Multi-stakeholder Partnerships Research Articles

Inclusive, Cross-Sectoral and Evidence-Based Decision-Making for Resilience Planning and Decision-Making in a Devolved Context

Successfully achieving the sustainable development goals requires addressing complex, interrelated, wicked problems across multiple scales and contexts and decision-making that tackles nested layers of goals and targets across the interrelated social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainability. The Stakeholder Approach to Risk-informed and Evidence-based Decision-making (SHARED) bridges processes, tools and accessible evidence to support inter-sectoral and multi-stakeholder decision-making and implementation aimed at achieving resilience aspirations and associated investments. Adaptive collaborative management and multiple-loop learning serve as a basis for the systematic approach to institutional learning that supports shifts in underlying institutional understanding and values leading to actionable organisational change. This paper describes a contextual application of tailored technical assistance and institutional support to the Turkana County Government in Kenya, a newly devolved governance structure, under conditions of complexity. The SHARED Turkana County decision case demonstrates how the approach responded to a policy aspiration, resulting in greater and more intentional use of evidence in planning and budget allocations, cross-sectoral and multi-stakeholder partnerships, inclusive and transformative projects and a consultative and evidence-based five-year County Integrated Development Plan.

Status of Sumatran Tiger in the Berbak-Sembilang landscape (2020)

Monitoring the status of the Critically Endangered Sumatran Tiger Panthera tigris sumatrae is a key component for assessing the effectiveness of conservation interventions, and thus informing and adapting strategic planning for the remaining 600 Sumatran Tigers on the island. The Berbak-Sembilang National Park is an integral part of the priority Berbak-Sembilang Tiger Conservation Landscape, in a unique habitat of mixed peat and freshwater swamp in eastern Sumatra. Our camera trap survey covered both the Berbak and Sembilang Tiger Core Areas (BTCA, STCA) over a period of 10 years, with surveys undertaken in 2010, 2015, 2018–2019. The most recent population density estimates (BTCA 1.33 adults/100 km2, 95% CI 0.82–1.91 with 19 adults; and STCA 0.56 adults/100 km2, 95% CI 0.45–0.89 with five adults) confirmed a small but stable population. A landscape level management approach is a priority for tiger population recovery, consolidating ground-based protection and establishing a well-maintained fire management system with reforestation of affected areas along with multi-stakeholder engagement and partnerships. The study also recommends extending the BTCA to include the primary swamp forest in the north of the national park, based on evidence from camera trap surveys.

Practicality of integrated water resources management (IWRM) in different contexts

ABSTRACT The significance of integrated water resources management (IWRM) is broadly recognized, but practical implementation methods are little known. This paper proposes a Practical IWRM approach that has the potential to accelerate consensus-building and problem-solving relating to water resources based on the formation of an aligned perception of natural and human-made water resource systems among stakeholders, and the establishment of a properly functioning multi-stakeholder partnership (MSP). This approach was applied in four countries – Sudan, Bolivia, Indonesia and Iran – where it has worked well in different contexts, and can be an effective methodology usable elsewhere in the field.

Soaring sustainably: Promoting the uptake of sustainable aviation fuels during and post-pandemic

The aviation industry is a major producer of greenhouse gas emissions, and the current reduction methods of carbon offsets and increasing aircraft efficiency will not be enough to significantly lower emissions by 2050. Considering the prior growth of the aviation industry and to meet the Paris Agreement’s 2-degree Celsius target, aircraft emissions must be reduced rather than simply offset. This Perspective discusses the role of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) as a more transformative energy resource to decarbonize airlines. The opportunities and challenges in the development of SAF are reviewed to analyze how governments and airlines can move forward. Although airlines struggle with decreased demand during the COVID-19 pandemic, the airline sector can fuel both sustainable flights and economic recovery if governments can harness this unprecedented time to allocate stimulus funds to support SAF. Promoting SAF uptake during this challenging time requires robust, multi-stakeholder partnerships between governments, airlines, airports, fuel producers, and investors. This Perspective overviews several potential measures to promote SAF including policy and regulations, financing contracts, research and development, business-to-business incentives, and business-to-consumer incentives.

