SDG Partnerships with the Private Sector: Three Dilemmas ...€¦ · Second, the new multi-stakeholder partnerships ask for ‘shared responsibility’ in horizontal networks instead

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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