OWG Proposed Target 16.2
RATING: UNCERTAIN The ambition to end violence is an excellent aspiration, but this is clearly not a feasible zero target for the next 15 years (or perhaps ever if taken literally). The costs of abuse, exploitation and violence against children are large – Fearon and Hoeffler (2014) estimate that largest cost to children is violence within the home, with sexual abuse and homicide somewhat lower in prevalence and cost. There is limited evidence for interventions that could successfully reduce violence – and most of these studies come from high-income countries.
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In our recent report, not just the target above, but all 169 targets have been assessed by 60 teams of the world’s top economists. The targets have been categorized into five ratings based on evidence of economic, social, and environmental costs and benefits. While we applaud that the UN Open Working Group's final outcome document contains 43 fewer targets than the previous document, we are concerned that many targets have simply been combined, therefore reducing the number of both phenomenal and poor targets assessed according to our cost-benefit analysis. Our new assessment includes suggestions for how these can be improved as reported in this article by the Financial Times.
