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3.2 LNOB principles (equality, equity, non-discrimination
as the LNOB marker and social and environmental standards, are not currently well known, but several interview participants cited UNDP as a trusted source on LNOB in connection with UNDP technical leadership of the COVID-19 socio-economic impact assessments (SEIAs).69
Finding 2 – Equality, equity and non-discrimination: While an emphasis on equity and equality has been intrinsic in UNDP, there is less focus on non-discrimination. For political and cultural reasons, UNDP usually followed a cautious approach; efforts to open civic space and facilitate difficult conversations to address power relations and social norms were found to be limited in many contexts.
The United Nations Chief Executives Board for Coordination mandated United Nations entities to focus on three interrelated elements when operationalizing LNOB: equality of opportunity and outcomes for all groups, non-discrimination, and equity or fairness.70 The evaluation found that two of these components – equality and, to a lesser degree, equity – enjoy strong leadership support and buy-in across UNDP.
FIGURE 5. Representation of equality and equity
Source: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, ‘Visualizing Health Equity’, 2017.
69 The digital SEIA toolkit, which expressly “recognizes and prioritizes the needs of the world’s poorest populations”, currently engages over 50 country offices, indicating the timeliness and pertinence of the tool. 70 United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination, ‘Leaving No One Behind: Equality and Non-Discrimination at the Heart of Sustainable Development’. Equality refers to “the imperative of moving towards substantive equality of opportunity and outcomes for all groups”. Non-discrimination is defined as “the prohibition of discrimination against individuals and groups on the grounds identified in international human rights treaties”. Equity refers to fairness in the distribution of costs, benefits and opportunities.
Inequality is seen as a paradox of our times: Prior to 2015, poverty had gone down in every region of the world and emerging markets were booming. Yet inequalities persisted and grew, intersecting and reinforcing each other and perpetuating intergenerational poverty and exclusion.71 This realization led the international community to enshrine the equality principle in a standalone SDG, namely Goal 10: “Reduce inequality within and among countries”. As inequality has jeopardized economic growth and created a serious barrier to eradicating poverty, the UNDP Signature Solution on poverty eradication has been renamed “poverty and inequality” as of the 2022-2025 SP.
Equity is a related concept, which is also endorsed by UNDP but less frequently used. The Transparency Portal72 finds only 17 hits for equity, compared to 310 projects related to equality.73 Equity is sometimes referred to as the pathway to equality; it describes the process of treating everyone equitably, or justly, according to their circumstance.74 Various targeting measures supported by UNDP, such as some cash transfer programmes, are examples of an equity approach but are not usually labelled as such. Some UNDP publications, e.g. on gender and climate equity, or recently vaccine equity, as well as joint work with other United Nations entities explicitly use the word.75 However, the term is rarely explained. Equity was not directly mentioned in any of the key informant interviews with UNDP staff unless prompted.
The organization’s focus on non-discrimination, in contrast, remains relatively weak, both institutionally and in terms of results. Non-discrimination was rarely featured in results-oriented annual reporting (ROAR) during the period assessed, nor did it feature on the UNDP internet, intranet or in speeches.76 The largest project associated with the search term ‘non-discrimination’ on the Transparency Portal received a fraction of the funding, at $1 million, of those tagged against ‘equality’ ($1,799 million) and ‘equity’ ($33 million).77 While it is acknowledged that such a text search only captures a fraction of relevant projects, it still highlights the skewed importance given to equality and equity vs. non-discrimination. Rather than addressing structural discrimination, programmatic support places greater emphasis on enhancing access (to services, etc.) for those left behind. This is not necessarily transformative, e.g., if the system itself is repressive. According to UNDP, ROAR reporting is likely to focus more strongly on (non-)discrimination in the future, given a new indicator being monitored under the governance Signature Solution for the SP period 2022-2025 to assess the existence of systems with capacity to address the issue.78
71 United Nations Development Programme, ‘SDGs Today: Inequality’, UNDP, accessed 2022. 72 Open.undp.org, UNDP’s Transparency Portal, allows open, comprehensive public access to data on more than 10,000 UNDP projects and publishes data relating to projects worth more than $5.8 billion. 73 ‘UNDP Transparency Portal: Projects’ (accessed 2022). Equity-related results are mainly at output level. 74 A simple example would be: Equality = All public schools in a community have computer labs with the same number of computers and hours of operation during school hours. Equity = Computer labs in lower income neighborhoods have more computers and printers, as well as longer hours of operation, as some students don’t have access to computers or internet at home. From: “Racial Equality or Racial Equity?: The difference it makes,” Race Matters Institute, 2014. Accessed 28 June 2022. 75 United Nations Development Programme, ‘Support to Vaccine Equity – Beyond Recovery: Towards 2030’, UNDP, New York, 2021;
United Nations Development Programme, ‘Sustainability and Equity: A better future for all’, Human Development Report 2011,
UNDP, New York, 2011. 76 The expression “non-discrimination” is almost absent; therefore, “discrimination” was also considered as a search term. It was found mainly in relation to gender/LGBTQI+ issues, labour market-related discrimination, PwD, sexually transmitted infections, and race. 77 Law and order trust fund of Afghanistan (equality), examples for equity and non-discrimination will be added. The Transparency
Portal showed a meagre two projects for ‘non-discrimination’ (and 32 for ‘discrimination’). Both are small and non-discrimination is not the central narrative. 78 United Nations Development Programme, Integrated Results and Resources Framework, indicator # 2.2.2: “To what extent the country has targeted systems with strengthened capacities to: address discrimination; address racism; expand civic space”, UNDP,
New York, 2021.
