June 2015: The UN Department of Social and Economic Affairs (DESA) has reviewed a range of multi-stakeholder partnerships relevant to various aspects of sustainable development, to support preparations for the implementation of proposed Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 17, on strengthening the means of implementation (MOI) and revitalizing the global partnership for sustainable development. DESA highlights that the effectiveness of multi-stakeholder partnerships in the post-2015 era will depend on their ability to manage and share knowledge and expertise.

The results of the DESA review are published in the 2015 edition of ‘Sustainable Development in Action,’ as a ‘Special Report on Voluntary Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships and Commitments for Sustainable Development.’

The report reviews arrangements for knowledge management in a number of multi-stakeholder partnerships, including the Higher Education for Sustainability Initiative (HESI), the Sustainable Energy for All Initiative (SE4All), Every Woman Every Child (EWEC), the UN Global Compact, the Global Water Partnership and the Stichting Partnership on Sustainable, Low-Carbon Transport (SLoCaT) Foundation. The authors observe that knowledge-sharing mechanisms provide a recipe for the success of multi-stakeholder partnerships, and such mechanisms range from traditional publications, websites and newsletters, to information registries, knowledge hubs and technology-sharing platforms.

The report calls for a global knowledge-sharing framework that will also review the progress of implementation of sustainable development.

The report also summarizes discussions held at the Expert Group Meeting (EGM) on ‘Multi-stakeholder partnerships in the post-2015 development era – sharing knowledge and expertise to support the achievement of the SDGs,’ organized by the DESA’s Division for Sustainable Development in collaboration with the UN Office for Sustainable Development (UNOSD), on 16 June 2015. [Publication: Sustainable Development in Action] [Report Webpage]