Abstract
Gender issues, and gender equality, can be regarded as cross-cutting issues in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In an unprecedented global effort, the heads of state and government and high representatives in the United Nations (UN) meeting of September 2015 put forward the ‘2030 Agenda’, a global plan for human and environmental prosperity, structured in seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets, indicative of the scale and of the ambition of the global action to be pursued. The 2030 Agenda recognises that the achievements of the 17 SDGs are linked to human and planetary prosperity, strengthening universal peace, greater freedom and promoting the eradication of poverty, discrimination and inequalities in all forms (UN, 2015). Leaving no one behind lies at the heart of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This principle is mentioned at least seven times in the agenda itself, and has been a recurrent theme in documents, pledges, calls to action, interventions and statements delivered since - by Member States, the UN and civil society. A clear commitment to inclusiveness is made in the text of the agenda when member states “pledge that no one will be left behind” while at the same time recognizing that the dignity of the human person is fundamental, and by pledging that all goals and targets be met for all nations, peoples and societies committing to also reach those furthest behind. However, despite the frequent use and reference to this principle, focused efforts to leave no one behind remain insufficient, in terms of policy design, implementation and review.
The important role of gender equality for socio-economic development is well highlighted in the UN publication “We the Peoples” (Annan, 2000), emphasising the untapped development potential due to social, economic and political inequalities arising from gender discrimination, deeply rooted and persistent in many developing and developed economies, related to access to decent work and equal pay, education, healthcare, resources, decision-making, among others (Maheshwari & Nayak, 2020). SDG5 brings forward issues of gender-based discrimination such as unpaid work, sexual and reproductive rights, and gender-based violence (Hirsu, 2019). Achieving SDG5 is a priority that contributes to the increase in global well-being. With the promotion of gender equality and progress for women being slow, it is obvious that lesser-known genders are being left even further behind. Most studies indicate that the fight for gender equality is still making slow progress. The Global Gender Gap 2020 (World Economic Forum, 2020) report underscores the necessity of achieving gender equality while revealing disparities between men and women in health, education, and policy areas, as well as across all forms of economic participation. This report further highlights there is a gap of 31.4% to close before parity is reached. Social inclusion was also ranked as the top global sustainability objective in ‘Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want’, started by the African Union in 2013 and adopted in 2015 (Poku, Esom & Armstrong, 2017). Yet, discrimination and violence against people of various sexual orientations and gender identities is still a tremendous problem across the world. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersexual, asexual, pansexual and kink (LGBTQIAPK+) workers face discrimination based on their perceived or actual sexual orientation and/or gender identity across all sectors in the labour market. In South Africa, many private sector organisations subscribe to the United Nations Global Compact as a commitment to the achievement of global sustainability objectives. This study explores the attitudes towards social inclusion as a global sustainability imperative among a selected group of JSE-listed organisations in Johannesburg. A precursory analysis on ATLAS.ti of the 50 top earning JSE- listed organisations in South Africa in 2020 showed that the topics of social inclusion, gender identity or LGBTQIAPK+ hardly featured in any of these organisations’ most recent annual integrated reports. The study adopted a qualitative approach and used snowball sampling to reach sustainability or human resource representatives at the organisations included in the study. The data was analysed using ATLAS.ti, which is software that enables detailed thematic analysis of the interview transcripts. The findings show that even though most participants were aware of the concept of social inclusion, there were no specific programmes in place to facilitate gender sensitisation. The key finding was that these organisations were willing to address the issue of social inclusion seriously and mentioned specific recommendations for private sector organisations. The right to equal treatment and equal opportunity is primarily a matter of workers' rights, and unbiased hiring practices allow companies to improve their talent pools and increase market access, meaning that it makes economic sense to promote equality across all genders which has now reached over 100 as stated by the British Broadcasting Channel (BBC, 2021).