Introducing SDG 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions

SDG 16 seeks to promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels. The following video provides a look into three of the above targets: reduce illicit financial and arms flows, reduce corruption and bribery, and develop accountable and transparent institutions. The focus of the discussion is on how we should interpret SDG 16 and it provides another example of how the SDGs can be interpreted in different ways. It also illustrates how we can try to achieve societal change by challenging current interpretations of the SDGs and attempt to create new interpretations of the SDGs to guide our actions. Thus, it deals with politics at a different level than our previous focus on state politics: it assumes that we all can act politically through activist networks–some of which can become transnational networks that can make a difference, such as the Tax Justice Network. This focus on tax, however, also means that developing more robust and more just state institutions will be crucial, so that more global justice in tax revenue can also be translated into more distributive justice in developing countries. State politics will certainly have a central role to play in that process.