Since meeting goals by 2030 requires substantial changes in all aspects, the limited effectiveness of governments may not be sufficient unless businesses and civil society play their part
The world cannot survive unless drastic steps are taken. The member states of the United Nations (UN) in 2015 adopted the 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development with 17 Goals at its heart. This is a universal call to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people live a productive, vibrant life and enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030. Since 2020 is round the corner and we are just a decade away from 2030, we must analyse the sufficiency of the actions taken by governments, businesses, developmental organisations, scientific community and civil society to make achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) a reality. Since these require substantial changes in all aspects, the limited effectiveness of governments may not be sufficient, unless businesses and civil society play their part.
The UN’s SDG Report, 2019, is helpful in measuring headways made in several critical areas and indicates some positive developments like substantial decline in extreme poverty, 49 per cent fall in the under-five mortality rate since 2000 and access to electricity to a large chunk of the world’s population. Marine life has also been safeguarded and protected areas have multiplied since 2010. Issues regarding illegal fishing are also being smoothened. The Paris Agreement on climate change has been signed by 186 parties. Rapid urbanisation has also been addressed worldwide with 150 countries framing policies at the national-level aiming to solve the problems arising from it. Over 300 policies and instruments have been developed by several countries, including the EU, to encourage sustainability in production and consumption. These improvements could not have been possible without the widespread support of all stakeholders and this all-pervasive participation creates considerable optimism and promise for a secure future.
However, unified and concentrated action is still required in many areas. Environment protection and action to reduce climate change are the top priority as it is predicted that global warming will rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels in years to come if greenhouse emissions are not checked. This, coupled with increasing sea levels because of it, will have cumulative effects that will be irreversible and disastrous. Add to this an increasing ocean acidification, coastal erosion, extreme weather conditions, the frequency and severity of natural disasters, continuing land degradation, risk of loss of one million plant and animal species and we have a perfect recipe for the ecosystem’s collapse.
Human suffering is closely linked to this environmental degradation as it has the capability to make many parts of the planet derelict. Given the loss of vital plant and animal species and global warming — with the last four years being the warmest on record — food production will be at risk, leading to large-scale food shortage and increasing global hunger. This can potentially displace up to 140 million people by 2050, unless strong and decisive action on climate change is taken by the entire world.
The goal to end extreme poverty by 2030 also looks unattainable as violent disturbances, conflicts and displacements are adding to the exposure to natural disasters, leading to deep-rooted deprivation. At least half of the world’s population lacks essential health services, more than half of the world’s children do not meet educational standards and women in all parts of the world continue to face disadvantages and discrimination.
Since achieving SDGs is not easy or possible alone, all stakeholders should partner for the cause. As resources are limited, be it financial, natural or human, society must make optimum use of the same. By way of partnership, we have the ability to bring together diverse and scarce resources to deliver a higher impact, greater sustainability and increased value to all. According to the UN, “Partnerships for sustainable development are multi-stakeholder initiatives voluntarily undertaken by Governments, inter-governmental organisations, major groups and other stakeholders, whose efforts are contributing to the implementation of inter-governmentally agreed development goals and commitments.”
Through this the UN has recognised the importance of partnerships by businesses and all leading institutions as imperative in international relations and global development. This fundamental shift in its thinking and approach is expressed in its clear acceptance of the interrelations and interdependence of thriving business, prosperous society and a healthy environment as a whole. All societal sectors without exception have been named as key development actors and an unprecedented level of cooperation and collaboration is the need of the hour for achievement of SDGs.
Since the launch of SDGs, several wide-ranging development partnerships have seen the light of the day, both at global and local levels; from international networks to bilateral arrangements; from multi-sector, multi-issue platforms, to single-sector, single-issue interest groups. To bring some standardisation into the multitude of collaborative arrangements with quite different qualities, three basic types of partnerships can be identified, which can be distinguished in terms of the main objectives of the partnership and the nature of the relationship between the partners.
The first category, “Leverage/Exchange” involves partnerships that are complementary to each other and are a one-way transfer or reciprocal exchange of resources like knowledge, services, skills and funding, that the organisations need to employ towards their own strategic goals. It is applicable when each partner has something that is more valuable to the other than to themselves, resulting in net gain on exchange. For example, the relationship between an aid agency and a university research institute can constitute a partnership of mutual benefit where the agency accesses research outputs and expertise from the institute while providing research funding or sources of data and case studies to the institute. An example of this type of partnership is Coca-Cola and the Global Fund Project Last Mile, which leverages Coca-Cola’s logistic, supply chain, distribution and marketing expertise to build African Governments’ capabilities to ensure communities have better access to life-sustaining and life-enhancing medicines. Coca-Cola gains by demonstrating its commitment to a better planet as well as providing employee engagement opportunities.
The second category, “Combine/Integrate”, identifies a cross-sector partnership, which is essentially a partnership between two or more organisations where complementary resources are pooled to identify solutions to a common problem and in the process accomplish a shared strategic goal. Innovative approaches, which are developed by all the partners involved through brainstorming and consistent dialogue and mutual accountability, are the hallmarks of this type of partnership. The core belief here is that one can achieve more by working together and combining the resources than individually. An example in this category can be seen in Bangladesh between a social enterprise and a major supplier of renewable energy, SOLshare, and Grameen Shakti, which is being supported and enabled by UN DESA. Grameen Shakti brings access to its massive existing customer base and network of solar homes, as well as its knowledge of the communities, and SOLshare brings cutting-edge, innovative technology with the potential to transform the supply of affordable energy to low-income households in Bangladesh.
The final partnership type “Transform”, is more ambitious and focusses on the final goal of tackling a development challenge in an innovative and multi-faceted way where the problem definition may be unclear, and partners bring differing world views and perspectives to the issue. For example, Scaling up Nutrition is a global, country-led and multi-sectoral movement to combat undernutrition and catalyse support for countries with a focus on a set of evidence-based direct nutrition interventions. Here a partnership is developed to facilitate a system change with the involvement of various actors like countries, various Government ministries (e.g. ministries of education, health and agriculture) as well as other change agents like businesses, civil society and the UN.
We are at a time where interventions to save the planet have to be colossal and no country or individual can contribute in isolation. The challenges are global and require global solutions. The SDGs have brought countries and communities together to work for a better life and a sustainable planet. It is the duty of all stakeholders to develop and to further strengthen international cooperation on climate change, migration, technology, trade and partnerships. Let us take the advantage of many synergies that we have and work together to achieve the 2030 Agenda.
(The writer is an Associate Professor, Amity University)
