Lord McConnell: Sustainable Development Goals provide 'hope' for tackling the migrant crisis
3 min read
Lord McConnell argues that Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) should run through all of the UK's development programmes.
This morning, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on the UN Global Goals for Sustainable Development, will welcome Achim Steiner, the new Head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to speak on his vision for delivering the SDGs . I expect Achim to reinforce the message of the new leadership at the United Nations, Antonio Guterres and Amina Mohammed, that the solutions to current complex global problems lie in the ambitious, comprehensive and radical vision that is Agenda 2030.
Last month I spent some days in Sicily meeting with migrants and asylum seekers and with those trying to administer their applications and support them as they seek refuge or opportunity in Europe. Nikki fled from Nigeria and finally boarded a boat after months in Libya. She was 8 months pregnant and terrified. Now, slowly but surely, she and her baby are recovering. But her future is uncertain.
From Europe's largest asylum seeker centre at Cara Mineo to the Asante Centre for unaccompanied minors in Palermo, supported by UNICEF, Italian authorities and their partners try to cope with those seeking refuge from poverty, conflict and violence. Thousands continue to cross the Mediterranean, and thousands more are encamped in Libya, victims of a vicious cycle of violence and corruption.
There are many immediate needs: more support from other European states for Italy, including revisiting UK promises on unaccompanied minors, and a tougher approach to traffickers and corruption in Libya and elsewhere. But for the longer term, it is surely the vision laid out by the Sustainable Development Goals that can provide hope. The roots of this massive movement of people, many of them unaccompanied children, lie in conflict, poor governance, economic poverty, discrimination and climate change. Without a comprehensive strategy that links economic development with better governance and environmental protection, thousands will continue to move through Libya and other North African states to find a better life in Europe. Even when people would prefer to stay at home, families will make logical decisions to try the dangerous journeys that lead them to the Mediterranean.
The SDGs do not just focus on the quantity of public services, worthy as the millennium development goals were. The SDGs stress the absolute centrality of better governance and of peace and stability to the improvement of economies and social systems. They link together people, planet and prosperity and that is why they are the first real opportunity to tackle the big global challenges of our age, including migration.
The UK Government led the way on the SDGs. David Cameron and Justine Greening participated enthusiastically and, alongside the all-party commitment to development finance that remained strong in the recent General Election, the world looked to the UK to lead the way in the implementation of Agenda 2030. Despite UK humanitarian and development finance continuing to make a real impact, we are in danger of losing this opportunity. If we want to not only support refugees and migrants humanely on their arrival in Europe, but - as the government says - tackle the causes of their movement in the first place, then the SDGs should run through every one of the UK's development programmes. And we should insist that the strategies for west, north and east Africa should embrace the SDG’s to ensure that migrants have real choice, and that those who have stayed behind have a chance of real opportunities.
Lord McConnell is a Labour peer in the House of Lords
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