The SDGs as an Integrative Framework to Assess Coherence of Transnational Multistakeholder Partnerships for SIDS

Abstract

Research in global climate governance recognizes the importance of transnational multistakeholder partnerships (often termed cooperative initiatives) in driving climate action from global to subnational levels. Large N studies of climate partnerships have shed light on cooperative governance's inclusiveness, thematic focus, geographic scope, degree of institutionalization, and contribution to the attainment of climate goals. However, a neglected aspect of partnership performance concerns its coherence, i.e., the extent to which portfolios of partnerships contribute to the balanced implementation of climate goals across the economic, social, and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. Climate action is a complex transboundary problem that spans several sectors and scales and increasingly, scholarship is mapping these linkages across issue areas and levels. Drawing on this evidence base, this paper conducts a large N study of 49 climate-related partnerships in Pacific SIDS (PSIDS) to assess whether and to what extent these partnerships taken together contribute to the balanced implementation of climate action in PSIDS. Using the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a framework to assess coherence and introducing a measure of partnership's Output-SDG-Fit, results indicate that these partnerships tend to cluster their activities around a narrow set of nexuses with the climate-ocean nexus receiving relatively many partnerships and the climate-development nexus highly underrepresented. The findings support the view that transnational cooperative climate governance in Pacific SIDS is incoherent and that a lack of development finance for many SIDS may be driving incoherence in PSIDS partnerships. The paper discusses the practical implications of this finding for the orchestration of more coherent portfolios of climate partnerships.