Sustainable Development Goal 16

Sustainable Development Goal 16 is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations in 2015, the official wording is: "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 Goal has 12 targets and 23 indicators.
SDG 16 has ten outcome targets: Reduce violence; protect children from abuse, exploitation, trafficking and violence; promote the rule of law and ensure equal access to justice; combat organized crime and illicit financial and arms flows, substantially reduce corruption and bribery; develop effective, accountable and transparent institutions; ensure responsive, inclusive and representative decision-making; strengthen the participation in global governance; provide universal legal identity; ensure public access to information and protect fundamental freedoms. There are also two means of implementation targets: Strengthen national institutions to prevent violence and combat crime and terrorism; promote and enforce non-discriminatory laws and policies.

Background

The Sustainable Development Goals are a collection of 17 global goals set by the United Nations. The goals are interrelated though each has its own targets to achieve. The SDGs cover a broad range of social and economic development issues.
SDG 16 addresses the need to promote peace and inclusive institutions. Areas of improvement include for example: reducing lethal violence, reducing civilian deaths in conflicts, and eliminating human trafficking.
Several of the SDGs and targets focus on marginalized people and "seek to increase inclusiveness and to foster justice". SDG 16 has a strong focus on inclusive societies and institutions. At the global level, SDG 16 could have steering effects on inclusiveness in global governance, in particular for the least developed countries. However, a meta analysis in 2022 has shown that "rhetoric and action do not match when it comes to the impacts of the Sustainable Development Goals on inclusiveness within and between countries".

Targets, Indicators and progress

SDG 16 has twelve targets and twenty-four indicators. Three of the targets specify their agenda by the year 2030. Below is the list of all the targets with a short version and a long version of the titles.
No data is available yet for the following indicators: 16.4.1, 16.4.2, 16.6.2, 16.7.1, 16.7.2, 16.b.1. For all the other indicators, data and world maps are available to visualize progress.

Target 16.1: Reduce violence everywhere

Long title: "Significantly reduce all forms of violence and related death rates everywhere."
This target has four indicators:

Indicator 16.1.1 Number of victims of intentional homicide per 100,000 population, by age.
Indicator 16.1.2 Conflict-related deaths per 100,000 population, by age and cause.
Indicator 16.1.3 Proportion of population subjected to physical violence, psychological violence and sexual violence in the previous 12 months.
Indicator 16.1.4 Proportion of population that feel safe walking alone around the area they live.

Honor based violence is classified as not only murder or violence, but rather a heroic attainment of religious beliefs, typically committed by a male family member. The United Nations estimates that around 5,000 women are killed annually in relation to HBV. However, the actual number is several times higher due to weak administration of these crimes. Authorities are reluctant to report statistics that could potentially affect their international reputation or are bribed in order to protect the family's reputation. Target 16.5 indicates instills the concept of bribery further, and Target 16.2 portrays the lack of crime reported.
Where conflict strikes, men are more likely to die on battlefields, but women will be targeted for sexual violence, exploitation and other violation.
UNICEF, as well as indicator 16.1.3, classifies violence into three categories: physical, psychological, and sexual. Save the Children, a non-governmental organization aimed to help vulnerable adolescents in Bolivia who fit at least one classification of violence through modules as follows:

Module 1- Self-esteem, personal empowerment, and leadership
Module 2- Sexual and reproductive health
Module 3- Entrepreneurial skills and economic empowerment
Module 4- Basic competences; math and literacy

The program was found to have had a positive effect for success for females, with an improvement in bargaining power within the household and reduction in income-related stress. Additionally, this program may be a factor that led to the decrease in violence against girls in Bolivia.
The UNODC reports that in 2017 alone, around 464,000 people were victims of intentional homicide and homicide rates were 6.1 per 100,000. Two thirds of global homicides occur in Latin America and the Caribbeans or sub-Saharan Africa. Poverty, economic inequality, proximity to the United States’ readily accessible firearm supply, and high youth unemployment are some of the major reasons behind the high homicide rates in Latin America. The UNODC found that, homicides are four times morel likely to occur in regions with high economic disparity than those that have economic equity, which helps to explain the high homicide rates in some Latin American regions. Although homicide rates have been seeing a reduction the past several years, the progress on SDG 16 has been reversing. If current global trends continue, it is estimated that all forms of violence will increase by 10-46 percent by 2030.

