Welcome to the United Nations
Governance and public administration aspects of empowering people and ensuring inclusiveness and equality
Contribution by the Committee of Experts on Public Administration to the 2019 thematic review of the high-level political forum on sustainable development
Summary
Public institutions are not ready to curb the trend of disempowerment
Although there are promising initiatives to empowering people, current trends point rather at disempowerment. In many countries, inequality is increasing. Regulatory agencies are sometimes dominated by the interests they regulate, rather than the public's interest, while corporate taxation may result in uneven division of burden. Social security is declining, externalities of globalization are inadequately regulated, and large and intensive conflicts persist.
At least half of the world’s poor may be living in fragile and conflict-affected settings by 2030. Peace and positive peacebuilding will thus have to be on top of policy agendas, in order to tackle corruption, lack of access to justice, and ineffective delivery of public services. If conflict and fragility are not addressed through new and elaborate interdimensional political-administrative models, they are likely to spill over, jeopardizing institutional and policy initiatives for leaving no one behind.
At the same time, many public sector organizations lack resources, skills and a sense of direction. Often, they have little awareness of the SDGs and the aim to achieve them by 2030. Silo-thinking is hampering the holistic implementation of the SDGs, including the cross-cutting challenge of empowering people to build equal and inclusive societies. Even where adequate regulation and plans are in place, their implementation may lag behind or be missing.
From blueprint thinking to contextualized pathways to empowerment
Although promoting rule of law, including non-discriminatory laws and equal access to justice should be at the centre of attention in policy-making and institution-building, there is no general blueprint for reforming the public sector towards empowering people and promoting inclusive societies. Each country must follow its own path, building on its own governance structures, political, economic and social realities, local strengths and unique needs. Reforms that consider meta-governance, i.e., governance of different governance styles, are important as they are more likely to be contextual. Peer-to-peer learning may be useful to support learning from success or failure.
To overcome silo-thinking, combining multiple ways of curbing inequalities and poverty is a must. Public policies to tackle economic and social inequalities should go in tandem with environmentally friendly solutions to redress imbalances. In addition, a new momentum must be built between the objectives of development and sustainability, particularly to stave off economic vulnerability, environmental degradation and social exclusion. Furthermore, there is a need to enhance communication and awareness-raising of the SDGs for citizens and for national and subnational governments.
Towards adequate governance and public administration to curb disempowerment
Ensuring that no one is left behind requires governments to know who is being left behind, how they are being left behind and where this is occurring. Institutions, plans and concrete actions to stimulate empowerment, inclusiveness and equality, should be informed by the 11 principles of effective governance for sustainable development, endorsed by the Economic and Social Council on 2 July 2018 (see E/2018/44, para. 31). Inclusiveness relates directly to five of these principles: participation, subsidiarity, accountability, intergenerational equity, and leave no one behind.
Only when trained and empowered to collaborate with other stakeholders can public sector workforce promote equality and inclusion. Public sector leaders should be cognizant of the potential of an empowered public sector workforce. Inclusive quality education should receive explicit and specific attention with a focus on newly emerging skillsets for the public sector workforce such as critical, design, complexity and futures thinking and emotional intelligence. The SDGs should be made part of the curricula of national schools of public administration.
Ensuring the means of implementation
An inclusive economy and equitable fiscal policies can mitigate economic and social disparities and empower people. Governments should review their fiscal policies to ascertain whether the collection of taxes on basic goods and services negatively impacts the individuals and groups that are left behind. Accelerating progress will require mobilizing financial resources and finding innovative ways to obtain public and private financial support and investment oriented towards the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. Leaving no one behind perspectives should be at the core not just of public revenue but also of public spending decisions.
Empowering local government
Local governments understand the needs of communities the best. However, a due focus on local solutions and local capacity-building for sustainable development is still wanting. Promoting administrative and financial empowerment in tandem with building local government capacity can be helpful. Real- time, multi-level governance and subsidiarity can be instrumental in fostering inclusive local governance, promoting ownership and enhancing co-production and customization of policies and services.
Joining forces through collaboration and participation
Policies and programmes for implementing the SDGs should be designed, executed and monitored in participatory and transparent manners. A top-down approach to empowerment, whereby people’s interests are predetermined or imposed on them, does not work. Bottom-up processes of participatory governance and engagement must become part of policy processes, ranging from policy design to adoption, and from implementation and to monitoring and review. Such participatory governance should not only include state and society but also markets: addressing inequalities and leaving no one behind necessitates an inclusive economy.
People are ultimately their own agents of action. Attention should be paid to women’s and girls’ empowerment as well as youth, persons with disabilities and older persons, particularly against the backdrop of an ageing public sector workforce in some countries.
