Global Partnership For Sustainable Development

Introduction

Due to the dawn of information and communication technology has a decisive influence of every aspects of human life. But the uncontrollable population rates and demanding economies of the present social scenario are adding up extensive heaviness on the environment. This widespread aging of population and rapid technological change are placing great stress on social equity and cohesion. By considering these aspects all prominent nations especially developing countries give major political priorities on environmental sustainability and social inclusion. To be sustainable, development must strike a balance between the economic, social and environmental objectives of society, in order to maximise well-being in the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Based on this focus on the ‘global partnership for sustainable development’, an emerging vision articulated in the Millennium Declaration was envisioned and created in 2012 at the Rio+20 Conference.

Such a new development agenda should carry forward the spirit of the Millennium Declaration and the best of the MDGs, with a practical focus on things like poverty, hunger, water, sanitation, education and healthcare. Member States agreed in the outcome document that to facilitate multi-stakeholder partnerships and encourage the participation of the various stakeholders. In addition, Member States mandated the UN Secretariat to establish and maintain a registry of voluntary initiatives for sustainable development. This regularly updated registry contains information on commitments and is fully transparent and accessible to the public.

In 2015 the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development further strengthened the importance of the Global Partnership in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Goal 17 recognizes that the implementation of the SDGs is a challenge for governments and therefore seeks to strengthen the Global Partnership by calling upon all stakeholders to take part in implementing the SDGs. In particular, it stresses the development of multi-stakeholder partnerships that call upon diverse stakeholders such as persons with disabilities and their representative organizations to mobilize and share their expertise and resources in order to achieve the SDGs. The development of public, public-private and civil society partnerships is also encouraged and promoted.

Global Partnership for Sustainable Development – Its Functional System

The platform initially developed in response to Rio+20 has been improved to better respond to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in order to inform all stakeholders on initiatives carried out by multi-stakeholder partnerships in support of the SDGs, and for linking progress of those initiatives to various follow-up mechanisms of the 2030 Agenda, in particular to the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development.

Multi-stakeholders Partnerships (MSPs) Partnerships are defined as voluntary and collaborative relationships between various parties, both state and non-state, in which all participants agree to work together to achieve a common purpose or undertake a specific task, and to share risks and responsibilities, resources and benefits. Multi-stakeholder partnerships (MSPs) can range from loose forum-like structures allowing for active debate and the exchange of knowledge and experience, to more formalized structures based on the creation of a legal entity with appropriate governance structures to ensure transparency and accountability. The core theme of MSPs is joint value creation by all the participating members.

Since high growth performance does not necessarily bring about high levels of development, sustainable development has been increasingly regarded as the primary objective in many countries. As an alternative approach to the traditional growth path that concentrates only on economic advancement, sustainable development pursues a balance between economic development, social equity and environmental protection, not as conflicting goals but as pillars which complement each other.

At a time when the world is faced with environmental degradation and rising inequity and poverty, developing countries are much more vulnerable to adverse shocks than the developed nations. This is due to various reasons such as low adaptation capacity, weak regulatory systems and disproportionate dependency on natural resources. They need financial assistance from the developed countries to support their efforts towards a sustainable future. In this respect, foreign aid by developed countries has played an important role in the global arena to boost prosperity in developing countries.

Global Partnership as Means of Sustainable Development

The role of a renewed global partnership in promoting sustainable development, with a specific focus on foreign financial supports, which is highly significant and an effective policy especially for developing countries. But this leads an argument that these countries are in an improved financial situation to take care of their natural resources, protect the environment and develop more equitable societies. To achieve sustainable development, the Millennium Declaration calls for international cooperation to go beyond aid to encompass trade, investment, governance, etc. This implies that fundamental changes in the global partnership are required to address current and emerging challenges in such areas as climate change mitigation and adaptation, employment and migration. To enhance the global partnership for sustainable development complemented by multi-stakeholder partnerships that mobilize and share knowledge, expertise, technologies and financial resources to support the achievement of sustainable development goals in all countries, particularly developing countries.

The Global Partnership for Sustainable Development as a call for action by all countries – poor, rich and middle-income – to promote prosperity while protecting the planet. They recognize that ending poverty must go hand-in-hand with strategies that build economic growth and address a range of social needs including education, health, social protection, and job opportunities, while tackling climate change and environmental protection.

