Preliminary findings and recommendations of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to development, Mr. Saad Alfarargi, at the end of his visit to Cabo Verde

French

Praia, (21 November 2018) – At the end of his visit to Cabo Verde during which the Special Rapporteur held meetings in Praia and Mindelo, Mr. Saad Alfarragi delivered the following statement:

“I would like to express my sincere appreciation and gratitude to the Government of Cabo Verde for inviting me to the country to conduct my first official visit as Special Rapporteur on the right to development, and for their full support and cooperation before and during my time here. 

During my official visit from 12 to 21 November 2018, I visited the islands of Santiago and Sao Vicente and I was able to meet with a large number of government representatives, civil society organizations, academics, as well as with United Nations officials. Due to unforeseen circumstances, unfortunately I was not able to meet with the representation of the European Union in the country.

This country visit will be the first one that I conducted since my appointment in 2017. My objectives during my visit were primarily to learn more and gain first-hand understanding of the advancement of the right to development in Cabo Verde and to identify remaining challenges with a view to formulating recommendations to the Government and other stakeholders who are working towards implementing sustainable development and promoting the realisation of the right to development in Cabo Verde.

I was especially interested in learning more about how the national and local governments promote and guarantee effective public participation in development policies and programs, what are the key challenges faced in the implementation of the right to development in Cabo Verde and what policies and measures are in place to address inequalities, including those based on gender and social status.

I chose to conduct my first country visit in my capacity as a Special Rapporteur on right to development to Cabo Verde because I believe that it is a country that has achieved an impressive progress, despite the numerous challenges that it has been facing. Cabo Verde is a small island developing state (SIDS) and a graduate from the least developing country (LDC) category since 2007. Being a “graduate” is an achievement in itself, but during my visit I learned that the “graduation”, and the global economic crisis of 2008, have resulted in drastic decrease of the funding for the country, thus stagnating development and many much needed reforms. I have been informed that the Government of Cabo Verde is organizing an international conference in Paris on 11 and 12 December 2018 entitled "Building New Partnerships for Sustainable Development in Cabo Verde" to present to the international community its plans for development and investment opportunities to encourage foreign investment and development assistance. I strongly encourage the international community to engage in this process and dialogue, in line with its commitments made in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in particular Goal 17 and Article 3 of the Declaration on the Right to Development.

I welcome the initiatives of the Government to promote South-South cooperation. I commend in particular the efforts of Cabo Verde to formalize and enhance the actions of the small African island states within the African Union and in other regional and international fora, which culminated in 2016 in the First Conference of the African Small Island Developing States and Madagascar (SIDSAM) and the adoption of the Praia Declaration. I encourage the Government to continue its efforts to enhance international cooperation for this group of states, who face serious and particular challenges and I call on the African Union and the international community at large to continue supporting these efforts.

Furthermore, I welcome the efforts that have been made by all levels of government to integrate human rights and in particular the right to development in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in all Government policy areas, including in the Government Program for Development (2016-2021). I encourage the authorities to strengthen their efforts with regard to the monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of Agenda 2030 in all laws, policies, regulations, plans of actions, and programmes.

The country is facing numerous challenges, being a Sahel country, exposed to frequent draughts and lacking in natural resources. Its economy is small and undiversified, with high dependency on Official Development Assistance (ODA) and migrant remittances. Tourism is the main industry producing economic growth, but it does not appear to be extending its benefits to the entire territory, with the poorest rural islands left behind. I encourage the Government in their efforts to make tourism more diverse and not only relying on sun and sea, and I call on the international community to provide the necessary technical assistance and funding to ensure the diversity and sustainability of this sector of the economy, with the informed participation of the local communities in all development programmes and projects affecting their livelihood and wellbeing.

During my visit I also learned about the efforts of the Government to develop the “blue economy” as one of the ways of diversifying its economy. The development of the “blue economy”, (according to the World Bank - sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods and jobs, while preserving the health of ocean ecosystem), should be conducted in a manner that would contribute to inclusive economic growth and reducing inequalities, optimising the conditions for the construction of economic, social and environmental resilience. It could constitute a good practice of integrated policy for achieving SDGs, if conducted in a participatory manner with the involvement and ownership of the local communities. I will continue to follow the implementation of the Government’s plans in that regard with great interest.

