4 November 2015: At a briefing organized by the Permanent Mission of Germany and the UN Division for Sustainable Development, Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), participants suggested enhancements to the Partnerships for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Platform, and discussed plans for measuring the impact of partnerships. A Beta version of the online Platform, mandated by the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), was launched in September 2015. It aims to encourage global engagement around multi-stakeholder partnerships and voluntary commitments in support of the SDGs and their targets.

Opening the meeting on 4 November 2015, at UN Headquarters in New York, US, Reinhard Krapp, Permanent Mission of Germany and Vice-Chair of the Second Committee, highlighted the importance of partnerships for SDG implementation and effective achievement. He noted that starting in 2016, the High-level Political Forum on sustainable development (HLPF) will carry out voluntary and state-led reviews, where partnerships will play a role.

Nikhil Chandavarkar, DESA, defined partnerships as initiatives for the common good involving multiple stakeholders, both public and private, aimed at achieving specific outcomes and outputs. He noted that the 2030 Agenda provides a broader definition of partnerships than Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 8 on a global partnership for development, and highlighted that the Agenda refers to partnerships in various places, including under targets 17.16 (on enhancing the global partnership for sustainable development) and 17.17 (on encouraging and promoting effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships), and in paragraphs 84 (on reviews under the HLPF to provide a platform for partnerships) and 89 (on calling on Major Groups and other stakeholders to report on their contribution to the implementation of the Agenda).

Chandavarkar said a survey on the platform is available online until 15 November 2015, and DESA intends to launch the full version of the platform in early 2016. He said SDG indicators will be integrated once agreed, to allow for more detailed reporting. In July 2016, he noted that the HLPF will assess and review progress reports from partnerships as requested in paragraph 89 of the 2030 Agenda.

Providing their views on how the Platform can be enhanced, speakers noted the need to: connect the platform with other Conferences or initiatives where partnerships are or will be registered, such as Every Women Every Child; use due diligence and clear criteria when deciding which partnerships appear on the online platform; define a methodology on how to measure the impact of partnerships; and further reach out to regional organizations, among others.

DESA representatives said SMART criteria (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound) are used to determine which partnerships should be posted on the online platform. In terms of accountability, they noted that the entities that register their partnerships are the ones who are accountable, not the UN. DESA’s Division for Sustainable Development has issued a Special Report on Voluntary Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships and Commitments for Sustainable Development each year since 2013, they said, to provide an overview of all the initiatives registered. Finally, on measuring the impact of registered partnerships, they cited the need for further guidance from intergovernmental processes.

The platform contains 1,901 partnerships, as of 5 November 2015. [IISD RS Story on Compilation Report on Partnerships] [IISD RS Story on Platform’s Launch] [Partnerships for SDGs Platform] [IISD RS Sources] [Meeting Webpage] [Event Summary]