On 7 June, the Welsh Government launched its new Action Plan to forge An Anti-Racist Wales by 2030. The work will involve identifying and eradicating the systems, structures and processes that contribute to unequal outcomes for people from Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic communities. The launch was described by the Minister for Social Justice, Jane Hutt, as an important ‘stakeholder moment’ in the ‘journey’ of ‘tackling systemic and institutional racism in Wales’.
The Action Plan is considered a major achievement, coming out of a complex process with multiple stakeholders, many with direct experience of the profound nature and impact of racism. Whilst at times necessarily an ‘uneasy alliance’, all those working on the Plan were united by a commitment to effect substantive change. Together, they have co-produced a framework ‘for everyone to hold onto’ and which aims to hold everyone to account.
The launch of the Plan is indeed a ‘moment’ for stakeholders. It is also a ‘moment’ for reflection for the WCPP, which presents us with an opportunity to consider the role of evidence – past, present, and future – in relation to An Anti-Racist Wales.
At the launch, the WCPP was praised for its role in informing the Plan through robust evidence synthesis and presenting expert advice from leading academics from Wales and beyond. We worked with experts to develop reports and briefings on improving race equality across policy areas identified as having the greatest potential for impact including Education, Crime and Justice, Housing and Accommodation, Employment and Income and Leadership and Representation. For Professor Emmanuel Ogbonna, Co-Chair of the REAP Steering Group, this work and evidence provided an important ‘research anchor’ for the Plan:
‘The reports the WCPP provided on the substantive areas of concern helped in isolating the key problems in the individual elements of the plan, the intersectional implications and the potential alternative courses of actions that could be explored.’
Crucially, as Professor Ogbonna recounts, the research evidence and expertise we provided was complemented by another key type of evidence – the lived experience evidence of members of Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic communities in Wales.
The primary aim of the Plan is to close the ‘implementation gap’ in tackling racism and to make a measurable difference to the lives of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people in Wales. In his commentary for WCPP, Ronald Roberts draws on evidence to argue for an anti-racist approach rather than a focus on ‘equality of opportunity’. He goes onto consider the challenges around implementation, including the need for ‘good measures of progress’, metrics that are meaningful, nimble and relevant. We are pleased that the ongoing efforts of the REAP Steering Group, its partners, and networks, have included work to address these issues, transforming the draft Race Equality Action Plan into the just launched ‘An Anti-Racist Wales’.
The commitment to anti-racism demonstrated by the Welsh Government and other parties will feed into and be reinforced by public bodies and services who develop their own ‘nested’ anti-racism action plans. Similarly, we will reflect on how the WCPP, as an independent organisation committed to providing policy makers with the best available research evidence, can contribute to this effort. This will include giving attention to the systems, structures and processes that sustain and reinforce racism across the multiple policy areas that we work on including poverty, education, skills, employment, and housing, all of which intersect with race. We also hope to be able to draw on our research on implementation to help policy makers ensure that the Action Plan delivers on its aspirations for tackling racism in Wales.
In a futures-orientated language fitting for the unique legal and policy landscape in Wales, racism is described by Professor Ogbonna as a ‘perverse inheritance’, something that mutates over time and can be a ‘blight on future generations.’ Moving forward, and in the spirit of the Well-being of Future Generations Act, we all have a role to play.