ECOCULTURAL CITY – HOW ACTUAL IS THIS CONCEPT IN THE ERA OF DISRUPTION OF PANDEMIC COVID 19?

This research explored the implementation of concept of Surakarta ecocultural city platform in the era of Pandemic Covid-19 in 2 case study areas of Balekambang Park as the Natural and Heritage Park and Jayengan Jewelry Kampung (JKP) as Heritage Creative Industry-based Kampung Tourism. Eco city is basically the concept to create new urban development to be more ecologically, liveable and Sustainable, while the cultural city refers to the city, which focusing on cultural and performance for branding the city. Ecocultural city is mainly related to connectivity among people, place and culture and this concept is mostly applicated in the tourism world, where to maintain this sustainably, this has to address people, place and its cultural relationship with biophysical aspects. Therefore, in the era of disruption of COVID-19, the ecocultural based of tourist destination areas are highly affected due to the loss of tourists visiting the areas. The research found that the model of People, place, technology and government proposes for increasing adaptability of people to the disruption condition, initiating resilient, creative, healthy and smart places, exhalating technology for added value of tourism product and improving resilience government to adapt, absorb the change, collaborating multi stakeholder partnerships

The Missing Ingredient for Successful Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships: Cooperative Capacity

Multi-stakeholder partnerships are an essential vehicle for solving complex societal problems. Agreements governing these partnerships often lack equitable partner agency in framing and enforcing multi-stakeholder agreements. This challenges the partner cooperation needed of partnerships to be effective. This theoretical paper introduces a new original model to measure and develop the cooperative capacity of multi-stakeholder partnerships so that future agreements involving the partnership are framed to share governance equitably among all partners and hence, increase partnership performance and effectiveness. The model provides a methodology to measure and develop the cooperative capacity of multi-stakeholder partnerships through key performance indicators that identify the cooperative state of partners and predicts partnership effectiveness in achieving common goals. The paper traces the theoretical genesis of the model, presents a comprehensive explanation of the model, and provides cases of the model’s application.

20210426

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development emphasizes a transformation of global development and a “win–win” cooperation based on an integrated approach and equal relationships among stakeholders, as well as coherent, comprehensive, and inclusive responses for development issues and challenges. Responding to the limited government sources, the newly introduced direction of multi-lateralism underlines the importance of partnerships between governments and non-state actors to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Partnering for the SDGs requires the government to move out from its traditional ways of working with non-state actors such as consulting in policymaking or contracting for policy implementation. This paper aims to understand how multi-stakeholder partnerships could be a tangible instrument to support the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, in particular related to urban issues. Using Indonesia case studies as examples, it seeks to examine the ways in which partnerships between state and non-state actors are being pursued and their associated drivers and challenges. In particular, sustained engagement beyond short-term partnership requires an establishment of formal institutional frameworks, alignment of objectives, and fulfilling of partnership requirements.

Stochastic meta-frontier function analysis of the regional efficiency and technology gap ratios (TGRs) of small-scale cassava producers in Liberia

To enrich agriculture reform and reap its benefits, policy makers need to localise policy issues within and across their domestic zones. Using a stochastic meta-frontier function, this study analysed the production efficiency of the cassava subsector of cassava growers from Bomi and Nimba counties in Liberia. The paper contributes to the domestication of agriculture policy issues within a country. The study found different scales of production returns for cassava growers in Bomi and Nimba counties. Farmer age, gender, household size and access to credit were key determinants of the technical gap ratio of the cassava subsector. The study recommends that relevant stakeholders (in a multistakeholder partnership) design a holistic approach of innovative finance (including microfinance, agriculture insurance and a grouped loan scheme) and social enterprise development that will encourage more women and young people to grow cassava efficiently for the higher productivity of the cassava subsector

Transformation through ‘Meaningful’ Partnership? SDG 17 as Metagovernance Norm and Its Global Health Implementation

