Statelessness, Development, and Protection of ‘Disadvantaged Groups’ existence in their territories to enhance their rights to nationality and development. Therefore, expanding the linkages between development priorities and human rights obligations is a crucial strategy. V. CONCLUSION: CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS Deprivation, marginalisation, and exclusion of stateless persons undermine their human security and dignity, even though their rights are protected under international law. For development actors, statelessness presents a fundamental power dynamic — one that is most challenging for the outline and delivery of inclusive development opportunities, premised on distributive justice. The lack of complementarity between development frameworks and human rights raises critical questions about global development policy implementation. There are different groups of stateless persons with different vulnerabilities and interests; hence, stateless persons are not homogenous. In situations where some are intentionally excluded from acquiring the nationality of a given state, for political and socio-economic reasons, such intonational exclusions could be addressed through inclusive development endeavours. Ensuring development for stateless persons requires a comprehensive response, ranging from reviewing nationality laws along the UNHCR Global Actions and redesigning national development strategies along the SDG goals and targets toward addressing the layers of vulnerabilities in stateless populations. Similarly, the right to a nationality is universal, and no matter the national policies’ encumbrances, access to health and education should not in principle be constrained by citizenship. The legal identity target in the SDGs provides guarantees for social inclusion and more equitable distribution of development opportunities. However, strengthening identification may heighten unintended consequences, and, in some cases, undermine development and human rights outcomes, particularly within the context of complex political economies and weak institutions. The experience with identification systems underlines three interconnected risks of exclusion.61 The first risk stems from identification and registration systems that are premised on policies of mandatory proof of legal identity for accessing basic rights, essential services, and protections. The second risk of exclusion can be linked to discriminatory regulations and practices. These regulations may be exclusionary or produce results based on their implementation, thus leading to negative ends for the disadvantaged. The third related risk emanates from the reality that digital identification systems at national levels are connected to citizenship or permanent residence status. Hence, determining legal status — ‘national’ or ‘non-national’ — is often problematic, particularly in countries with an abysmal enrolment process, where most people also lack proof of legal identity.62 Equally, the revolutionary nature of SDGs transcends its benchmark for the delivery of development objectives. It further requires the evaluation and reform 61 62 Sperfeldt op cit note 35. Sperfeldt ibid; UNDG op cit note 6. 73