UN Sustainable Development Goals

Baroness Sugg Excerpts

Thursday 17th October 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Sugg (Con)]

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord McConnell, for securing this debate and for his continued work on the UN sustainable development goals. Back in 2014, I think, I worked with the then Prime Minister—now the noble Lord, Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton—on a high-level panel ahead of the SDGs. I have not been involved for as long as the noble Lord, Lord McConnell, but I agree with him that they are absolutely a strong framework for the world that we want, but of course we are a long way off track.

Conflict, extreme poverty, and climate-related emergencies are three crises that are deeply interconnected and jeopardise our efforts to achieve the SDGs, particularly goal 5 on gender equality, which I will focus my contribution on. These intersecting crises threaten the fundamental rights and well-being of women and girls globally.

The relationship between conflict and climate change is increasingly evident. As highlighted by the International Organization for Migration, climate-related factors are significant drivers of forced displacement, pushing individuals into conflict zones or making them refugees. That creates a vicious cycle of vulnerability, where women and girls face heightened risks, particularly to their health, safety and well-being. In regions plagued by conflict, we see not only a deterioration of those outcomes but an alarming rise in gender-based violence. Women and girls often become targets for exploitation, and their rights, safety and health are stripped away.

A study from the WHO highlighted that conflict situations often lead to a spike in maternal mortality rates, with women in these regions facing barriers to accessing healthcare services. Just a 1 degree Celsius rise in temperature correlates with a 6% increase in stillbirths, showing the direct consequences of climate change on maternal health. We know that conflict exacerbates the challenges posed by climate change. As natural resources become scarcer due to environmental degradation, competition over these resources can lead to conflict, further displacing communities and endangering lives. In such settings, the ability to access basic services, including healthcare and education, becomes even more compromised and difficult, particularly for women and girls who bear the brunt of these crises.

We must acknowledge also the impact of conflict, climate change and extreme poverty on hunger and nutrition, which is foundational to achieving all the global goals. Conflict is a major driver of hunger. Last year, conflict-driven hunger affected 135 million people in 20 countries. Reports show that malnutrition and hunger could increase by 20% by 2050 if we do not address the effects of climate change. Hunger and malnutrition, of course, affect everybody but, as ever, women and girls are disproportionately impacted.

Extreme poverty compounds these issues, leaving women and girls with fewer resources and options. They make up a disproportionate amount of the 700 million people estimated by the World Bank to live in extreme poverty. As I said, it acts as a barrier to accessing healthcare, education and economic opportunities. In many low-income countries, the lack of financial resources translates into an insufficient healthcare infra- structure, resulting in inadequate health services. The Covid-19 pandemic further highlighted those disparities, leading to disruptions in healthcare services including, importantly, sexual and reproductive health and rights. The repercussions of these disruptions will be felt for years to come, undermining progress made towards gender equality.

Gender equality—the subject of SDG 5—is not only a fundamental human right but a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world. Happily, we have made some significant progress over the last decades, with more girls getting into school, fewer girls forced into early marriages and more women in work, serving in parliament and in positions of leadership. Laws are being reformed to advance gender equality. I am very proud of the important role that the UK has played in this advancement through our international development work all around the world.

Despite these gains, significant challenges remain. Discriminatory laws and social norms are still pervasive; women continue to be underrepresented at all levels of political and economic leadership; and one in five women and girls between the ages of 15 and 49 reports experiencing physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner within a 12-month period. As I have said, the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic could reverse the limited progress that we have seen. Given all that, I very much welcome the Development Minister’s pledge to put women and girls at the heart of everything she does in government. I was pleased that, in an article ahead of the United Nations General Assembly, she highlighted that conflict drives home the very worst of gender inequality and intensifies pre-existing problems, intersecting to wreck the lives of women and girls.

How can we address this? First, we can do so by building on the role that the UK has played in establishing the women, peace and security agenda through the landmark UN Security Council Resolution 1325, which recognised the disproportionate impact of conflict on women and girls. We must work closely with our partners, including civil society organisations and communities, to fully implement Resolution 1325 and to ensure that all the resolutions that followed are implemented. They recognise the disproportionate and unique impact on women and acknowledge the very important contributions that women can make to conflict prevention and resolution, peacekeeping and peacebuilding. I pay tribute to the work of my noble friend Lady Hodgson in this area and her continued effort on her Private Member’s Bill.

Secondly, we must keep a strong focus on our work on gender-based violence, addressing its rising rates in conflict-affected areas—it must be a priority. As Minister, I saw at first hand the impact that UK programmes can have, helping the survivors of violence through support for safe spaces and comprehensive health services. But we must scale up effective and innovative interventions to stop violence before it starts. The programme What Works to Prevent Violence, run first by DfID and then the FCDO, does exactly that, and I hope that the new Government will continue to support its incredibly effective work.

Thirdly, we should continue our focus on supporting the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and girls. This is fundamental to progress towards gender equality. We know that conflict, extreme poverty and climate change make access to and the availability of SRHR services even more challenging. A key part of that is continuing work on strengthening education and health systems. Investment in education, particularly comprehensive, age-appropriate sex education, is crucial to help young people become empowered and to equip them with the knowledge they need to make informed choices on how they live their lives. Strengthening health systems will ensure that sexual and reproductive health services are accessible and effective. We should prioritize the integration of SRHR services into climate action plans, including ensuring access to these services during emergencies and incorporating better gender analysis into climate strategies to address the needs of women and girls.

Under the previous Administration, significant work was under way in the department, both to respond to the helpful inquiry from the International Development Committee into SRHR and on a campaign to give a renewed focus and push to the UK’s work on SRHR. I hope that work will continue to be encouraged.

Two overarching themes cut across all this work towards SDG 5. First, increasing support for civil society organisations is vital. I hope the Government will continue to ensure that there is adequate funding and an enabling environment for these organisations to amplify the voices of women and girls and to advocate for their rights. I know the Minister will agree with me that CSOs are often on the front lines of addressing the needs of vulnerable populations, and that their contributions really are indispensable. Secondly, on the importance of data-driven policies, we need to prioritise the collection and use of disaggregated data to understand the specific impacts of climate change and conflict on women and girls. That data is essential for creating effective policies and interventions.

The Minister and I have regularly debated finance for overseas development. I do not expect him to make any commitments on whether the Chancellor will replicate the previous Chancellor’s billions towards ensuring that more of our overseas development aid is spent overseas. However, I hope that he will be able to say something about the future trajectory of ODA funding.

Finally, I have a question. In the days of DfID, we had a strong strategic vision for gender equality. The previous Government set out a new international women and girls strategy in 2023, which formed a key part of the cross-party White Paper steered by the previous Development Secretary, Andrew Mitchell. Can the Minister give any detail about how the new Government will ensure that women and girls are truly put at the heart of everything they do across the department? As the noble Lord, Lord McConnell, says, we need to make sure that this is not just warm words. What structure, mechanisms and accountability will be put in place to ensure that this is achieved?