Unite to Ignite: Accelerating the transformational power of partnerships for the SDGs and beyond

Background
Documentation

Background

Unite to Ignite

Accelerating the transformational power of partnerships for the SDGs and beyond

Organized as a side event at the 2024 ECOSOC Partnership Forum

30 January, 8:15 - 9:30 AM EST, virtual

Background

The 2030 Agenda Partnership Accelerator (an initiative by UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs and The Partnering Initiative), Partnerships2030 (Germany/GIZ) and the Global Forum on National SDG Advisory Bodies have in 2023 jointly ran a campaign aimed at raising awareness and supporting governments and stakeholders to develop the partnership enabling factors that will develop and scale up multi-stakeholder partnerships in support of the SDGs and beyond.

The events, including a global survey, desk research and dedicated interviews, informed the development of a global study on the state of partnership enabling factors to drive effective collaborations. The report, “Unite to Ignite: Accelerating the transformational power of partnerships for the SDGs and beyond” was launched in September 2023 as the culmination of the Campaign.

If we are to ‘raise the game’ and become systematic in delivering far more, and far more effective partnerships, we need to put in place a concerted and targeted effort to build the enabling accelerators for widespread partnering. The report calls on the UN, governments, business, civil society organisations, funders and individuals to address and prioritise the factors to accelerate multistakeholder collaboration for the 2030 Agenda. And, by uniting, to ignite a new wave of collaboration towards the SDGs and beyond.

Some of the key findings of the report include:

We need staff to be trained in professional partnering: 91% of respondents believe it would make a significant difference to their organisation / partnerships’ collaborative success if all involved were fully trained in partnering, and shared a common language and approach. And yet partnership training was only accessible in 13% of countries.
We need organisations to be ‘fit for partnering’: 93% of respondents agree or strongly agree that their organisation would deliver better and faster partnerships if it were to make changes to become optimised for partnering
We need partnerships to be built to best practice standards: Partnerships with significant support from an independent partnership specialist were 2.5 times more likely to be rated highly successful than those with no support. There was a clear correlation between partnerships with specific best practice ‘building blocks’ in place and their rating of success;
We need new ways to fund partnerships: 96% of respondents agree that adjusting the way funding is provided could improve the quality and impact of partnerships and help them to achieve maximum impact.

The report provides the evidence and clarity on what needs to be done. But how can we put the recommendations into action? How do we convince and inspire governments, donors, foundations, NGOs and companies to invest for partnering success? The session will look at two key areas: partnering skills and organisational fitness for partnering and ask how we can scale up