United Nations building, 2012.Wikicommons/ Becks. Some rights reserved.The United Nations pulled-off something extraordinary this week. For the first time in its 70-year history it squarely acknowledged the vital relationship between security, safety and justice and development. Previously, these issues were dealt with by very distinct sides of the house. That artificial separation is now coming down.
The merging of security and development is more radical than it first appears. For decades, sensitive issues of conflict, crime and violence were ring-fenced from traditional development debates in the United Nations. Strange as it now sounds, the idea was to keep development from being sullied by politics, geopolitical or otherwise.
After one of the most complex and convoluted negotiation processes in the United Nation´s history, a new set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were released in draft form this week. They bring these themes together into tight embrace. The SDGs explicitly highlight the ways in which insecurity, injustice and weak governance can undermine social and economic progress.