SDG 17 calls for the international community to “strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development,” emphasizing the role of multi-stakeholder partnerships for achieving the SDGs. Policy documents are replete with statements on the necessity of ‘meaningful’ engagement, especially with civil society—without clarifying what ‘meaningful’ stands for. In this article, we develop an analytical approach to partnership as a form and norm of metagovernance. Partnership as a metanorm is about the roles and relations of different sets of actors. We suggest operationalizing the concept of partnership according to different levels of accountability and participation, allowing for a gradual enhancement of the quality of partnership in terms of ‘meaningfulness.’ We apply our analytical model to the Global Action Plan for Healthy Lives and Well‐Being for All (GAP), a fairly new initiative by health and development agencies to accelerate progress towards the health-related targets of the 2030 Agenda. By investigating the development and the early phase of implementing the GAP, we empirically assess if and how the notion of partnership envisioned in the GAP qualifies as ‘meaningful’ with respect to civil society engagement. From our empirical example, we infer lessons for attaining normative standards of ‘meaningfulness’ and highlight implications for future research on partnerships.

Attributes of effective national partnerships for environmental challenges – managing ozone-depleting and synthetic greenhouse gases in Australia

The magnitude and consequences of current global environmental challenges require partnerships across sectors and scales. Accordingly, there is a need to learn from partnerships that have been effective. This article analyses a successful national partnership that is contributing to implementation of the Montreal Protocol. It uses a case study methodology that draws on expert views from industry, government, and science, and contributes to the literature on partnerships in several ways. First, it highlights the relevance of insights from science-practice interfaces, and on institutions that can work across scales, for partnerships where knowledge is incomplete, and the challenges are dynamic. Second, it identifies five attributes of the successful multi-stakeholder partnership for Montreal Protocol sectors in Australia. While the wider applicability of these attributes needs testing, they are proposed for consideration by researchers and practitioners in partnerships where environmental challenges demand new knowledge and technologies, and systemic industrial practice change across scales.

Higher Education and Employability Skills: Barriers and Facilitators of Employer Engagement at Local Level

This research examines the barriers and facilitators to employers’ engagement with higher education institutions. The data were collected through interviews with a set of employers (n = 19) in the Northern region of Portugal, V.N.de Famalicão, in 2019. We begin by exploring employers’ engagement activities as a potential solution to address local-level skill problems. Empirical evidence suggests that the engagement activities are mostly passive as firms use higher education largely as a recruitment channel. The differences in organizational goals and culture are the most cited barriers to the lack of more active engagement. Some efforts have recently been made to strengthen the ties between higher education and employers, notably through a local multi-stakeholder partnership as a potential broker. However, it will take time for this to bear fruit and contribute to reducing skill gaps and shortages. The data show that despite employers’ apparent willingness, more effort must be made to encourage active engagement.

A Buzz for Sustainability and Conservation: The Growing Potential of Citizen Science Studies on Bees

Expanding involvement of the public in citizen science projects can benefit both volunteers and professional scientists alike. Recently, citizen science has come into focus as an important data source for reporting and monitoring United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Since bees play an essential role in the pollination ecosystem service, citizen science projects involving them have a high potential for attaining SDGs. By performing a systematic review of citizen science studies on bees, we assessed how these studies could contribute towards SDG reporting and monitoring, and also verified compliance with citizen science principles. Eighty eight studies published from 1992 to 2020 were collected. SDG 15 (Life on Land) and SDG 17 (Partnerships) were the most outstanding, potentially contributing to targets related to biodiversity protection, restoration and sustainable use, capacity building and establishing multi stakeholder partnerships. SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 4 (Quality Education), and SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) were also addressed. Studies were found to produce new knowledge, apply methods to improve data quality, and invest in open access publishing. Notably, volunteer participation was mainly restricted to data collection. Further challenges include extending these initiatives to developing countries, where only a few citizen science projects are underway.

