This report proposes a framework to understand intertwined objectives of empowering people, ensuring inclusiveness and equality as fundamental features towards realising the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. The report's analytical framework uses four synergistic elements that include:
- Rights and justice: Encompassing knowledge and protection of one’s rights, why they matter, and how to ensure access to justice.
- Resources and capabilities: Essential and productive resources, including social protection and safety nets as well as capabilities to control them and have a choice in their use.
- Participation and voice: Freedom to participate in political activity and community life, to access public resources and services, and to contribute to decisions that impact an individual as well as the ability of individuals and groups to represent themselves and be heard.
- Norms and institutions: Informal rules, practices, and shared social expectations that shape individual and societal attitudes and behavior as well as formal structures, laws, and regulations that underpin societal functioning.
The framework is applied to three important policymaking spheres in Asia and the Pacific that will likely define the region’s success in achieving the 2030 Agenda—climate action, domestic resource mobilisation, and civic participation. The report illustrates how each element of the framework contributes to better Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) outcomes. For instance, it finds that constitutional recognition of environmental rights is associated with improved environmental performance across the core environment-related SDGs.