Ensuring that no-one is left behind: Lifting people out of poverty and addressing basic needs No 1

The following statement was delivered by Sai Jyothirmai Racherla, Asian-Pacific Resource & Research Centre for Women (ARROW) on behalf of the Women’s Major Group:

INTERVENTION: Ensuring that no one is left behind- Lifting people out of poverty and addressing basic needs

July 11, 2016, 3.00 PM

Sai Jyothirmai Racherla

ARROW, WMG, RCEM

Sai in her intervention asks the panel some critical questions that needs to be integrated within the SDG agenda to ensure no one is left behind  and lifting women and young girls out of poverty.

The Agenda2030 cannot be achieved without a shared commitment to addressing social justice  and issues of poverty and its multidimensional characteristics such as hunger, malnutrition, landlessness, gender inequality, their root causes, and sexual and reproductive health and rights together. 

We are confronted with a development agenda that does not address structural and systemic barriers which endanger women and girls integrities and challenge bio-diversity and sustainability of environment.

So lifting women and girls out of poverty will need a comprehensive approach. We need to address these deep questions:

How do we ensure equal rights and access to resources and services (including land, water, seeds, forests, housing, education, livelihood, food, and health services, including for sexual and reproductive health and rights for women and girls?

How do we reform of the monetary, financial and trade regimes that perpetuate inequalities, and results in violence and the undermining of women's human rights?

How do we directing the public investment towards sectors in which the poor work (agriculture), areas in which they live (rural and alternative regions), factors of production that they possess (unskilled labour) and outputs which they consume (food)? 

How do we enable and legitimise the government control over the flow of finance and international trade?

How do we ensure enhanced public investments in health, including for sexual and reproductive health and rights, education, and other social services; and ensuring universal access to these, regardless of gender, socio-economic status, citizenship, age, ethnicity, caste, geographic location, sexual orientation, gender identity, engagement in sex work, disability, marital status, HIV status, pregnancy status, migration or refugee status, or other status?

How do we ensure regulation and accountability of the private sector, including in services, technology, insurance, health, land, and food? 

How do we stop the onslaught of corporate land grabbing and the forced evictions of communities, especially farming communities and indigenous peoples?

How do we repeal laws and policies that criminalise, punish or marginalise specific groups, based on their gender, socio-economic status, age, ethnicity, caste, marital, sexual orientation, gender identity, religious beliefs, engagement in sex work, HIV status, disability, citizenship, migrant, refugee or other status; or erect barriers to services; and adopt and implement measures to counter discriminatory practices and ensure access to justice?

Addressing structural and systemic barriers and responding concretely to the questions I just raised will be the way forward to lifting people especially women and girls out of poverty.