PROGRAM OF INCLUSION AND EQUITY (PIE)
Programa sobre la inclusión y la equidad (p.i.e.) | Programme sur l‘inclusion et l’équité (p.i.e.)
The death of George Floyd, during a police intervention in Minneapolis in May 2020, launched a social movement denouncing the excessive use of force by the police in the United States, particularly against African Americans, an event that has quickly spread. Later, in 2021, the death of Joyce Echaquan, an Atikamekw woman, under the insults of the staff of the Hospital Center of Lanaudière, illustrated the racism present in the health system of Quebec, Canada. “Systemic racism” is not a exclusive North American phenomenon; on the contrary, the issues surrounding equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) correspond to a global reality that can affect very diverse countries.
Ethnic-based identities are just one of the factors that can lead to inequities and exclusions. Other criteria can be religion, sexual preferences (homophobia), age (ageism), level of poverty (aporophobia), accent-based discrimination (glottophobia) and, of course, gender. Adopting a more inclusive approach to inclusion implies leaving “race” aside and referring instead to “inequities” or “systemic discrimination” deeply rooted in our societies. Moreover, tackling the topic transnationally requires shedding preconceptions about who is discriminated against and who is privileged in a particular society, as a group that is advantaged in one country may very well be disadvantaged in another. In addition, the very definition of the group may vary from one country to another. Diversity is part of human nature.
To move forward on the path of sustainable change towards more inclusive and equitable societies, it is necessary to generate individual awareness to induce collective change. The Program on Inclusion and Equity (PIE) of the Transnational Laboratory for Sustainable Peace (PAZSOS) aims to establish organizational cultures that enable the promotion of equity, diversity and inclusion. EDI is understood not only internally, but also in the relationships that these institutions maintain with their partners, and in their dealings with people participating in activities and with beneficiaries. To contribute, through microsocial change, to the establishment of societies free from systemic discrimination, we offer an applied research and training program aimed at developing individual skills to integrate diversity into daily life and then promote the collective enrichment. By acting on organizational cultures and promoting modes of sociability based on respect and the promotion of diversity, the PIE allows its partners to invest to reinforce social capital.
For more information, contact us: sharing@pazsos.org
Transverse lines of action
Collective Action for a sustainable change is neither the result of abstract studies absent of concrete applications nor of practical interventions isolated from theoretical considerations. Social change is effective when it is directed not to change progressively or revolutionarily the status quo, but when it is directed to build the bases of an alternative system where human beings are at the center. PAZSOS aims to implement ideas that offer real and efficient solutions to problems that have been over diagnosticated by providing potentially disruptive innovative thoughts and practices, while emphasizing continuity by considering pertinent past experiences. Sustainability is the result of actions aimed to guarantee that research is translated into specific public policy recommendations, cooperation programmes, and other results with real and quantifiable impact. For this reason, we include three cross-sectional priority axis in our actions: Human Rights, Gender, and Environmental Sustainability.
The Human Rights approach offers a conceptual framework to understand the causes of respect or disrespect of democratic guarantees and freedoms. Based on the UN Statement of Common Understanding on Human-Rights-Based Approaches to Development Cooperation and Programming (the Common Understanding), PAZSOS’s actions are directed to work with the most marginalized, excluded, and discriminated. We work to guarantee that our action:
- Is based on serious studies, capable to identify immediate, underlying, and deep causes of the obstacles to development.
- Details goals, targets, and measurements in close relationship with the Human Rights standards.
- Includes, through strategic partnerships, all State and non-State actors interested to attain the identified results.
- Reinforces national systems in order to promote democratic control over public management.
- Encourages the exercise of Human Rights in a tool to promote development.
- Considers individuals as major actors in their own development (and not as simple beneficiaries of products and services).
- Understand citizen participation as a means and not as an end in itself;
- Favors the empowerment of the most vulnerable as a strategy to reduce inequalities.
- Supports processes and results which are subjected to monitoring and evaluation.
Gender equality, which is the result of the elimination of all forms of discrimination based on gender (as well as on preferences or sexual orientation), is a fundamental element of the Human Rights-based approach. It is also part of the Sustainable Development Goals (objective 5). Gender must be tackled from an intersectoral perspective capable to link diverse mechanisms and structures of inequality including. those related to race, ethnicity, and social class. In other words, a gender approach most be systematically and transversally included in program conception and in specific components aimed to correct inequalities (gender mainstreaming). In the same vein, we use, and if necessary, develop, new indicators to measure the progresses on gender equality, beginning by the indicators defined by the Sustainable Development Goals.
We are in times of ecological transition, where climate change and ecosystem degradation put at risk the continuity of life as we know it. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development offers an ambitious action framework aimed to generate sustainable consumption and production patterns (Objective 12). The agenda also insists on the necessity to take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts (Objective 13), to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development (Objective 14), and to work to combat desertification and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss (Objective 15). Even if, in one way or another, all goals are linked to sustainable management of natural resources, the following points should be highlighted:
- Food security (Objective 2) is attainable only through sustainable agriculture, silviculture, and durable fishing, which does not overexploit soil, oceans, and forests, and which protects biodiversity and the sources of drinking water (water is cover by objective 6).
- Clean energy must be produced at an affordable cost (objective 7). For this reason, public investments in sectors such as transport, irrigation systems, information and communication technologies should be increased (objective 9 focuses on sustainable infrastructure).
- New sources of productive and decent work linked to the green economy must be created (objective 8).
- Cities and human settlements must be inclusive, sage, resilient, and sustainable (objective 11).