I was heartened to learn that, despite the challenges and unfavourable world economic environment, national poverty has declined in recent years. However, in some municipalities the absolute poverty rate remains as high as 60.3%. Further, women and persons with disabilities remain in a much more precarious situation.

I strongly believe that the role of civil society organizations and their cooperation with the authorities and other relevant stakeholders is fundamental to the advancement of the right to development and of human rights more broadly. I was pleased to learn from civil society organizations that they have been included in the discussions leading to formulation of domestic development policies and legislation. I encourage the government to institutionalize consultation processes when working on development policies and legislation in particular affecting economic and social rights of the population.

Some of the organisations I met raised concerns about different levels of inclusion of the urban and rural populations, of the population of the smaller islands, and the low levels of outreach and participation opportunities at municipal level, in particular in rural areas. Since the population in remote and rural areas is suffering from highest poverty and exclusion, I call on municipal governments to increase their efforts to include these communities in decision making regarding issues that affect them. I also call on the national government to work on raising the capacity of local governments to put in place and institutionalize participatory consultative mechanisms related to, for example, municipal budgets planning.

I also learnt about the shrinking of civic space as both the international community and the Government have reduced funding for civil society organisations, following the country’s “graduation”, which leads them to compete against each other for fewer resources. This important gap needs to be addressed both through mobilization on national resources and through international cooperation.

During the visit, I met with several civil society organizations working on gender issues and I learned about the numerous problems women are facing in their daily lives. Not only women’s unemployment rates are higher than men’s, but women are more often employed in the informal economy, they are paid less than men or not at all- because women are the ones doing the household work and child care, which remain invisible or undervalued. I was taken aback to learn of the extremely high percentage of female headed families (according to UN Women, 48% of families are headed by women) which jeopardises not only their development opportunities, but those of their children. Despite the existence of some micro-credit opportunities and various vocational training projects, operated by civil society and at municipal level, a lot remains to be done to ensure women’s economic empowerment. The legislative and policy context for the promotion of the private sector need to be developed to address better gender issues and the institutional gender awareness and capacities need to increase. I encourage the Government to continue working on these issues, together with the civil society, to continue to include the National Institute on Women’s Conditions and Equity of Genders in policy discussions and preparation of the state budget, as well as to ensure adequate funding for the work of the Institute.

One of the ways to come closer to ensuring effective gender equality is to increase women’s role in decision making. I learned that women’s representation in elected positions remains modest- for example only 23% of the members of the Parliament are women; and that the situation in the private sphere is even worse. I was informed of the draft Parity Bill that has been initiated by women members of the Parliament in consultation with civil society. I encourage the Government and the Parliament to review and adopt it as soon as feasible in order to provide a solid legislative basis for women’s participation in the political, but also in the economic and social development of the country.

I was pleased to hear about the processes employed in developing the Second National Gender Action Plan (2015-2018), through open and transparent consultations with all stakeholders. I hope that the government will continue the inclusive process throughout the implementation and evaluation of the Plan to achieve progress gender equality and empowering women in the Cabo Verdean society. I was also encouraged to learn that the Second National Gender Plan is being implemented and that the at the same time, the Government Program for development (2016-2021) and the National Strategic Development Plan (PEDS), acknowledge the importance of the participation of women in all spheres of life and make a considerable effort  to internalise at country level the SGDs goals and targets related to reducing inequalities. 

I am further encouraged by the adoption in 2011 of the Gender based Violence (GBV) Law, and the adoption of the Second National Plan for fighting GBV (2015-2018) and I call on the Government to continue working towards adequately budgeting for their implementation.

I met with several organisations of persons with disabilities and was informed that they are facing exclusion and poverty. In terms of access to healthcare, I heard about the numerous obstacles they are confronted with, ranging from inaccessible buildings, absence of public transportation that they can use, lack of information provided in formats accessible for persons with different disabilities, the lack of personnel adequately qualified to address their specific needs, in particular in the field of sexual and reproductive health and lack of equipment adapted to persons with disabilities. Further, no recent and reliable data appears to exist about the numbers of persons with disability and the types of disabilities affecting them.  Women with disabilities face additional hurdles when trying to access reproductive health care services. Adding to these issues, unemployment among persons with disabilities according to some sources exceeds 90%; schools are not physically adapted and lack qualified teachers to integrate children with disabilities, hampering further their development prospects. I learned of the existence of a draft bill on the rights of persons with disabilities, under consideration by the Government. I encourage the Government and the legislature to accelerate the adoption of that bill, but also to invest in gathering adequate disaggregated data and to ensure adequate funding for its implementation, so that the persons with disabilities in Cabo Verde can advance towards leading a dignified life and do not remain among those left behind.

