SDG 17: Strengthen the means of
implementation and revitalize the global
partnership for sustainable development.
ƉƉ Target 17.18: By 2020, enhance capacity-building
support to developing countries, including for least
developed countries and small island developing
States, to increase significantly the availability of
high-quality, timely and reliable data disaggregated
by income, gender, age, race, ethnicity, migratory
status, disability, geographic location and other
characteristics relevant in national contexts.
ĵĵ Global Indicator 17.18.1: Proportion of
sustainable development indicators produced at the
national level with full disaggregation when relevant
to the target, in accordance with the Fundamental
Principles of Official Statistics.
SDG 17 contains key enablers for action across
the entire SDG framework and focuses on
implementation of the SDGs through partnerships
and engagement with a range of stakeholders,
including civil society, donor States and organisations
and the private sector. Data availability represents
a critical tool for sustainable development at
the national, regional and global levels. As such,
Target 17.18 will contribute to the successful
implementation and monitoring of all the other
SDGs, including those most relevant to addressing
statelessness. Target 17.18 provides an opportunity
to advocate for the improvement of statistical data
on stateless populations in developing countries, as
stateless people are frequently ignored by authorities
and may remain uncounted in national administrative
registries, databases and population censuses. For
example, Target 17.18 could be used to promote
improvements to civil registration and vital statistics
(CRVS) systems to include stateless persons and
those of undetermined nationality. Universal civil
registration and the vital statistics generated from
civil registration and disaggregated by nationality
status will help to achieve a number of SDGs and
related Targets and to measure the extent to which
stateless persons and those of undetermined
nationality are also benefitting from planned
improvements.
In countries seeking to implement SDGs and related
Targets and Global Indicators that are relevant to
addressing statelessness (see above), pointing to
Global Indicator 17.18.1 may also help encourage
governments to disaggregate data on the basis of
nationality status, so that stateless persons and
those of undetermined nationality are included in
the process of monitoring progress against particular
Targets.
Mapping the SDGs against
UNHCR’s statelessness mandate
and the #IBelong Campaign to
End Statelessness in 10 Years
UNHCR’s statelessness mandate comprises 4 key
elements:
• To work with governments to identify stateless
populations and populations with undetermined
nationality;
• To prevent the occurrence of statelessness;
• To reduce statelessness, particularly in protracted
statelessness situations; and
• To work with States and partners to protect and
assist stateless persons.
In November 2014, UNHCR launched the #IBelong
Campaign to End Statelessness within 10 years
(#IBelong Campaign).8 The framework to achieve
the objectives of the #IBelong Campaign is set
out in a Global Action Plan,9 which establishes 10
practical Actions to be undertaken by States with the
assistance of UNHCR and other stakeholders.
8
See http://www.unhcr.org/ibelong/
9
UNHCR, Global Action Plan to End Statelessness: 2014 – 2024,
available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/545b47d64.html
THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS AND ADDRESSING STATELESSNESS
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