Transformational Partnerships and Partnership Platforms

Abstract

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 17 recognizes the importance of multi-stakeholder partnerships (MSPs) as part of the means of implementation to achieve the 2030 Agenda. MSPs can be powerful mechanisms to achieve the SDGs, as they can bring to bear a range of different levers from diverse societal sectors, including human and financial resources, technologies, and knowledge. More recently, multi-stakeholder collaboration has proven to be critical to tackle the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and will be essential in the recovery efforts to ‘build back better’ towards more sustainable, resilient and inclusive societies. To support effective partnership building, an enabling partnership ecosystem is required at all levels, including policies and standards that support multi-stakeholder inclusion and collaboration, ensuring that all relevant stakeholders have the necessary knowledge and capacities for partnership creation, and fostering inclusive partnership platforms. Partnership platforms can be particularly effective catalyzers of new and transformative partnerships at all levels as they can serve to mobilize key sectors and stakeholders around joint action and provide coherence and coordination, including alignment of investments for SDG implementation.