With regard to health care, I was encouraged to learn that key indicators for the country have improved- such as maternal mortality, new-born and child mortality and vaccination rates. I note with concern, however, that the share of the State budget devoted to healthcare is lower that the share recommended by the World Health Organisation. I was also informed that there is a solid legislative basis, but that there are issues with regard to implementation and that readjustment is necessary in order to reflect the domestic reality. I hope that the upcoming decentralisation process will be instrumental in restructuring the health care system and allow the system to answer better the needs of the communities, in particular in remote and rural areas. Concerns were raised in particular with regard to tertiary health care for the inhabitants of most islands, since there are only two reference hospitals in the country.  I further call on the Government to continue the dialogue with associations of person with disabilities and other civil society organisations and with medical practitioners to bring about the necessary restructuring. I noted concerns raised at the lack of training of medical personnel to attend to persons living with HIV/AIDS who continue to face stigma in the healthcare system, as well as a lack of confidentiality relating to their status and I call on the Ministry of Health to address these gaps including through trainings but also public campaigns.

All stakeholders whom I met during my visit and all strategic planning instruments of the country agreed on the extreme importance of education for the development of the country. I was encouraged to learn that budgetary appropriations for education between 2010 and 2015 were between 13.2 and 16,4 % of the State Budget and that the literacy rates have been increasing every year. I note that the State recognises its responsibility to guarantee free, compulsory and universal education. I was informed that to date such education is ensured up to 8th grade of schooling and that there are plans to extend the free compulsory schooling until 12th grade. I welcome these measures and I call on the Government to make particular efforts so that children with disabilities have adequate access to school. I am, however, concerned that families living under or close to the poverty line can not bear the costs for school supplies and transportation to educational establishment, nor cover the tuition fees for secondary education, and therefore the right to development of children from such families is not ensured.

I was glad to learn that according to the law, pregnant minors in educational facilities can not be encouraged to interrupt their studies or to leave school. I call on the Government to enlarge education on sexual and reproductive health in the education system, which will contribute to reducing minor’s pregnancies and the extremely high percentage of single mothers in the country. I also encourage the Government to invest, with appropriate technical and financial assistance from the international community into further developing vocational training opportunities, to give better chances to young people to find jobs and start addressing the high youth unemployment rates.

I was impressed by the significant work undertaken by the authorities to increase the social protection coverage of the population, both through a contributory and through a non-contributory scheme, resulting in coverage of about 40 % of the overall population. This constitutes one of the highest rates in the region and a “successful experience of expansion of social protection”, as described by the International Labor Organisation. I also consider as positive developments that issues related to social protection are discussed in the Social Consultation Council and I encourage that Council and the National Institute for Social Protection (INPS) to intensify their efforts to involve affected communities and to work on expanding the contributory schemes to the informal economy sectors. I also encourage the Ministry of Labor to continue strengthening the capacity of the labor administration and inspectorates in order to ensure full implementation of the existing labor and social protection laws and regulations. I would further encourage Cabo Verde to ratify ILO Conventions No 144 (Tripartite Consultation (International Labour Standards) Convention), No 102 (Social Security (Minimum Standards)) and No 122 (Employment Policy Convention).

I have also learnt about the challenges faced by migrants, who have come to seek a better life in Cabo Verde, particularly on islands where the economy is oriented towards servicing the tourist industry. Many migrants end up living in slums, in conditions of extreme poverty and vulnerability in a country with already high unemployment and struggling education and health care systems. I find it encouraging that the social protection scheme is extended to immigrants, who have resided legally in the country for over three years.

Overall, my visit to Cabo Verde has been productive. The above comments are preliminary in nature and are not comprehensive in scope. I will prepare a full and detailed report of the visit and a set of concrete and action-oriented recommendations in the report that I will present at the 42nd session of the UN Human Rights Council, in September 2019.”