Target 16.2: Protect children from abuse, exploitation, trafficking and violence

Long title: "End abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against and torture of children."
This target has three indicators:

Indicator 16.2.1: Proportion of children aged 1–17 years who experienced any physical punishment and/or psychological aggression by caregivers in the past month.
Indicator 16.2.2: Number of victims of human trafficking per 100,000 population, by sex, age and form of exploitation.
Indicator 16.2.3: Proportion of young women and men aged 18–29 years who experienced sexual violence by age 18.

One target is to see the end to sex trafficking, forced labor, and all forms of violence against and torture of children. It is difficult to monitor this target though because there is insufficient data on some types of crime, for example violent punishment of children. Violence against children by their caregivers is widespread. The global COVID-19 pandemic has magnified the challenges of child protection and mental health services. With this occurring in the world currently, no country is on track to eliminate all forms of violence and to promote mental health and well-being as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development pledges.
In 2017, the UN reported some progress on detecting victims of trafficking. Sexual exploitation numbers have declined, but forced labor has increased.

Target 16.3: Equal access to justice

The full text of Target 16.3 is: "Promote the rule of law at the national and international levels and ensure equal access to justice for all."
This target has three indicators:

Indicator 16.3.1: Proportion of victims of violence in the previous 12 months who reported their victimization to competent authorities or other officially recognized conflict resolution mechanisms.
Indicator 16.3.2: Unsentenced detainees as a proportion of overall prison population.
Indicator 16.3.3: Proportion of the population who have experienced a dispute in the past two years and who accessed a formal or informal dispute resolution mechanism, by type of mechanism.

Regarding indicator 16.3.2, a progress report from 2019 concludes that of the 149 countries with available data, 31 countries had "a rate lower than 15 per cent" and 62 had "a rate higher than 35 per cent." Asia and Oceania countries experienced high increases in rates during the years 2016–2018.
Indicator 16.3.3 was added to the official indicator framework in 2020, when it was approved by the United Nations Statistical Commission. It measures the proportion of the population who have experienced a dispute in the past two years and who accessed a formal or informal dispute resolution mechanism, by type of mechanism.

Target 16.4: Combat organized crime and illicit financial and arms flows

The full text of Target 16.4: "By 2030, significantly reduce illicit financial and arms flows, strengthen the recovery and return of stolen assets and combat all forms of organized crime."
The target has two indicators:

Indicator 16.4.1: Total value of inward and outward illicit financial flows.
Indicator 16.4.2: Proportion of seized, found or surrendered arms whose illicit origin or context has been traced or established by a competent authority in line with international instruments.
Target 16.5: Substantially reduce corruption and bribery

The full text of Target 16.5: "Substantially reduce corruption and bribery in all their forms."
The target has two indicators:

Indicator 16.5.1: Proportion of persons who had at least one contact with a public official and who paid a bribe to a public official, or were asked for a bribe by those public officials, during the previous 12 months.
Indicator 16.5.2: Proportion of businesses that had at least one contact with a public official and that paid a bribe to a public official, or were asked for a bribe by those public officials during the previous 12 months.

Based on available data from 38 countries collected in years 2010-2020, bribery when accessing public services was least present in high-income countries and most present in lower-income countries.

Target 16.6: Develop effective, accountable and transparent institutions

The full text of Target 16.6: "Develop effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels."
The target has two indicators:

Indicator 16.6.1: Primary government expenditures as a proportion of original approved budget, by sector.
Indicator 16.6.2: Proportion of population satisfied with their last experience of public services.

This is the end.