cases of the release of human rights defenders, including in Azerbaijan and Turkey.

For more information: https://civicus.contentfiles.net/media/assets/file/GlobalReport2019.pdf.

In 2019 RACI collaborated once again with the co-managing of the New Zealand Embassy in Mexico Fund.

During the call, the Network received and evaluated 213 projects from 8 different countries. Most of the proposals came from Mexico, from which 123 projects were presented, followed by El Salvador with 21. Calls were also received from Guatemala, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Panama and Cuba.

RACI evaluated the projects using the same scoring system that analyzed different categories such as project feasibility, impact, rigor, and budget analysis, between other variables that were taken into account.

The themes proposed in the call by the New Zealand Embassy were “Education”, “Community Development”, “Food Safety”, “Climate Change and Adaptability”, “Sustainable Agro industrial Development”, and “Disaster Relief”. Although some projects covered more than one theme, the issues that were the most discussed were the first two.

Once the evaluations were completed, the New Zealand Embassy chose the following organizations: Jóvenes Emprendedores Horizonte 2000 AC, Nutre un Niño AC, Asociación Mexicana de Transformación Rural y Urbana AC, Red Nacional de Organizaciones y Empresas Sociales Noremso AC, from Mexico ; Fundación para el Desarrollo Empresarial de Matagalpa from Nicaragua; FEDECOCAGUA from Guatemala; Microregión Nor-Oriental de Morazán from El Salvador; The Lucy Foundation; and finally the Asociación Mar a Mar Costa Rica from Costa Rica.

Each of these organizations presented innovative projects strongly committed to improving the quality of life of the inhabitants of the different areas proposed by the New Zealand Embassy in Mexico.

Asociación Mar a Mar Costa Rica, from Costa Rica, has rural development as its main objective, as well as to maintain the picturesque landscapes of the country, from coast to coast. The project consisted of promoting the economic development of rural indigenous populations through eco-tourism.

From El Salvador, the Microregión Nor-Oriental de Morazán seeks to install 20 rainwater harvesting systems in different parts of the Morazán Department, thus benefiting 70 people without access to water.

FEDECOCAGUA, RL, from Guatemala, seeks as a Federation to close the gap between small producers and importers. In the project that was presented, they proposed implementing learning stations to promote healthy homes in the Department of Huehuetenango.

On the other hand, the organization Nutre un Niño AC, originally from Mexico and focusing its project in La Perla, Veracruz, points out the need to promote health care in rural indigenous communities.

From Chiapas, Mexico, the organization Jóvenes Emprendedores Horizonte 2000 AC presented a project consisting of building stoves for indigenous women in the area, and thus preventing frequent complications such as lung cancer for women who cook with unsuitable stoves.

Furthermore, The Lucy Foundation seeks, through the training of people with disabilities, to promote education and commerce.

Asociación Mexicana de Transformación Rural y Urbana A.C., from Mexico, focuses mainly on the inclusion and transformation of marginalized communities in the country. It seeks to promote local participation and improve the quality of life of the population.

Originally from Ixmiquilpan Hidalgo, Mexico, the Red Nacional de Organizaciones y Empresas Sociales Noremso A.C., presented a project that has the objective of inserting and strengthening the olive-producing indigenous communities in El Olivo.

Finally, from Nicaragua, the Fundación para el Desarrollo Empresarial de Matagalpa (FUDEMAT) focused on improving the food security of 36 women to improve the nutritional conditions of their families.

In January 2020, the 2019 Gender Inequality Index (GII) developed by the United Nations Development Program (UNPD) was officially published. Their results showed that, despite the progress that girls and women have made since 1990, they have not yet gained gender equality. Therefore, gender inequality remains a critical barrier to Human Development because it represents a major source of inequality that disadvantages both girls and women around the globe, and impacts negatively the development of their capacities and their freedom of choice.

In general terms, the GII is based on the same framework as the Human Development Index, which allows to demonstrate better the differences in the distribution of achievements between women and men, that is, it measures the costs of Human Development in gender inequality.

For this reason, UNDP uses the GII to measure gender inequality in three important aspects of Human Development:

• reproductive health, measured by maternal mortality and adolescent birth rate;
• empowerment, measured by the proportion of parliamentary seats held by women and the proportion of women and adults over 25 with at least some secondary education;
• economic status, expressed as participation in the labor market and measured by the rate of participation in the labor force of the populations of men and women aged 15 and over.

This index was applied in 162 countries to study the position of women in them and the data obtained offered information on gender gaps in the main areas of Human Development.

First, one of the most troubling data was that, globally, 44% of combined achievements in human development are lost due to gender inequality.

Second, although gender gaps in the early formative years are closing, gaps prevail during adulthood.

Third, it should be noted that in all regions unemployment rates are higher among women than among men, and the participation rate of women is consistently lower. Likewise, the participation of women in parliamentary seats worldwide is, in average, 24%.

While 0 indicates complete equality and 1 indicates complete inequality, Europe and Central Asia have the lowest inequality score between men and women, of with a GII of 0,276. Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest GII score, of 0,573; while Latin America and the Caribbean remain in the middle of the table, with a score of 0,383.

In conclusion, the GII constitutes an objective and clear tool to assess gender inequality in all countries and, with the data obtained, apply it in public policies that aim to overcome the systematic disadvantages of women.

For more information, visit the GII MAP or the GII table.

Proyecto Emprender Foundation (PROEM) is a non-profit entity that seeks to eradicate poverty in the Argentine Republic, socially including low-income people through work. It seeks to promote the well-being of the entire population, economic and social development through access to decent employment, while promoting values ​​such as solidarity, transparency, integration and commitment

Their Programs

YOUTH: Provides essential tools for them to finish school. They carry out training in new technologies, trades and socio-emotional skills to enhance their abilities. In turn, they accompany them to access their first experience in the working world.

ENTREPRENEURS: Aimed at people in vulnerable situations who want to start their own project or enhance their entrepreneurship. They provide training for the business plan, coaching services and tutoring so that entrepreneurs can access microcredits at zero rate to give the first boost to their businesses. In addition, they grant access to new marketing channels.

TRADES: They offer technical training to unemployed people to facilitate their job integration, combining traditional jobs and trades with specializations with high labor demand, digital jobs and new technologies. In addition to providing technical knowledge, the program integrates tools and strategies to enhance employability, and labor intermediation processes with companies to facilitate integration into the labor market.

WOMEN: Aimed at women in vulnerable neighborhoods, they strengthen their leadership and participation in the labor market to reduce inequality. They work in training in trades and tools for the development of enterprises. At the same time, they promote the labor inclusion of women in the world of technology, offering learning opportunities in a field that is not very integrated by them. They are accompanied by tutors trained to address gender issues.

We thank PROEM for hosting us last month as part of our monthly member visits. For more information, visit https://proem.org.ar/.