Argentina

In Argentina, UNDP launched an innovative project to understand the link between poverty and access to justice and contribute to a global discussion on justice for development by introducing the access to justice dimension to a credible national poverty survey: “A Survey of the Argentine Social Debt – Series for Equity 2022” (Encuesta de la Deuda Social Argentina - Serie para la Equidad 2022).

In the first half of 2022, the poverty rate in Argentina reached 36.5 percent. The situation got worse throughout the year and by its end, up to 39.2 percent of people in Argentina lived in poverty.oblasts The socioeconomic situation and pre-existing inequalities were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The labour gap deepened, 78 percent of the officially employed educated personnel were able to work from home and keep their jobs, while only 22 percent of individuals engaged in the informal labour market managed to remain employed.

By testing the new SDG indicator 16.3.3 within a national poverty survey in Argentina, UNDP aims to evaluate the everyday justice experiences of poor people and to analyse how unaddressed legal issues or lack of access to justice contribute to rising poverty levels. UNDP prioritized including the gender lens in data collection and interpretation to define the linkages between poverty, justice and gender that are specific to Argentina, but the analysis of which can be extrapolated to other countries and regions. The project streamlines the leave no one behind approach to increase the focus on access to justice policies by different groups in vulnerable and marginalized situations through the analysis of disaggregated socio-economic data.

To ensure that the access to justice module was well designed and incorporated in the national poverty survey, UNDP partnered with the Argentine Social Debt Observatory (ODSA) of the School of Economics, Catholic University of Argentina. This well-respected academic centre is known for its sound research, data collection and credible analysis on poverty and inequality in Argentina. The ODSA carries out an annual survey, structurally similar to a permanent household survey, which has been widely accepted as a credible source for poverty data in the country.

Ahead of the national survey, UNDP and ODSA established an interdisciplinary group of experts (social scientists and justice practitioners) that held internal meetings to discuss methodology, approaches and the scope of technical contributions in 2022. The group reviewed the international literature on access to justice, designed the justice module application methodology and developed the access to justice module to enable effective measurement, monitoring and evaluation of justice needs, access to formal and informal dispute resolution systems, quality and efficiency of services.

For the overall design of the project strategy and for the consultations around the access to justice module UNDP engaged and convened a broad spectrum of partners including the World Justice Project, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), UNDP Oslo Governance Centre, Open Society Justice Initiative Foundation and Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies.

UNDP and partners continue to analyse the data obtained from the access to justice module as well as other relevant information obtained from the national poverty survey. The initial findings suggest that people living in poverty tend to be unaware of the legal dimension of their everyday problems and unable to seek access to justice via formal or informal mechanisms for dispute resolution. By June 2023, UNDP will produce a comprehensive report to serve as a tool for advocacy and awareness raising. It will also inform policy development to ensure that people-centred civil justice services are available, accessible, inclusive and effective. The project outputs may be utilized as good practices for other countries in Latin America and beyond to introduce access to justice component to the national surveys and to further test and adjust the SDG indicator on civil justice. In this regard, the project will document the learning process and organize a global event on SDG16.3.3 at the occasion of the launch of the report.