Leave/remain and leave no one behind political jargon

By Richard Ssewakiryanga

Barely three weeks to the first United Nations High Level Political Forum, a country (UK) has left a major regional integration block.

Here in East Africa, we always looked up to the European Union as our best practice example for economic integration.  But now the best practice has a big hole and everyone across the globe is talking about this - gaping hole of Britain leaving the European Union.

The first casualty is the UK Prime Minister leaving his job.  How many more will be lost, will be for us to count as we continue to observe the ramifications of the ‘leave campaign'.  While I would like to go on about this, what intrigued me in this whole circus is how the word ‘leave' has become such a powerful political metaphor.

As the world prepared for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, ‘leaving' no one behind became the mobilising metaphor, because it sounded right and sounded egalitarian and sounded central to the creation of solidarity around the world.  But the question that struck in my mind was how this works in practice?  If one is not to be left behind what happens?  The options are not many, but they are clear.

In the first instance, the one in-front would wait for the one behind and when the one behind catches up they walk together.  In the second option the one in-front would turn back and collect the one behind and then walk together either at the speed of the one who turned back or the one who was behind.

The third option would be to slow down and wait for the one behind so that they two would walk at the same speed and catch up with each other.  If one applied these scenarios to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), it then implies that it would be helpful for us to clarify what the world community means when it speaks about ‘leaving' no one behind. At least for the European community we now know what ‘leaving' the EU behind means.

Financial markets were volatile, the British currency was at an all-time low for good or bad, the young wanted to stay as the old wanted to return to the ‘good old days'.  But ‘leaving' has made an impact.

What seems a plausible option, on the SDG side would be to ensure that those that are behind are helped to catch up with those that are in front, but how will this play out?  In the real world it would mean much more in investments that can support ‘catch-up development'.  This would be investments in developments that would lead to rapid economic growth.  The most plausible being the support of production for trade in countries that are trading dwarfs and ensure that they have unlimited access to countries that are trade giants.  A good solution, if implemented through a value chain approach that moves right from the farmer to the supermarket in a country with a high consumption capacity.

So while thinking about these scenarios of ‘leaving no one behind' and then seeing the effect of the leave/remain campaign - popularly known as the Brexit campaign, it was clear to me that we still have a long way to travel in our journey to reconcile our political rhetoric and social reality.

If indeed major economic blocks like Europe are collapsing right before our eyes, then how shall we ever be able to achieve a much broader agenda like the SDGs?  For a long time we have convinced each other that we need each other and worked to protect each other.

But the number of voices that want to demonstrate that isolation of countries is an alternative model to accommodation of countries are growing dangerously many.  We hope that in our soul searching global mindset we shall find common ground that will truly deliver a world where no one is left behind!

The writer is the executive director of the Uganda National NGO Forum