Intersectionality is the idea that social identities such as race, class, gender, religion are fundamentally interconnecting and compound with one another to create systems of advantage, disadvantage, and discrimination. Personally, the concept of intersectionality is essential to a complete understanding of society as a whole, in that, systematic injustice in addition to social inequality can be best understood by examining the intersections of identity. For example, issues of gender can be compounded with issues of race in class. In American society, racial discrimination of Black Americans can be compounded with the gender based discrimination faced by women within American society to result in Black American women having a less privileged status than that of a white man.

In terms of the importance of intersectionality in the field of international development, intersectional approaches are critical to understand how compounding identities can fundamentally disadvantage some populations within societies, and advantage others. This approach is crucial in understanding why certain populations get left behind in the development plans of nations. When the intersections of, for example, poverty and indigenous heritage are not considered within the development plan of states, discrimination of indigenous people can be two fold in that indigenous populations might be stigmatized by majority ethnic populations, and might have fewer employment opportunities as a result.

This places enormous pressure on the importance of intersectional approaches for international organizations like the United Nations. While intersectionalility as a mainstream social theory is relatively young, there has been a concerted effort to incorporate the concept into the governance structure of the UN. For example, within the HLPF, there are 9 major groups that permitted to participate in proceedings. The nine major groups represent different communities and populations and were formed with the goal of incorporating a wide variety of perspectives into agenda setting and decision-making. The nine major groups are 1) Women, 2) Children and Youth, 3) Indigenous Peoples, 4) Non-Governmental Organizations, 5) Local Authorities, 6) Workers and Trade Unions, 7) Business and Industry, 8) Scientific and Technological Community, and 9) Worker and Trade Unions. While there are certainly limitations to the number of perspectives that are truly able to be incorporated into the UN in the limitation of the major groups to nine, the inclusion of the groups marks a step in the right direction for intersectionality in governance institutions.

Intersectionality is the idea of looking at solutions for a problem that considers all intersecting inequalities that could be affected by the problem. By looking at a development problem through the lens of intersectionality, it is possible to understand the impact different identities have on access to rights and opportunities. For example, if there were a policy that is meant to advance girls’ education, an intersectional approach would look at girls with disabilities and of various races to make sure it is intersectional. A truly intersectional policy would consider a wide variety of identities not only in the proposed creation of the policy, but in the proposed solutions and implementations as well. Multistakeholder approaches and intersectionality are similar ideas, but not all multistakeholder approaches are intersectional. It is possible for a policy to be formed by multiple groups representing different constituencies to not be intersectional to the truest form.

Intersectionality is incredibly important to inclusive sustainable development because it would help to make development more inclusive. By getting the opinions of every group that could be affected, the possible solutions are better suited to fit the needs of those groups. Race, gender, youth, and persons with disabilities are all groups that can be sometimes left out of policy consideration. Intersectional policies are important because different groups experience events and problems in different ways. Policies by governments and NGOs that do not consider the various identities even one person can have can produce ineffective policies. Underrepresentation can make it difficult for certain groups within larger marginalized groups to have their voices heard. For example, with gender there are multiple subcategories that need to be addressed when it comes to development policies. There are women of different ages, races, finances and women with disabilities. For gender issues to be effective, they need to include input from all of the different identities a woman could possess.

It is important to name various identities, and then make sure that those identities are included in policy decisions. By having a clear idea of all of the possible intersectional identities that exist, then there is an easier pathway for governments and other policy makers to make effective policies. Intersectionality is still a challenge with everyday policies, and a recent example is the gender wage gap. Many people know the fact that a woman makes only $0.78 to a man’s $1 but that is only true for white women in the United States, African-American and Latina women receive much lower wages. If intersectional identities are not known, then people are given the wrong information and the policies that follow from that are not as effective as they could be.

Intersectionality is critical to sustainable development, and is a major theme behind many recent changes in the development field. The Sustainable Development Goals for example incorporate a wide range of intersecting identities, such as women and girls, persons with disabilities, youth, etc. The fact the Sustainable Development Goals take into account such a wide range of identities, and ways of being, as having an impact on development makes the SDGs more likely to succeed in the long term. The Sustainable Development Goals also serve as an example for governments, private sector actors, charities, NGOs, etc. as to how intersecting identities can be incorporated into development policies more fully.

The intersectionality found in the Sustainable Development Goals tracks closely with moves toward multistakeholder governance and engagement in development. Just as engagement and involvement with multiple groups is critical to inclusive development, so too is the realization that an individual can be part of multiple identity groups simultaneously. Additionally, the Sustainable Development Goals reflect intersectionality in that they cover such a diverse, intersecting range of development issues. This reflects the fact things like climate change, urban conditions, and consumption patterns can all play a role in development. Covering these diverse, intersecting development issues also acknowledges their level of importance along side more traditional development issues such as poverty reduction and education.

A broad view of intersectionality leads to the insight that not only do identities combine to influence the development of individuals and groups, but larger issues like climate change and gender inequality also intersect to make development all the more difficult. Intersectionality also shows the importance of having a broad range of stakeholders involved in decision-making, as policies can have widely different consequences depending on the ways identities intersect. We are also led to see the importance of involving groups beyond state actors and markets in the development process, as the intersectionalities of different groups make different actors more or less able to help in the development process.

