2 September 2015: The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs’ (DESA) Division for Sustainable Development (DSD) launched an online platform on ‘Partnerships for SDGs,’ to encourage global engagement around multi-stakeholder partnerships and voluntary commitments in support of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their targets. The platform is free and open to everyone.

The Partnerships for SDGs platform is expected to: serve as a tool to inform stakeholders on initiatives carried out by multi-stakeholder partnerships around the world in support of the SDGs; track progress; and share innovative ideas. Stakeholders are invited to register initiatives and indicate which SDGs and corresponding target(s) the initiative is working towards, as well as the anticipated “deliverables.”

The platform is currently available in beta version, to be updated based on results from a survey. The survey, taking place from 1 October-1 November 2015, seeks stakeholders’ views on: functionalities the platform should have; how partners can best report on progress of their partnerships and commitments, while avoiding an unnecessary reporting burden; and how the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and its regional commissions, the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA), and other intergovernmental fora can best support the review process of multi-stakeholder partnerships and their impact on realizing the SDGs.

The website for the platform indicates that the full version will be released in January 2016. [Partnerships for SDGs Platform]