Peace, justice & strong institutions | SDG 16: Peace, justice & strong institutions (2024)

[goal: 16] is about advancing just, peaceful, and inclusive societies and building effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions. The importance of safeguarding human life from violence has been recognized through [target: 16.1] which calls for significantly reducing all forms of violence and related death rates everywhere. In addition to the lives lost, homicide and armed conflict erode trust among citizens, undermine development efforts, and result in lost economic output.

Every year hundreds of thousands of people worldwide are victims of homicide. Data on intentional homicide [footnote: Intentional homicide is defined as the unlawful killing of a person by another person where the intent of the perpetrator was to kill or seriously injure the victim. Intentional homicide is different from killings due to self-defense, reckless or negligent actions, armed conflict, and self-inflicted deaths.] is used to monitor violent deaths and is one of the indicators used to measure progress towards [target: 16.1].

In Latin America & the Caribbean, gang-related violence is one of the main drivers of the high homicide rates. In these areas, both the victims and the perpetrators tend to be young men from disadvantaged backgrounds.[reference: UNODC. [link: https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/global-study-on-homicide.html Global Study on Homicide 2019]]

The global homicide rate has declined over the last decade. However, due to population growth, the total number of victims rose from approximately 421,000 in 2010 to 437,000 in 2020.

The regions with the highest homicide rates have a disproportionate number of victims compared with their population size: around 30 percent of all intentional homicides take place in Latin America & the Caribbean (a region with 8 percent of the global population). Sub-Saharan Africa has almost 40 percent of global homicides (and 15 percent of the world’s population).

The global homicide rate saw a slight increase in 2020 after years of decline.

In most countries with available data, the male intentional homicide rate [footnote: Male victims of intentional homicide (rate per 100,000 population)] is higher than the female rate. Globally, the male homicide rate (9 victims per 100,000) is more than four times the rate for women (2 per 100,000).

As a result, men account for most homicide victims. In 2020, the number of male victims was 359,000 – more than 80 percent of the worldwide total.

Additionally , far more men are arrested/suspected of intentional homicide than women. In countries where data is available, men account for approximately 80 percent of those arrested/suspected.

Looking at data on causes of death is another way to see how and where violence inflicts the greatest harm (outside of war situations). Interpersonal violence is defined by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation as “death from intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, from another person or group not including military or police forces”.[reference: Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, [link: https://www.healthdata.org/gbd Global Burden of Diseases]]

The death toll caused by war and conflict is another consequence of violence on society. This is also measured as part [target: 16.1].

War inflicts suffering due to lives lost, but also causes severe damage to economies and infrastructure, setting back progress in all areas of development.

The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) keeps track of fatalities from organized violent events, which are defined as deaths resulting from battles, explosions/remote violence, and violence against civilians.[reference: [link: https://acleddata.com/acleddatanew/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/ACLED_Codebook_v1_January-2021.pdf Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) Codebook]] The map below shows fatalities resulting from conflict (organized violent events) for each year between 2018 and 2022.

Since Russia’s invasion launched in February 2022, Ukraine has suffered a high human and economic toll. More than 32,000 fatalities have been documented in the first year of the war.[reference: [link: https://acleddata.com/ ACLED]]

Over eight million people have fled Ukraine for other countries across Europe.[footnote: These refugees have also been located elsewhere, including the United States.][reference: [link: https://data2.unhcr.org/en/situations/ukraine UNHCR]]

The country’s economy contracted by more than 30 percent in 2022. It is estimated that an additional seven million Ukrainians (of a population of 44 million) were pushed into poverty in 2022, undermining more than 15 years of progress in poverty reduction.[reference: [link: https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/ukraine/overview The World Bank - Ukraine]]

Countries experiencing violent conflict or grappling with institutional and social fragility face severe difficulties in addressing important development challenges, such as ending extreme poverty, combating climate change, and protecting the most vulnerable members of society.[reference: The World Bank [link: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/3c335532-5484-51a4-a16f-78399ab2f025 Fragility, Conflict & Violence ]]

As of 2022, a total of 37 countries or territories (with approximately one billion people) were classified as fragile and conflict-affected situations (FCS) by the World Bank. These economies face high levels of institutional and social fragility or are affected by violent conflict.[reference: [link: https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/fragilityconflictviolence/brief/harmonized-list-of-fragile-situations Classification of Fragility and Conflict Situations for World Bank Group Engagement]] More than two-thirds of these economies (25 out of 37) are in Sub-Saharan Africa and Middle East & North Africa.

More than 40 percent of people living in extreme poverty are in countries with fragile and conflict-affected situations, and by the end of the decade, this is expected to grow to almost 60 percent. [reference: Corral, Paul; Irwin, Alexander; Krishnan, Nandini; Mahler, Daniel Gerszon; Vishwanath, Tara. 2020. [link: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/3c335532-5484-51a4-a16f-78399ab2f025 Fragility and Conflict: On the Front Lines of the Fight against Poverty] Washington, DC: World Bank. (updated data as of February 2023)]

According to the World Bank’s Global Economic Prospects report, food insecurity doubled from 46 million in 2019 to 91 million in 2022 for those currently living in low-income countries that also classify as fragile situations.[reference: World Bank Group [link: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/59695a57-f323-5fa8-8c6f-d58bfa8918cd Global Economic Prospects (January 2023)]]

The price of many food staples has increased as a result of the pandemic and trade restrictions stemming from the war in Ukraine. Those most impacted by food insecurity have been those displaced or difficult to reach in conflict situations. The impact can be especially dire on children, as prolonged malnutrition can have severe impacts on mental and physical development.

Through years of ongoing conflict, Yemen has been suffering from one of the most dire food emergencies in the world. Approximately 17 million people (about half the country’s population) are facing food insecurity or emergency. In some areas of the country, as many as two thirds of people suffer from inadequate food consumption.[footnote: Inadequate food consumption is defined as the percent of households with a [link: https://resources.vam.wfp.org/data-analysis/quantitative/food-security/food-consumption-score Food Consumption Score] (FCS) ≤42][reference: [link: https://dataviz.vam.wfp.org/version2/reports/yemen/yemen-food-security-and-market-monitoring-dec-2022 The World Food Programme]] Macroeconomic crises, volatile food prices, flooding and drought have compounded the crisis.

Violence and conflict exact a heavy toll in terms of casualties, economic losses, displaced people, as well as daily insecurities and deprivations. The impact of violence is often disproportionately distributed amongst the most vulnerable, including women, children, or the elderly. Reducing violence helps improve social cohesion and increase people's trust in institutions and in each other, making positive development outcomes easier to achieve.

In the charts below you can find more facts about SDG {activeGoal} targets, which are not covered in this story. The data for these graphics is derived from official UN data sources.