RIES KAMPHOFERNST KUNEMANJAN MELISSENclick on photosfor author details31 October 2017
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SDG Partnerships with the PrivateSector: Three Dilemmas for ForeignMinistries (and how they could besolved)
SDG KNOWLEDGE HUBA project by IISD
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
While having unrelated and often contrasting professional cultures,governmental policy dilemmas for SDG partnerships could be solved byinvesting more in the relationship with business.
We identify three policy challenges for governments in their SDG-relateddealings with the private sector and suggest: using a light, pragmatic touch ingovernance structures; using government's traditional strength of relationshipmanagement, dialogic competences and knowledge sharing; andunderstanding that businesses are only interested in partnerships when theyhave commercialization potential.
Ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and targets ask for multi-
stakeholder solutions, but more often than not national governments and businesses
are worlds apart. How to overcome these differences?
The public-private partnerships (PPPs) necessary to reach the targets of the UN’s
2030 Agenda require better mutual understanding between national governments
and the private sector. This is a specific challenge for ministries of Foreign Affairs.
While PPPs have been on the rise since the early 2000s, the new ‘SDG partnerships’
ask for universal solutions instead of mere North-South transfer of aid and
technology. The SDGs cannot be reached without (parallel) domestic action and
policy in wealthier countries. These processes need to be streamlined and ministries
of Foreign Affairs are best placed to build these bridges. Seeing the evolution from
state-to-state diplomacy towards multi-stakeholder diplomacy, the SDGs are a
particularly relevant test case for new forms of diplomacy.
The ambitions of the SDGs are steep. Even in a country such as Sweden more than
75 per cent of the non-development cooperation targets require ‘considerable work’.
Partnerships are therefore necessary; identification of criteria for partnerships will
facilitate their creation and help to monitor their contributions. The suggested
indicator to measure effectiveness of these SDGs partnerships only in ‘amount of US
dollars committed’ is insufficient and do no justice to CEOs such as Paul Polman
(Unilever) and Jack Ma (Ali Baba) that step up as SDG advocates.
At the Clingendael Institute, we have looked into this innovative field of practice and
asked the question how governments, specifically ministries for Foreign Affairs,
should adapt to this situation. The literature on partnerships leads us to conclude
that we needed private sector involvement and policy recommendations based on
current practice. In addition, we conducted an online consultation with selected
experts in the United States, China, Germany, Italy and Brazil, which gave us a
broader view. We received feedback from practitioners and businesses on policy
recommendations throughout our research and during a multi-stakeholder seminar.
We find that foreign ministries have not yet sufficiently adapted to the new
requirements for implementing the 2030 Agenda. It is time for diplomats to invest in
relations with the business community beyond the traditional PPPs. In addition, we
identify three policy challenges for governments in their SDG-related dealings with
the private sector, and suggest how they could be resolved.
First, it is clear that time is a much scarcer resource for business than for government.
Time-consuming consultations on governance structures could be avoided by using a
light, pragmatic touch in governance structures.
Second, the new multi-stakeholder partnerships ask for ‘shared responsibility’ in
horizontal networks instead of the hierarchies more familiar to government
bureaucracies. Knowledge capacity and action capacity count more than status.
Government network partners do not share diplomatic behavioral norms. Foreign
ministries therefore need to invest more in these interface cultures by using part of
their traditional strength of relationship management, dialogic competences and
knowledge sharing.
Third, SDGs are about long-term objectives and governments need to become aware
of the business perspective on strategic action: corporations use scenario planning,
but they are also lobby organizations geared towards profit making, which the
Volkswagen emission scandal makes clear. Long-term sustainability objectives could
go hand in hand with short-term commercial objectives. It is crucial for MFAs to
understand that businesses are only interested in partnerships when they have
commercialization potential. In (Asian) countries with a closer nexus between
government and business, this principle has been embraced across the public-private
divide.
While having unrelated and often contrasting professional cultures, governmental
policy dilemmas for SDG partnerships could be solved by investing more in the
relationship with business. This is no guarantee for success but a minimum
requirement, and with much wider application. Networking has become the
conceptual basis of diplomacy and collaboration with non-governmental players will
progressively become the ‘new normal’.
SDGS
17. PARTNERSHIPS FOR THE GOALS
ISSUES
Governance, Sustainable Development, Stakeholder Participation, National Action
GLOBAL PARTNERSHIPS
Systemic Issues, Multi-stakeholder Partnerships
ACTORS
Partnership, Stakeholders and Major Groups, National Government
ACTIONS
Project
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