While conflicts between nations have dramatically decreased since World War II, the number of violent conflicts within countries are cause for great concern. These conflicts are undoing years of development gains, and their impacts are often spilling over borders to destabilize other countries, too. In a number of countries, high levels of violent crime, such as homicide, rape, or domestic violence, and of organized crime, threaten countries and their development.
Millions of Syrian refugees have fled their country over the past four years. Their first port of call has generally been neighboring countries, which have in turn been placed under stress. Now the crisis has spilled over into Europe, where large numbers of Syrians and others fleeing insecurity in their homeland have headed.
What could be done to anticipate or prevent such violent conflicts?
Goal 16 of the Sustainable Development Goals focuses development actors on how to create the peaceful and inclusive societies needed for sustainable development. This goal promotes the provision of access to justice for all, and building effective and accountable institutions at all levels. It recognizes that development needs peace, and that building the foundations of that peace is a development function.
Countries with weak governance tend to have a higher prevalence of lawlessness and citizen insecurity. But the costs of weak governance also go far beyond that: corruption, bribery, outright theft, and tax evasion costs developing countries a staggering US$1.26 trillion per year. That means fewer resources for educating children, caring for the sick, and building critical infrastructure like roads and water-treatment facilities.
With the international-humanitarian system straining to keep up with the growing demand for emergency relief, laying the foundations for peaceful and inclusive societies is also the most cost-effective way of guaranteeing truly sustainable development.
For many governments, the UN development system will be a major partner as they seek to implement the new Sustainable Development Goals.
At UNDP, we have decades of experience supporting countries to prevent conflict and build more inclusive societies through the promotion of democratic governance, the rule of law, and respect for the human rights of all.
In Somalia, we support the active involvement of civil society, especially women and youth, in improving safety and security at the community level, in tandem with local authorities, the police, and prosecutors.
In Afghanistan, we support the electoral authorities to increase women's participation in elections: the participation of women voters increased from 1.6 million in 2009 to about 2.6 million in 2014.
UNDP will also help countries establish robust national-monitoring systems for measuring progress on the targets in Sustainable Development Goal 16. We are already working with national statistical offices and civil-society and research organizations to fill data gaps, widen data availability, and ensure that official data portrays reality within society.
Supporting governments to be more effective on behalf of the people they serve involves tackling crime levels and corruption. It also means supporting the conduct of free and fair elections and ensuring more political participation.
UNDP's track record of supporting inclusive development, and transparent and accountable governance, equips it well to rise to the challenge of the Sustainable Development Goals and contributing to making our world less fragile and more just.
This post is part of a series produced by The Huffington Post, "What's Working: Sustainable Development Goals," in conjunction with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The proposed set of milestones will be the subject of discussion at the UN General Assembly meeting on Sept. 25-27, 2015 in New York. The goals, which will replace the UN's Millennium Development Goals (2000-2015), cover 17 key areas of development -- including poverty, hunger, health, education, and gender equality, among many others. As part of The Huffington Post's commitment to solutions-oriented journalism, this What's Working SDG blog series will focus on one goal every weekday in September. This post addresses Goal 16.