Intersectionality is a theory coined by race theorist and civil rights advocate Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, that states that related systems of oppression and discrimination intersect with multiple identities to create a whole that is different from the individual components. For example, if someone is a woman with disabilities, those two identities are compounded and the systems of oppression interrelate. This intersection of identity makes women with disabilities more vulnerable because they are doubly excluded from the economic sector, education, and health care, as well as doubly excluded socially. Because they systems of oppression interrelate, it is very hard to separate identities. The theory of intersectionality allows us to understand the additional challenges of persons with multiple identities that are discriminated against. However, though intersectionality is recognized as an incredibly important theory, many institutions have not put the implications of the theory into practice and tried to fight the interrelated systems of oppression. The theory of intersectionality has also been used by some institutions to marginalize some identities.

The United Nations is an example of an institution that has used intersectionality in order to exclude some groups from participating. In the UN there are 9 major groups which are allowed to participate in sustainable development initiatives and the review and creation of those initiatives. The 9 major groups are allowed to participate in the high level political forum which was created to implement and review the SDGs. However, persons with disabilities and older persons are not part of the major groups which means they do not get a seat at the table. When activists brought this concern to the UN, the UN argued that due to intersectionality, the 9 major groups were already fighting for persons with disabilities and older persons because the women’s group would fight for women with disabilities and the farmer’s group would fight for farmers with disabilities and so on. However, the groups already have set agendas which may or may not include older persons and persons with disabilities. Relying on the groups’ intersectionality is not the most effective way to ensure persons with disabilities and older persons get a seat at the table. Intersectionality is a useful theory but it is not a silver bullet that automatically reduces oppression just by being mentioned or understood. Action must be taken to put the theory in to practice, but intesectionality should not be put into practice in such a way that it excludes already marginalized populations.

Intersectionality “recognizes that a group that inhabits multiple categories simultaneously has experiences that can be seen both as unique to that group and as a result of the overlap of individual categories (Davis, 209).” This concept demonstrates that multiple identities can be reflected on the same person. For example, a person with disabilities can also be a woman who comes from an indigenous community. In international development, to successfully carry out projects, intersectionality needs to be taken into account because it influences individual experiences that determine whether or not a project can be effective. Adoption of this concept can encourage inclusive development but also presents some drawbacks. Recognizing co-existence of identities means that there can be numerous different combinations of identities. The number of combinations can even be countless and creates an endless black hole for understanding of individual identities. What’s more, identity, after all, is a socially constructed concept. How a person perceives himself or herself could be different from the society’s perception. To take every individual’s perception into consideration would endlessly prolong the process of setting up a development project. There is a fine line between the appropriate level of recognizing intersectionality and going too far. Because of this challenge, the first step that can be taken by global policy-makers is to recognize different categories of identities.

The UN major groups and other stakeholders recognize twelve distinct groups of people who play a role in inclusive and sustainable development. One can argue that there is no need of identifying all twelve because some are included in the others. For example, “elderly persons” can be included in “farmers” and “indigenous people.” But this practice would fall into the trap of endless overlaps of identities. It would only slow down the multistakeholder governance process instead of helping it become more efficient. Therefore, it is necessary to expand major groups to other stakeholders like persons with disabilities. In fact, the categories need to be further expanded to meet the goals that reflect inclusiveness in Sustainable Development Goals.

Identifying intersectionality in itself is a grand challenge. It is an issue that is still being debated in the academia. There is not yet a definite answer of how to address it appropriately in international development. One thing that can be done, however, is to recognize more distinct groups of people and organizations that are under the influence of and can contribute to sustainable and inclusive development. This will help mobilize more members of international society to address the grand challenge of conceptualizing intersectionality together.

Work cited

Davis, Aisha Nicole. “Intersectionality and International Law: Recognizing Complex          Identities on the Global Stage.” Harvard Human Rights Journal, Vol. 28 Issue 1, 2015, p205-242.

Intersectionality has become quite a” buzzword” both within academics and everyday life. Intersectionality and the impact of intersectionality in institutions has become increasingly discussed. Intersectionality refers to the interconnectedness of social categories such as race, class, sexuality, gender, ethnicity, etc. These categories create overlapping systems of discrimination, and puts people at a disadvantage. Intersectionality calls for the simultaneous examination of these identities, how they relate to each other, and how they relate to personal development. Intersectionality also bring up the idea of power and how power has created social hierarchies that perpetuate the advantage or disadvantage of certain aspects of identities.

Intersectionality and inclusive development are widely interdependent. SDGs should take an intersectional approach, to account for gender, youth and disability and how they will influence each other. For instance, women are already a marginalized group, in comparison to men. However women throughout different communities will face different types of oppression to put them at a further disadvantage. Economic oppression for example: Some women, depending on ethnicity, race and class will have larger opportunities for economic mobility than others. Class widely intersects with access to education, as those of a higher class will be able to obtain more formal education. Education in turn, allows for more opportunities to increase social and economic status. This example highlights the interconnectivity of identities, and how the overlapping of identities relates to power structures and hierarchies.Women with disabilities are put at an even heightened disadvantage. The needs for not only those with disabilities, but for women with with disabilities is often underrepresented within social reform and development strategies. Therefore, it is necessary that SDGs and other united nations organizations work to create ways to understand how these identities will hurt overall development, exclude individuals and in turn create tactics and goals that work to include them.   

As populations are increasing life expectancy, it is also important to understand the intersectionality of age and development. For instance, older people have a higher risk of developing a disability. There needs to be more research on how age and older populations can be taken into account in policy reform.

Kimberle Crenshaw, a scholar who is most noted for her work on intersectionality and African-American women. She catches the essence of how intersectionality impacts inclusive sustainable development when she states, “If efforts began with addressing the needs and problems of those who are most disadvantaged and with restructuring and remaking the world more necessary, then others who are singularly disadvantaged would also benefit.”