Stakeholder engagement and conservation outcomes in marine protected areas: Lessons from the Mnazi Bay-Ruvuma Estuary Marine Park (MBREMP) in Tanzania

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are promoted as a tool to manage the world's ocean and coastal resources more sustainably. In recent years, the protected areas management paradigm —including MPA management—has started to promote inclusive and collaborative practices. At least on paper, this shift, and the multi-stakeholder engagement and partnerships that came along with it, should have led to better conservation outcomes—at the same time as ensuring that people affected by conservation measures have access to alternative or supplementary livelihood opportunities. In reality, the record of MPAs has been quite mixed. The aim of this study is to examine stakeholder engagement and collaboration in MPA management actions that have occurred in the Mnazi Bay-Ruvuma Estuary Marine Park (MBREMP) in southern Tanzania—in view of exploring whether existing collaborations have influenced conservation outcomes. Fieldwork results, arising from key informant interviews, participant observation, focus group discussions and a survey, show that contacts and interactions between stakeholders followed a bureaucratic process without clear and shared goals that could make conservation and livelihood objectives compatible. Unclear and poorly coordinated processes—both in relation to conservation activities, such as enforcement of the park's regulations, and in relation to livelihood projects—hampered the proper functioning of MBREMP and its actual and potential stakeholders. As a result, both conservation and socio-economic outcomes have been problematic. Future research needs to further investigate how dysfunctional stakeholder engagements and lack of collaborative arrangements affect environmental and socio-economic objectives in MPAs and how these can be addressed.

What role for multi-stakeholder partnerships in adaptation to climate change? Experiences from private sector adaptation in Kenya

Amidst increasing interest in multi-stakeholder partnerships (MSPs) in climate discourse, this paper identifies four rationales for why MSPs may be particularly suited to supporting adaptation from existing literatures. With a focus on MSPs that seek to support adaptation among micro, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Kenya, we then investigate the extent to which this potential is being realised in practice, through interviews with partners engaged in the design and implementation of MSPs. This allows us to examine some of the opportunities, challenges and distributional risks that may result from employing MSPs to support adaptation. We find that through action and investment from donors and the public sector in areas such as research, data access, relationship building, training and capacity building, access to finance and business incubation, MSPs can enable a wide range of private sector actors to deliver adaptation resources to SMEs. Beneficiaries include small-scale SMEs in agricultural value chains in remote regions, that could otherwise fall outside of market inclusion. As such, respondents in this research typically considered MSPs to present an exciting opportunity to plug gaps in adaptation and development finance. Further analysis, however, suggests that dependence on market mechanisms for delivering adaptation resources means that MSPs risk excluding the poorest groups, exposing businesses to new risks and reproducing existing inequalities. Additionally, MSPs often remain heavily dependent on donor-led organisations for both resources and momentum. In Kenya, opportunities to develop more integrated responses to supporting the adaptive capacity of SMEs are being missed through a disconnect between the practice of MSPs and national public sector development frameworks and institutions.

Partnerships, Action, and Collaboration, Together (PACT): A Community-Based Partnership Where Innovation, Collaboration, and Impact Reshape Stakeholders’ Vision

Project PACT (Partnerships, Action, & Collaboration, Together) (a pseudonym) is a multi-stakeholder partnership that reflects multiple goals, commitments, and priorities for early childhood education. PACT was informed by the literature on community-based research (CBR) and a commitment by partners to strengthen P–3 education where stakeholder assets contributed to reciprocal learning experiences in early childhood education. PACT stakeholders transformed two early childhood education classrooms into Montessori classrooms within a district public school. As one in a series of investigations, this research specifically examined partner commitments to a unique collaboration, the emergence of roles and responsibilities over time, and manifestations of innovation within a traditional public school setting. Data illustrate how stakeholders established a collaboration that allowed for flexibility, perspective-taking, and the opportunity to work together to reconsider and strengthen P–3 education through a model typically reserved for children of affluence. Beyond the operational demands of a startup initiative, findings also reflect the power of a collective through flexibility and a stance that values the assets of a community. The impact of this work demonstrates the potential to successfully impact quality education in early childhood settings through equity and opportunity.

