25 July 2018: The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) convened a series of eight ‘Voluntary National Review (VNR) Labs’ during the ministerial segment of the 2018 session of the UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF). The UN Committee for Development Policy (CDP) released publications related to the concept of leave no one behind (LNOB).

According to DESA, the VNR Labs were organized in response to demand from Member States, UN bodies and major groups and other stakeholders to take stock of experience with VNRs. The sessions aimed to provide an informal platform for exchanges between countries that have conducted a VNR and those that have not, as well as the UN system and other stakeholders.

The inaugural VNR Lab (Lab 1) addressed the theme, ‘Leveraging Interlinkages.’ Participants discussed key findings from the CDP analysis of VNR reports. Representatives from Cabo Verde and Finland shared examples of policy coherence at the national level, including approaches to organizing institutions, and using budgets and plans to promote integrated policy making. The session further considered trade-offs and synergies between policy objectives, priority setting, and other potential institutional mechanisms to achieve “interlinked thinking” among stakeholders involved in VNRs.

Many people throughout the world are experiencing falling levels of well-being that are often impossible to fully recover from.

Lab 2 focused on the topic ‘Leaving No One Behind.’ Participants discussed national-level measures to improve the condition of the poorest and most vulnerable in selected countries, and underscored the importance of specific measures and policies to identify and target those left behind. Government representatives and civil society experts from Bhutan, India, Kenya, Lebanon, Sri Lanka and the UK shared challenges and solutions on LNOB. Participants also highlighted the importance of broad stakeholder participation in developing VNRs.

Also on LNOB, the CDP released a background paper titled, ‘Leaving No One Behind as a Site of Contestation and Reinterpretation,’ which explores the politics that led to the adoption of LNOB as a core theme of the SDG agenda. The paper argues that the LNOB concept emerged in response to demands to include inequality in the SDG framework, and provides an overview of its emergence. The paper then analyzes references to LNOB in 43 VNRs, and finds that the majority of country strategies identify LNOB as a priority for the very poor, and identify LNOB as a strategy for social protection, an interpretation at odds with the 2030 Agenda’s ambition of transformative change.

The CDP also produced a paper that argues that people around the world are not just left behind but are “being pushed even further behind.” The paper titled, ‘Push No One Behind,’ shares examples of people being pushed behind by land appropriation and enclosures, “development-induced” climate change, pollution, employment in harmful health conditions, and financial crises and austerity policies, among other examples. The paper emphasizes that many people throughout the world are experiencing falling levels of well-being that are often impossible to fully recover from. It suggests the process of people being pushed behind would end if economic policy had to “face the test of compliance with human rights treaties,” and recommends human rights measures such as strengthening land rights of indigenous people, reducing pollution and subsidizing clean technologies. The paper further recommends that development policies prioritize ensuring that no one is pushed behind, including through focusing on the obligations of States to respect, protect and fulfill economic, social and cultural rights. [DESA News Story on Lab 1] [DESA News Story on Lab 2] [DESA Press Release on LNOB Publication] [Leaving No One Behind as a Site of Contestation and Reinterpretation] [DESA Press Release on Push No One Behind Publication] [Push No One Behind] [SDG Knowledge Hub Story on VNR Lab Debut]