“Even if the SGD 16.9 has reached 99% of the population affected, let us remember that the 1% that remain are some of the most vulnerable and most discriminated communities” Yasah Kimei Nubian Rights Forum S tatelessness exposes people to poverty and marginalisation and can render them invisible to government systems because they are simply not ‘counted’. This invisibility challenges the pursuit and measurement of progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are not just about economic growth, social development and environmental protection, they are about achieving this for all, and reaching the furthest behind first. Yet, if nationality acts as a gateway through which people can access rights and services, how do we ensure that stateless communities are not “left behind”? This is one of a number of questions at the intersection between statelessness, human rights and development that were explored across several of the sessions at ISI’s World Conference on Statelessness. Grand Challenge 2 SDG16.9 and “legal identity for all”: Opportunity or threat? Moderator: Kerry Neal UNICEF Panelists: Elvis Berisa Roma Youth Organisation Laura Bingham Open Society Justice Initiative Yasah Kimei Nubian Rights Forum Melanie Khanna UNHCR Bronwen Manby London School of Economics Grand Challenge 2 ‘SDG16.9 and “legal identity for all”: Opportunity or threat?’ explored and critiqued SDG 16.9 which is of acute relevance to statelessness. The drive to ensure that everyone has proof of their “legal identity” risks creating and entrenching exclusion if there are unresolved questions of belonging or access to citizenship is grounded in discriminatory or otherwise arbitrary policy or practice. This means that technological “solutions” to provide proof of legal identity for all, can, in an unsettled and controversial context, aggravate statelessness and its impact, undermine the SDGs and result in excluded persons being further disadvantaged. Those implementing and monitoring the SDGs must understand statelessness implications in their work to achieve inclusive development. From the beginning of this session, the crosscutting nature of the Conference was clear, with participants being asked to view “We need to bring the the SDGs and legal identity through four different perspectives, which country-level experience included alongside development more into the debates about and planning also: national security; how to think about these migration and border management; and civil registration and child goals and bring experiences protection - all of which resonated of individuals into the throughout the Conference as a discussions at the whole. global level.” Christoph Sperfeldt Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness 7