Leaving no one behind: Will the SDGs make a difference for Brazil's quilombola?

Following a year of talks on key issues, including poverty eradication, access to health services and peacebuilding talks, the next set of global poverty goals to follow the current Millennium Development Goals are starting to take shape. Named the Sustainable Development Goals, they will set an ambitious challenge for the global community to rally around throughout the next 15 years to make a significant difference for both people and planet.

Since the MDGs were set in 2000, there have been successes in poverty reduction, including increased access to water, universal access to antiretroviral drugs for people living with HIV is now within reach, and between 1990 and 2011 the mortality rate for children under 5 years old dropped 41 percent.  However, increasing inequality, as well as gender inequality and environmental sustainability, have yet to be properly addressed.

Christian Aid and its Rio de Janeiro-based partner organisation Koinonia joined recent SDG talks in New York, where global representatives met to discuss issues such as worldwide inequality. For Konionia, it was important to find out whether the goals will really make a difference for communities they support back home in Brazil, such as the quilombola. The descendants of escaped slaves, the quilombola live in rural and rainforest areas, and struggle to see their rights realized in the context of the extreme — albeit decreasing — economic inequality that plagues Brazilian society as well as historic racism and discrimination.