On September 25, 2015, at the opening session of the United Nations Summit, in which its 193 States agreed on the 2030 Agenda. Salil Shetty, still Secretary General of Amnesty International, made it clear what policy coherence is for sustainable development: “You cannot claim to be supporting sustainable development when you are reluctant to reduce the consumption of the rich or to transfer technology.
You cannot preach about human rights while using mass surveillance.
You can't preach about peace when you're the world's biggest arms manufacturer.
Big business cannot be allowed to take advantage of financial and tax loopholes while railing against corruption.
You cannot adopt the Sustainable Development Goals and at the same time attack and detain peaceful protesters and dissidents.
These Sustainable Development Goals cannot be launched and at the same time deny a safe and legal route to refugees”.
Future in Common saw in this agenda, which was born with the ambition of addressing the historical inconsistencies in development planning, a unique opportunity to move from discourse to political practice as an essential requirement to transform our world towards sustainability.
Policy coherence for sustainable development thus became a key stone for this endeavor.
A call to push in parallel and coherently, with aligned efforts from all corners of the world, for the same purpose: to end poverty, hunger, inequalities, wars, the repression of civil society and human rights violations, while respecting the limits of the planet and increasing our resilience.
And we got to work.
We prepared a proposal to demand that the Government adopt policy coherence for sustainable development.
And we influenced together with other social actors so that it was assumed as a political commitment by the executive.
We firmly believed that it was an unavoidable and urgent commitment.
Unfortunately, it has become even more relevant in this context of crisis in which shock responses to the consequences of the war are being defined.
A moment in which, in addition, resilience plans and large investments are approved, it being essential to guarantee that none of them deviates from the path of sustainability and well-being that the 2030 Agenda marks.
We are aware that the challenges we face in this matter are enormous.
It is increasingly urgent to profoundly and radically transform the way of doing politics, breaking down the silos, and incorporating in the definition and evaluation of public policies the analysis of the connections and interactions between the dimensions of life, the different territories and the successive generations.
We have discussed the above this past April 25 in the Congress of Deputies, at the conference
Policy Coherence at the heart of sustainability and crisis response
.
We have the participation of the Government, deputies, senators and representatives of the OECD, various regional administrations and civil society.
It is not one of the most attractive topics on the political agenda, we know, but it is one that should link various issues that will shape the eco-social evolution of tomorrow.
The indiscriminate subsidization of fossil fuels is inconsistent with commitments to sustainable development and climate change
Our first message was clear: we are extremely concerned about the possibility that the agenda for the implementation of policy coherence will be displaced in these moments of exit from Covid-19, the war in Ukraine and the imminent entry into the pre-electoral context.
What result would we have if we put the coherence magnifying glass on the use of Next Generation funds?
What if we applied it to the response measures to the crisis derived from both the pandemic and the armed conflict?
We are sure that some alarms would go off.
The indiscriminate subsidization of fossil fuels is inconsistent with the commitments to sustainable development and climate change (SDG 13), with defending peace (SDG 16).
But of course, being at the same time one of the largest arms exporting countries in the world is also.
Considering tax cuts at a time when the State needs an extraordinary volume of resources to face the various crises and support the most vulnerable people (SDGs 1 and 10) is also incoherent.
As is the reduction in quality standards for food imports or other measures that are being taken in agricultural and livestock matters with regard to SDGs 2, 12 and 15. We cannot continue cheating ourselves alone.
It is urgent that the Government now make a determined political commitment at the highest level.
The deployment of a system of policy coherence for sustainable development with a clear roadmap in the short, medium and long term until 2030 cannot be postponed. We need to specify how the many obstacles that are going to arise in the future will be overcome. path: administrative and bureaucratic, but, above all, to overcome sectoral visions.
Without forgetting the obstacles inherent in political action, since it will be necessary to manage the usual conflicts between actors, sectors, territories and pressure groups.
The indiscriminate subsidization of fossil fuels is inconsistent with commitments to sustainable development and climate change
As a starting point, we suggest the creation of a specific unit focused on this matter that has sufficient economic and personal resources to coordinate and promote the different bodies of the Administration involved, such as the
Do Not Significant Harm
division of the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge or the proposal that is being contemplated to create an Agency for the Evaluation of Public Policies.
In the event that we organized to promote the system, the Secretary of State for the 2030 Agenda, Enrique Santiago, announced the creation of an
ad hoc
division .
In addition to the above functions, it must undertake the necessary methodological development, the promotion of capacities and the definition of monitoring indicators focused on the evolution of interactions.
Also make proposals for the adaptation of the governance system of the 2030 Agenda, so that its bodies can assume the functions that require the interterritorial, intersectoral and multi-stakeholder participation of the system.
Almost seven years after the approval of the 2030 Agenda, little progress has been made in global coherence and it has not been possible to specify national systems for its promotion and comprehensive monitoring such as the one we are proposing based on the recommendations of the OECD for its States. member.
Our country can be at the forefront internationally by fulfilling this commitment, but it has to do it now, we have a lot at stake in it, it is not only the future but also the present.
Andrés Amayuelas (Amycos), Manuel Ramos (Childhood Platform) and Marta Iglesias (Movement for Peace), representatives of Future in Common.
You can follow PLANETA FUTURO on
,
and
, and subscribe
to our 'newsletter'
here
.