There are many factors hindering access and the removal of longer-term barriers that are hard for UNDP to address. Discrimination is linked to intergenerational marginalization, cultural norms and values, etc., and the refusal of some governments to acknowledge the plight of certain populations makes it difficult for UNDP to engage. However, there is also evidence suggesting that UNDP often feels challenged to address non-discrimination given the views of some Member States. According to numerous interviewees, UNDP often feels the need to pay more attention to the authorizing environment at the expense of addressing sensitive political issues and social norms that are often intertwined with discrimination. This view is most strongly expressed by partner United Nations and development entities, but also by interviewees at UNDP headquarters (HQ) and regional levels.
In one of the countries examined for this evaluation, the lack of focus on non-discrimination and non-alignment with other United Nations voices was particularly problematic for UNDP when a Human Development Report (HDR) was launched. Human rights organizations subsequently complained about a misleading representation of the human rights situation in the country – something not unique to this country. Two of the claims made in this instance are of relevance to the evaluation: first, that historically marginalized and discriminated minority populations were not mentioned in the report and that the report conveys a positive picture of the housing situation in the region where this population resides. This is in direct contradiction of concerns raised by the United Nations Rapporteur on Housing. Second, that the HDR presents a non-critical reading of an anti-terror law passed in the country that has been sharply criticized by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights as “opening the door to more rights abuses”. When interviewed for this evaluation, the UNDP country office (CO) in question conceded that the report committee did not include civil society and that there were communications shortfalls. Yet to the human rights defenders, UNDP “fell into the trap the government set out for it”.
On the other hand, UNDP often speaks from a rights-based perspective. Two notable areas of work in this regard were rule of law and access to health interventions, where the organization contributed to demonstrable results in countering non-discrimination. UNDP global programmatic support to access to justice has expanded over the last 15 years to cover institution-building, transitional justice, gender justice, support to national human rights institutions, business and human rights, e-justice, and climate justice. The work is particularly geared towards fragile and conflict settings, and has seen growing expenditures over time.79 Evidence at the country level suggests that results vary based on political will, local capacities and the volatility and polarity of contexts. For example, in Uganda, the Rule of Law and Constitutional Democracy flagship programme reached the elderly, persons affected by HIV/AIDS, youth, and female-headed households with legal aid. Through UNDP work, some persons otherwise excluded from the judiciary system due to persistent discrimination against them (or practical barriers to access) were able to have their cases heard.80
UNDP work in the health field in several cases addressed stereotypes, stigma and harmful socio-cultural patterns.81 In Africa, UNDP launched an intersectional regional initiative targeting LGBTQI+ inclusion and young key populations. The projects focus squarely on rights, using health initiatives as one possible
79 Notably UNDP programmes of assistance to the Palestinian People, Somalia, Guatemala and Paraguay. 80 UNDP Independent Evaluation Office, ‘Independent Country Programme Evaluation: Uganda’, UNDP, New York, 2019. 81 UNDP Independent Evaluation Office, ‘Reflections – Lessons from Evaluations: UNDP support to the health sector’, UNDP,
New York, 2020; UNDP Independent Evaluation Office, ‘Country Programme Evaluation: Cuba’, UNDP, New York, 2019.
