Access to justice is a key component in ensuring the realization of all other rights contained within human rights frameworks as well as achieving SDG 16 holistically. Observably, the United Nations, and other development partners, have increasingly crafted new policies and programmes to broaden access to justice and increase empowerment as a poverty reduction tool. This brief recognizes the central role access to justice has towards realizing other human rights and combatting chronic poverty, as well as helping countries progress towards achieving the SDGs.

This brief highlights how the outbreak of the global COVID 19 pandemic has posed new demands on development cooperation in its various forms: finance, capacity support, policy change and multi-stakeholder partnerships. Observably, the South-South and triangular cooperation showcased signs of resilience in the pandemic period, particularly in the areas of technical cooperation, in-kind support and multi-stakeholder partnership, as well as mobilizing financial support.

Notably, alongside a multiplicity of national and international actors across, public servants have been cited to play a cardinal role in implementing the 2030 Agenda since 2015. Therefore, activities are being undertaken to strengthen the capacity of the public servants to foster efficient and effective implementation of the 2030 Agenda. Areas identified for capacity strengthening include: data, statsistical systems, follow up and review; panning and localization of SDGs.

The correlation between economic growth and poverty reduction is not linear. The way in which additional income is distributed matters for poverty outcomes. The same economic growth rate can cause different levels of poverty reduction in countries with different levels of inequality. Evidence also shows that countries with a more equal distribution of assets and income often grow faster than those with a higher degree of inequality. There may thus exist a virtuous cycle between growth and equity.