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Measuring Peace in the Pacific: Addressing SDG16 - Peace, Justice & Strong Institutions

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Executive Summary

This report aims to measure peace in the Pacific. It also seeks to enhance our understanding of the existing data and capacity to measure Goal 16 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The report is part of a larger research project by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) with support from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). Outlined within the report is why Sustainable Development Goal 16 (SDG16) is important to the Pacific, the data currently available to measure SDG16 and key challenges the Pacific region faces in measuring progress against SDG16.

SDG16 captures the progress of nations towards peace, justice and strong institutions and is an important part of a wider conflict prevention agenda. It is a transformative goal; conflict and instability are significant impediments for development and must be addressed if peace is to be achieved and sustained. The region had only limited success in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Only two countries in the Pacific achieved all eight MDGs; the Cook Islands and Niue. Three countries did not achieve any of the MDGs; Kiribati, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands. In the cases of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, the ability of both countries to meet the MDGs was hindered by the presence of conflict and violence.

Given the region’s overall limited success in attaining the MDGs and the presence of numerous peace and security issues in the Pacific, it is important to focus on SDG16 as work commences for 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Across the region, state fragility is pervasive and there are high levels of land disputes as well as societal violence including intimate partner violence and sexual violence. Violence against women is at epidemic levels. Over a third of women in the Pacific have experienced intimate partner violence and, in some countries, up to 70 per cent of women have been raped or assaulted during their lifetime. The level of violent death is also high in some countries with Papua New Guinea estimated to have amongst the highest homicide rates in the world.

Meanwhile, the region faces many environmental challenges that act as a threat multiplier exacerbating underlying grievances and undermining livelihoods and stability. Critically, all of these challenges, including natural disasters, land availability, forced displacement, water resource issues and agricultural production decline, are indirectly mitigated via SDG16 measures.

Investment in good governance and institutions can address the grievances that may arise from sudden external shocks. Countries with greater institutional capacity are generally more resilient to external shocks that pose a persistent threat to development, such as natural disasters. Given this, analysis within this report should not be seen as a critique of deficiencies within the region but rather in the context of future opportunity.

The collection of data will play a crucial role in realising this potential. The report finds that none of the Pacific Island countries nor territories have data available that fully covers all the indicators required for measuring SDG16. The comprehensive data audit found that by 2017 only 32 per cent of the SDG16 indicators are available or partially available across the Pacific. A further 25 per cent of indicators have either a proxy measure or data available through further data mining. This means that 57 per cent of indicators are either available, partially available or available through a proxy measure. The remaining 43 per cent of indicators are not available and further data generation efforts are required. This is broadly reflective of global trends: less than half of countries globally have any data for eight of the 23 SDG16 indicators.

Currently, there are numerous challenges to expanding existing statistical capacity and no country in the Pacific fulfils the recommendations for data collection frequency according to the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data standards. Furthermore, most Pacific Island countries and nations do not have a strategy in place to increase statistical capacity with the exception of three Pacific Islands that have an active National Strategy for the Development of Statistics (NSDS) plan: Cook Islands, Samoa and Vanuatu. Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands have completed plans that are awaiting adoption.

This data deficiency highlights the need to significantly upscale investments in statistical capacity to ensure that SDG16 is comprehensively measured. The significant costs associated with data collection must be contextualised with the potential cost-savings from policies that avoid violence and instability. The human and economic cost of violence, instability and conflict are tremendous while the long-term potential benefits of preventing conflict through SDG16 are substantial. Nevertheless, it is important to find more innovative and cost-effective solutions to capturing data and ultimate progress on the SDGs.

Looking at the Asia-Pacific region more broadly, the economic impacts of violence and conflict are noteworthy. IEP estimates the direct costs of conflict and violence in Timor-Leste, the Philippines and Papua New Guinea collectively stood at $17 billion PPP in 2015 alone. These direct costs were more than three times the entire Australian ODA budget for that year.

As the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is adopted, the Pacific have an opportunity to increase their visibility within the international community. This corresponds with the renewed commitment of major aid donors to increasing stability within the region. The Foreign Policy White Paper of the Australian government highlights a shared agenda with the Pacific focusing on security and prosperity. Similarly, the New Zealand government has pledged to improve the prosperity, stability and resilience of the Pacific region.

This report outlines challenges but it is also important to note there are also numerous opportunities for the Pacific to establish itself as a leader in practical efforts to improve data, monitoring, transparency, advocacy and policy efforts to achieving SDG16. By doing so, it can make long-term strides to strengthen resilience, safeguard hard fought development gains and prevent conflict, instability and violence.

The report features four sections:

  • Section 1 – The context for SDG achievement in the Pacific examines the performance of the Pacific in the MDGs and how the region has prioritised different aspects of the SDGs.
  • Section II - The importance of SDG16 in the Pacific outlines the region’s key peace and security issues and identifies areas of investment essential to achieve development gains.
  • Section III - Data challenges discusses data collection shortfalls and the regional difficulties regarding data collection due to capacity, geography and demographics.
  • Section IV - Data availability provides an audit of currently available regional data for measuring and monitoring SDG16.
  • Section V - How to measure SDG16 outlines what data is required to measure each SDG16 indicator.