Report: SDG Partnerships Agenda 2030

      Without a dramatic shift, we will not reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) until 2073. With a USD 2.5T annual funding gap, no country on track to meeting all SDGs, and reverse progress on several SDGs, a step change is needed.

     To accelerate progress, there has been increasing emphasis on multi-stakeholder partnerships (MSPs). It is increasingly recognized that each sector has critical assets to leverage in pursuit of the SDGs – from the expertise of civil society organizations, to the scale of governments, to the networks and convening power of philanthropy, to the efficiency of the private sector. Moreover, given entrenched and systemic problems like the climate crisis; the increasing weight of the private sector; and the proliferation and fragmentation of social impact organizations, partnerships have been recognized as a critical tool to make meaningful progress on the SDGs. As of December 2019, more than 5,000 partnerships had registered on the SDG partnership platform.

    There are some notable successes of MSPs, such as Gavi, the vaccine alliance, which has immunized more than 760 million children in more than 90 countries since 2000. There has also been a growth in innovative cross- sector partnership models, including blended finance mechanisms, which have mobilized more than USD 100B to support the SDGs.

     However, on the whole, MSPs have not lived up to expectations. A study of 330 partnerships showed only ~25% had outputs fully matched to their aims and a recent study of MSPs found that interviewees gave their MSPs an average a “C” grade ranking on performance against founding objectives. Moreover, many express concerns that each sector is not being leveraged to its full potential and that partnerships are more costly and time-intensive than non-partnership mechanisms with a limited evidence base on effectiveness.

    At a minimum, to improve effectiveness and efficiency, MSPs must follow well-established standards of action. Best practices include: having a clear, narrowly-defined purpose; aligning incentives upfront between the MSP and each partner; establishing a clear governance structure with defined roles, responsibilities, and independent decision-making capabilities; taking the time to build collaborative, trust-based relationships; and investing in systems and processes for measuring and reporting on performance.

     Yet these standards are not enough – more fundamental changes are needed to accelerate progress. In particular, there is growing demand to (i) better recognize the expertise of communities and civil society organizations; (ii) ensure partners are sourced because of their potential for impact; (iii) pursue funding models that incentivize long-term and community-aligned impact; and (iv) publicly demonstrate that partnerships’ benefits justify their costs.

Thus, we put forward four ‘calls to action’ for partnerships for the SDGs:

• Recognize power. At a minimum, this means consulting and including community members early in the partnership process to define the problem and develop strategies and accountability mechanisms. Bolder shifts include analyzing and accounting for the power and privilege of all partners and revising governance structures to give equal decision-making power to communities over key aspects of the partnerships.
   
• Radically expand networks. At a minimum, this means reducing hurdles for new partners by lowering partnership logistical burdens and familiarizing oneself with the languages, timelines, and priorities of other sectors. Bolder shifts include mapping and supporting the partner ecosystem to identify existing networks and gaps and radically diversifying hiring to better represent communities served and build cross-sectoral expertise.
   
• Make every dollar count. At a minimum, this means understanding how partnership funding can and is supporting local organizations and communities. Bolder shifts include increasing operating support and reducing reporting burdens for implementing partners and pursuing longer-term, flexible funding models through partnerships, including those that can unlock private capital.
   
• Move to accountability. At a  minimum, this means opening the books on all aspects of a partnership, including incentive structure, costs, and outcomes. Bolder shifts include rigorously evaluating partnership models relative to non-partnership models and enabling community-led accountability of partnerships including through community-driven data collection and evaluation. 

     Implementing these calls to action is not easy. Despite growing calls for partnership approaches to evolve, change has been slow given entrenched barriers including resource requirements, misaligned incentives and risk aversion, historical norms and power dynamics, and knowledge gaps.

Given these barriers, the leadership of each sector must commit to taking action. We call upon:

• Government to actively include the voices of civil society in partnerships, including through supportive policy measures, advisory councils, and accountability mechanisms for all public funds spent through partnership.

• Civil society to act as a bridge to communities and other organizations, sourcing talent and decision-making from communities served, pursuing collaborations with smaller, less-well known CSOs, and actively advocating for flexible, long-term, and comprehensive funding through partnerships.

• Philanthropy to better support, connect, and learn from communities served, including through shifting partnership decisions to community members, diversifying hiring, and experimenting with transformational funding models through the deployment of flexible and patient capital.

• Private sector to ensure businesses practices writ large are consistent with partnership and SDG aims, including by analyzing and interrogating historical sources of power relative to communities served, and making public all benefits received partnership participation.
  
  
  Together, let’s commit to partnering differently.

For more information, please see the full report attached below.