The optimism of 2015

2015 feels like a long time ago. Ireland became the first country to legalize same-sex marriage by popular vote. Cabo Verde introduced hate crime protections related to sexual orientation, gender identity and expression (SOGIE). Costa Rica and Mexico each passed their first laws moving towards bans on LGBT-related discrimination. 

And, of course, the UN agreed the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015 – in that very different era.

While the SDGs do not explicitly reference sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or sex characteristics (SOGIESC), UN Member States did pledge to ensure that “no one will be left behind” and to “endeavour to reach the furthest behind first”.  Those pledges were – and still are – radical statements encompassing hope, change and justice.

We felt like we had the wind at our back.

Community activists have described how the SDGs remain relevant to LGBTI+ people and communities, and vice versa. They have highlighted progress, but also unmet needs, threatening pushbacks, dramatic contractions in development assistance and weakening commitments to human rights and the rule of law.

The stalled momentum and the threats on the horizon are real. But so is the progress that we have made together over the past decade.

Building a stronger evidence base

Let us start with UNDP’s data work, which we have been implementing with the support of Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. 

• In 2019, UNDP worked with the World Bank, OutRight, and many others to develop a set of 51 LGBTI-related indicators as the foundation of what we called the LGBTI Inclusion Index. Over the following years, 14 different countries have used these tools to better understand and leverage LGBTI-related data collection, analysis and use. 
• Earlier this year, we saw a significant step forward when the UN Statistical Commission endorsed a new set of instruments to measure non-discrimination and participation, including LGBTI specific tools developed by UNDP and partners in the Praia Group on Governance Statistics.
• Before the 2020 population census round, no national census had ever collected data on SOGIESC. Now, efforts are being made in an increasing number of richer countries but also to some degree in countries like Ecuador, Nepal and Kenya.  Lesotho’s census now underway includes LGBTI-related indicators, and planning is underway for Namibia to do so in the future. 
• We have also seen extremely important progress in more focused data collection, including the rigorous and insightful social attitudes surveys conducted by The Other Foundation and its partners in multiple southern African countries.    

From evidence to development planning

We have also made impressive progress in development planning, much of which is linked to our Inclusive Governance Initiative, supported by the Government of Sweden.  

• At least a dozen countries have included attention to the marginalization of LGBTI populations in the ‘common country assessments’ that underpin SDG planning.
• Cabo Verde responded to such data by featuring strong, costed and budgeted commitments to LGBTI inclusion in its current National Development Plan under SDGs 3, 5 and 10.
• Angola’s SDG plan for 2024-2028 similarly includes explicit LGBTI-related commitments.

Our deepening evidence base is also being reflected in the human rights system, including through the Universal Periodic Review and civil society shadow reports. It is also visible at the High-Level Political Forum itself, through Voluntary National Reviews and spotlight reports.

Translating progress into better lives

Of course, our progress – in data, in development planning and accountability, and in human rights mechanisms – matters most of all when it translates into better and more inclusive laws, policies, strategies and programmes.

It must concretely make life better for marginalized queer and trans people. It must allow those of us from sexual and gender minorities to contribute as much as possible to the well-being and prosperity of our families, communities and countries.  

That is happening too.

• We have seen a massive increase in awareness and action on intersex issues, reflected in  changes to standard medical protocols in countries as different as India and Zambia; the passage at the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) of Resolution 552; and a recent partnership initiated by Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Justice with intersex community groups and UNDP to review and revise relevant discriminatory laws.  
• We have seen real responses to violence and hate crimes. ACHPR’s Resolution 275 on protection against violence and other human rights violation; the response of Cote d’Ivoire’s national human rights institution last year to the horrific Anti-Woubi campaign; and the recent passage of hate crimes legislation in South Africa alongside the country’s implementation of LGBTI-inclusive campaigns against gender-based violence. 
• We have started to see social protection that takes account of a wide variety of family structures in places such as Namibia and Nepal, as well as real progress on gender recognition and legal identity in Argentina and Cuba. 
• Largely because of HIV programming, health ministries and health services around the world have continued to make progress in understanding and responding to the health needs of LGBTI people – including in some countries where this work is extremely challenging.

I am taking the time to highlight these steps forward because they are real, they are making people’s lives better and they demonstrate that further progress is possible. They show that the investments of political will and funding over the past decade really have made a difference.

But let me return to stalled momentum and the threats on the horizon. How do we keep building on our real but still limited progress, in the very different world of 2026?

Three priorities for the road ahead

1. Combine targeted action with mainstreaming

Just as the gender equality movement learned long ago, we should depend neither on so-called mainstreaming nor on specialist initiatives. We need both. 
As funding shrinks, we need to make sure that the funds that remain are balanced between LGBTI-focused work and efforts to include attention to LGBTI issues in broader development and rights work.

2. Build broader coalitions

We need to put far more emphasis on facilitating coalition-building among those most often left behind, linking LGBTI work with movements involving people with disabilities, racialized populations, migrants and others.  
Marginalized groups do not always want to work with each other, but joint efforts will be more politically effective – and they will cost less than a whole series of separate initiatives.

3. Invest in the role of the United Nations

The UN system is an indispensable partner in the movement for LGBTI inclusion, even more as we go through the current reform process.   

It is of course essential to fund frontline community activists and international LGBTI non-governmental organizations. But UN system actors need funding too, because we can access, influence and support governments in a very different way that is also essential.  

While it might not always be obvious, we are making real progress within the UN in working more effectively and efficiently with each other. In Africa, this is reflected in an interagency LGBTI working group co-chaired by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and UNDP, and an interagency gender-pushback working group co-chaired by UN Women and OHCHR.

The United Nations-wide strategy on protecting LGBTI+ people from violence and discrimination gives us a mandate and an action framework. Let us leverage both.