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iOne of the most prominent aspects of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is the significant role it assigns to stakeholders in implementation, follow-up and review. While governments have the main responsibility for implementing the 2030 Agenda, stakeholders from different sectors and at all levels are called on to play different roles in contributing to the 2030 Agenda. The 2030 Agenda highlights two roles that stakeholders can play in particular: holding governments accountablefor their actions or lack thereof 1 (e.g., by tracking implementation or engaging in advocacy activities) and making their ‘own contributions’ 2 to implement the SDGs (e.g., by aligning their own actions or by providing services). The latter sometimes happens in close collaboration or even on behalf of governments. In practice, there are additional roles that stakeholders can play, such as providing inputs to policymaking. Some stakeholders will focus on one or the other role and some will play overlapping roles.
This publication focuses on the first-mentioned role that stakeholders play: holding their governments to account. The ‘accountability role’ of stakeholders is not only explicit in the narrative of the 2030 Agenda, including its call to ‘Leave No One Behind’. It is also refined and supported by one entire goal: SDG 16, which promotes, inter alia, effective, accountable and transparent institutions (16.6), responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making (16.7) and access to information and fundamental freedoms (16.10) as well as targets on Peace, Justice and Inclusion across SDGs. 3 SDG 16+ can thus be seen as enabling stakeholders to play their accountability role.
3Many stakeholder engagement practices are strong in some ways but weak in others
4
Analyses of Voluntary National Reviews (VNR) since 2016 show that, although the majority of governments report on engaging stakeholders in processes related to the implementation and follow-up of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs, many struggle to set up and maintain open, inclusive, participatory and transparent processes(UNDESA, 2020). 4 In many cases, engagement strategies are at an early stage, insufficient or superficial. This may be due to reluctance to engage stakeholders where this is less common. Governments have also indicated the need for support to address practical challenges, e.g., on identifying relevant and new stakeholders, the level and type of engagement at different stages, resources for engagement, cultural barriers, and technical and social constraints.
Little guidance is available to analyse the quality of stakeholder engagement systematically
There are various efforts to support national governments in strengthening stakeholder engagement in implementing the SDGs. So far, much of the guidance by the United Nations (UN), by Member States or by stakeholders themselves focuses on providing anecdotal evidence, usually from the perspective of just one actor and without qualitative analysis. Such an illustrative approach neglects the fact that, in practice, few efforts to engage stakeholders can be considered exclusively ‘good’ or ‘bad’. Many stakeholder engagement practices are strong in some ways but might be weak in others. What is missing, thus, is guidance on how to analyse different aspects of stakeholder engagement practices systematically. Ideally, such analysis is carried out by national actors themselves and jointly, so they can adapt their own practices and share learning directly with their peers. As we move into the Decade of Action for Delivery, 5 the need for such ‘how-to’ guidance on stakeholder engagement in SDG processes will increase.
6The framework was developed by UNDP and UNDESA with the support of an Expert Advisory Group
The development of the framework included the following steps:
Diagram 1: Principles and Dimensions of the Analytical Framework
A printable version of the framework can be found in Annex 2.
10 11 12The analytical framework was tested 13 by selecting 14 and reviewing a small sample of seven practices from five countries (see Table 1).
Table 1: Country Practices that the framework was tested with
15Key results of the testing included the following:
16The above findings have informed the User Guide provided in the next section.
1820
The following steps are recommended, depending on whether the analytical framework is used for Collective Analysis or Unilateral Analysis. Please, check Annex 2 for a user-friendly version of the analytical framework, which is also available here for download.
Collect INFORMATION about the engagement practice
22ORGANIZE the collective review
d. Discuss ways to deal with diverging views about the practice.
c. Include the information collected in one practice analysis sheet.
b. Scoring (section 2 of analysis sheet)
f. Include the references of all written sources consulted (section 6 of analysis sheet).
g. Provide stakeholders consulted with an opportunity to validate the findings.
26The documents below were used as reference in the development of the analytical framework.
1. For example, para 47 and 73 stress that review and follow-up processes will ensure “accountability to our citizens” and para 74d promises that reviews shall be “open, inclusive, participatory and transparent”. ↩︎
2. For example, para 89 calls on “[major groups and other relevant stakeholders] to report on their contribution to the implementation of the Agenda” and para 74d promises to “support the reporting by all stakeholders”. ↩︎
3. The existence of targets on Peace, Justice and Inclusion in SDGs other than SDG 16 is often referred to as ‘SDG 16+’. ↩︎
4. Multi-stakeholder engagement in 2030 Agenda implementation: A review of Voluntary National Review Reports (2016-2019) – https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/26012VNRStakeholdersResearch.pdf ↩︎
5. A/RES/74/4, Political declaration of the high-level political forum on sustainable development convened under the auspices of the General Assembly ↩︎
6. The country practices were selected via the following criteria: region; country typology; presence of VNR reports; existence of institu- tionalized stakeholder engagement mechanisms; existence of formal, institutionalized SDG implementation body; availability of information; availability of contacts. ↩︎
7. For the purpose of the testing exercise, the framework was shared with the interviewees prior to the interviews. The interviewees then responded to questions on their country practices based on the framework and also shared their views on the framework itself. ↩︎
8. For example, reflected in para 3, 8, 17, 35, 74d, 77, 79 and SDG 16.3, 16.7, 16.9, 16.b of the 2030 Agenda. ↩︎
11. From the 2030 Agenda Preamble – “Partnership – We are determined to mobilize the means required to implement this Agenda through a revitalised Global Partnership for Sustainable Development, based on a spirit of strengthened global solidarity, focussed in particular on the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable and with the participation of all countries, all stake- holders and all people.” ↩︎
13. The testing was commissioned by UNDESA and undertaken by Cooperation Canada, with the support of a grant from the European Commission. ↩︎
Department of Economic and Social Affairs
Division for Sustainable Development Goals
405 East 42nd Street, 26th Floor