The Peace Nexus

Here I am with Jorge Moreira da Sliva, CEO of UNOPS The panel was moderated by Simon Mundy, the Moral Money Editor of the Financial Times. Goal 16 is about Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions. There are about 12 targets and subtargets and 230 indicators. Humanitarian aid is not specifically mentioned in the SDGS nor are refugees (surprisingly) in the announcement of SDGs. It took three years of lobbying for it to be included as a soft wording under SDG Goal 10 (reduce Inequality within and among countries) “ target 10.7 concerns the facilitation of “orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration, and mobility of people, which includes the implementation of planned and well-managed migration policies”.

Jorge gave some saddening statistics. If you are aware of the humanitarian situation around the world due to conflict and natural disasters, finance is a challenge. Only 5% of blended finance (public-private finance) goes to LDCs, only 6% goes to social sectors (health and education), which are critical for humanitarian response. Though 70% of all aid goes to fragile countries, only 4% goes to conflict prevention.

The problem is that Peace sits at the centre of a nexus – and needs multiple stakeholders to get involved. There needs to be prevention of conflict, humanitarian response and aid, and rapid reconstruction or development aid (as you cannot wait for conflicts to end). He said, “Lots of bandaid, or firefighting, it is good to be there to provide people help in the emergency context, but it shouldn't be at the cost of shifting from development aid to humanitarian aid. Now 25% of all ODA, or $50 Billion goes for humanitarian aid and refugee cost, and a decade ago this figure was 10%.”

Just asking - should we have a Peace Tax on weapons exporters since we have a 15% tax on global corporate profits - Global Minimum Tax (GMT) ? A peace tax may help us with the prevention, humanitarian and development aid financing gap.