Globalization and COVID-19: The Role of Local and Regional Authorities In Context Of International Relations

Research background: International Municipal Cooperation in context of globalization and decentralization can be considered as a widely researched phenomenon. Still, the recent COVID-19 Pandemic prepared unexpected developments at all levels of the society. Purpose of the article is to examine the impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on models/forms of cooperation between crucial players in the international relations arena, with a special focus on the international-regional/local cooperation axis. Methods of content and comparative analysis based on primary sources and scientific literature review are used. In the methodological framework of the Multi-level Governance Concept (Marks, G., 1993), reactions of relevant International Organizations on COVID-19 with regard to local and/or regional Self-Government Authorities are analysed. Findings and value added: The crisis deepened the importance of local and regional Self-Government Authorities in the recovery process and urged international players to pay an increased attention to mutual cooperation and subsequent implementation of measures needed. Especially the Multi-stakeholder Partnership has been strengthened. This paper intended to contribute to current academic and public policy debate.

Rethinking Community-based ESD in the COVID-19 Era

In the search for achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), two approaches are integral: local community-based and multi-stakeholder participation and partnership. Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), which is addressed in Target 4.7, is at the heart of these approaches to attract diverse stakeholders for the efforts at the local community level. The stakeholders share their diverse experiences and knowledge to create a new knowledge for sustainability. Therein, tension and conflict that they may experience can lead to a critical learning process for individual and social transformation. This article reports the preliminary results obtained from the project, which examines the effectiveness and relevance of local community-based and multi-stakeholder approaches to the efforts for sustainable community development during the COVID-19 pandemic. The project focuses on the experiences of member organizations of the Regional Centre of Expertise on ESD (RCEs) in the Asia-Pacific region, which was established by the United Nations University, Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS). The article proposes further direction of research based on the key findings at this stage, including digitalization and youth participation, which are to be further analyzed for the advocacy and relevant international and national policies on SDGs and ESD for 2030 from the perspectives of local communities.

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

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.

The City as a Commons Reloaded: from the Urban Commons to Co-Cities Empirical Evidence on the Bologna Regulation

The City of Bologna is widely recognized for an innovative regulatory framework to enable urban commons. The “Regulation on public collaboration for the Urban Commons” produced more than 400 pacts of collaboration and was adopted by more than 180 Italian cities so far. The chapter presents an empirical assessment of 280 pacts (2014-2016). The analytical approach is rooted in political economy (Polany 1944; Ahn & Ostrom 2003) and quality of democracy analysis (Diamond & Morlino, 2005). It investigates whether a model of co-governance applied to urban assets as commons impacts on the democratic qualities of equality and rule of law at the urban level. The findings suggest suggests that legal recognition of the urban commons is not sufficient if not coupled with an experimentalist policymaking approach to institutionally redesign the City as a platform enabling collective action of multi-stakeholder partnerships that should be entrusted with the task to trigger neighborhood-based sustainable development. Neighborhood scale investments that aim to seed community economic ventures emerge as a possible way to overcome the shortcomings of the first policy experiments. They also suggest the need for more investigation by scholars on the inclusiveness and diversity facets related to the implementation of urban commons policies.

Transnational Multistakeholder Partnerships as Vessels to Finance Development: Navigating the Accountability Waters

AbstractPartnerships have long been presented as transformative and effective mechanisms to overcome challenges linked to the global governance of development. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and SDG 17 call for intensified involvement and engagement of partnerships in sustainable development, formalizing a role specifically for multi‐stakeholder partnerships (MSPs). In this context, transnational MSPs that enmesh public and private to finance development, continue to flourish as a hybrid model of governance. This paper seeks to critically assess the accountability issues linked to channelling development financing through transnational MSPs using an accountability matrix, based on responsibility, answerability and enforceability, applicable to the system‐level development cooperation/aid frameworks as well as to MSPs. The article then evaluates the accountability challenges and shortcomings arising from MSPs as development financing actors resulting in diffused responsibility, limited answerability and weak enforceability. Finally, the article outlines a research agenda and Policy recommendations to improve the accountability of MSPs when they finance development.