Background
A side event to the 2026 ECOSOC Partnership Forum
Achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires unprecedented transformations across economic, social, and environmental dimensions. Given the scale and complexity of these challenges, progress depends on effective multi-stakeholder partnerships that bring together governments, the United Nations system, civil society, the private sector, and other actors to pool financial resources, knowledge, and expertise in an integrated manner.
The 2030 Agenda Partnership Accelerator, an initiative of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) implemented in partnership with The Partnering Initiative (TPI), aims to enhance multi-stakeholder engagement and accelerate the formation of effective partnerships in support of the SDGs.
Since 2019, the Partnership Accelerator has delivered capacity development activities at the global, regional, and national levels, including national partnership workshops, advisory support, and knowledge products. These efforts have focused on strengthening trust and collaboration across sectors, building partnership skills and competencies, and supporting the development of country-driven multi-stakeholder partnerships and partnership platforms.
As financing gaps for SDG implementation persist, there is growing interest in the role of philanthropy and catalytic financing in unlocking and aligning additional resources for sustainable development. Strengthening the capacity of governments and stakeholders to engage effectively with philanthropic actors, design partnership models that leverage catalytic investments, and align innovative financing approaches with SDG priorities will be increasingly important. Capacity development on partnerships can play a critical role in supporting such approaches by equipping actors with the skills, tools, and frameworks needed to structure and sustain these collaborations.
As the international community enters the final years of the 2030 Agenda and begins reflecting on longer-term directions beyond 2030, there is a timely opportunity to take stock of lessons learned from capacity development on partnerships and to consider how future efforts to strengthen partnership capacity can be further enhanced.
The side event aims to:
Present the work, objectives, and key lessons from the 2030 Agenda Partnership Accelerator;
Invite reflections and ideas on future directions for capacity development on partnerships, including approaches to engaging philanthropy and catalytic financing, for the remainder of the 2030 Agenda period and beyond.
Programme coming shortly.
