10/03/2021
At FSG, we welcome the approval of the General Guidelines of the SDS approved by the Council of Ministers. The SDS sets forth a country model for the coming decade based on sustainable development and underscores the need for a strong inter-relationship and mutually reinforcing dynamics within the International Human Rights Framework, as well as synergies with the EU Funds as NextGeneration EU and the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.
As part of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, each country has to design, on a participatory basis, its own Sustainable Development Strategy: a vision for the country for the next decade. The SDS must unite the commitments of various existing strategies and frameworks (Human Rights, Recovery and Resilience Plan, European Green Pact, European Pillar of Social Rights and sectoral strategies on poverty, equality/inclusion of the Roma population, etc.) in order to develop a guiding thread and make better, more focused use of public policies.
We welcome the General Guidelines of the SDS and the addition of key considerations that we have raised to address the specific needs of the Roma population in Spain. In fact, there are several explicit mentions of the Roma population with respect to its high rates of poverty — child poverty in particular —, unemployment and in general the need to implement targeted measures for groups facing the most palpable vulnerability, such as the Roma community.
However, despite these explicit mentions, we found that some of them have not been sufficiently taken on as priorities for action, mainly those related to addressing all forms of discrimination, including racism, anti-gypsyism and xenophobia. In our opinion, the General Guidelines of the SDS, as in the 2030 Agenda itself, do not sufficiently highlight the importance of the fight against racism and the promotion of equal treatment; instead, these have been relegated it to a secondary concern.
From FSG we understand that the fight for equal treatment and non-discrimination must be part of the policy priorities of a Country Strategy like the Sustainable Development Strategy. We will call on the General Directorate of Social Rights to do so and to incorporate equal treatment in a concrete and operative manner in the subsequent design phases of the SDS.