A successful sustainable development agenda requires partnerships between governments, the private sector and civil society. These inclusive partnerships built upon principles and values, a shared vision, and shared goals that place people and the planet at the centre, are needed at the global, regional, national and local level. For this purpose urgent action is needed to mobilize, redirect and unlock the transformative power of financial resources to deliver on sustainable development objectives. Long-term investments, including foreign direct investment, are needed in critical sectors, especially in developing countries. These include sustainable energy, infrastructure and transport, as well as information and communications technologies. The public sector will need to set a clear direction. Review and monitoring frameworks, regulations and incentive structures that enable such investments must be retooled to attract investments and reinforce sustainable development. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can only be realized with a strong commitment to global partnership and cooperation.

Partnerships are critical for persons with disabilities and their representative organizations because this is the best way to ensure that the disability community has representation and that the challenges faced by persons with disabilities are accounted for and met in the implementation of the SDGs. Persons with disabilities must therefore take a direct role in these partnerships to ensure that their interests are part of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs for the years to come.

The world today is more interconnected than ever before. Improving access to technology and knowledge is an important way to share ideas and foster innovation. Coordinating policies to help developing countries manage their debt, as well as promoting investment for the least developed, is vital to achieve sustainable growth and development. The goals aim to enhance North-South and South-South cooperation by supporting national plans to achieve all the targets. Promoting international trade, and helping developing countries increase their exports, is all part of achieving a universal rules-based and equitable trading system that is fair and open, and benefits all.

Global Partnership: Thrust Areas for Sustainable Development

a. Finance

• Strengthen domestic resource mobilization, including through international support to developing countries, to improve domestic capacity for tax and other revenue collection.
• Mobilize additional financial resources for developing countries from multiple sources.
• Assist developing countries in attaining long-term debt sustainability through coordinated policies aimed at fostering debt financing, debt relief and debt restructuring, as appropriate, and address the external debt of highly indebted poor countries to reduce debt distress.
• Adopt and implement investment promotion regimes for least developed countries.

b. Technology

• Enhance North-South, South-South and triangular regional and international cooperation on and access to science, technology and innovation and enhance knowledge sharing on mutually agreed terms, including through improved coordination among existing mechanisms, in particular at the United Nations level, and through a global technology facilitation mechanism.
• Promote the development, transfer, dissemination and diffusion of environmentally sound technologies to developing countries on favourable terms, including on concessional and preferential terms, as mutually agreed
• Fully operationalize the technology bank and science, technology and innovation capacity-building mechanism for least developed countries and enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology.
• Enhance international support for implementing effective and targeted capacity-building in developing countries to support national plans to implement all the sustainable development goals, including through North-South, South-South and triangular cooperation

c. Trade

• Promote a universal, rules-based, open, non-discriminatory and equitable multilateral trading system under the World Trade Organization.
• Significantly increase the exports of developing countries, in particular with a view to doubling the least developed countries’ share of global exports by 2020.
• Realize timely implementation of duty-free and quota-free market access on a lasting basis for all least developed countries, consistent with World Trade Organization decisions, including by ensuring that preferential rules of origin applicable to imports from least developed countries are transparent and simple, and contribute to facilitating market access

d. Policy and institutional coherence

• Enhance global macroeconomic stability, including through policy coordination and policy coherence.
• Enhance policy coherence for sustainable development.
• Respect each country’s policy space and leadership to establish and implement policies for poverty eradication and sustainable development.

e. Multi-stakeholder partnerships

• Enhance the global partnership for sustainable development, complemented by multi-stakeholder partnerships that mobilize and share knowledge, expertise, technology and financial resources, to support the achievement of the sustainable development goals in all countries, in particular developing countries.
• Encourage and promote effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships, building on the experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships.

f. Data, monitoring and accountability

• By 2020, enhance capacity-building support to developing countries, including for least developed countries and small island developing States, to increase significantly the availability of high-quality, timely and reliable data disaggregated by income, gender, age, race, ethnicity, migratory status, disability, geographic location and other characteristics relevant in national contexts.
• By 2030, build on existing initiatives to develop measurements of progress on sustainable development that complement gross domestic product, and support statistical capacity-building in developing countries.

Conclusion

An enhanced global partnership with deeper international collective action could effectively contribute to the effective process and policies of nations towards sustainable development. The foreign aid has significant effect on sustainable development through channels relating to economic growth, natural resources and information – communication technology. The interaction between development, economic growth, natural resource conservation and energy and technological progress leads the process of global sustainability in a fruitful manner. Growth provides a concrete foundation for environmental protection and social development and equips governments to fight climate change and stimulate social inclusiveness and development both financially and technologically.

An enhanced global partnership in areas such as foreign aid, trade, investment, migration (from rural to urban areas) and governance could play a crucial role in the process of global sustainability. The global partnership for sustainable development should be strengthened to encompass explicit commitments by all countries to the various goals and internationally coordinated measures that strive to create an enabling environment for development, to address the causes of climate change and income inequality, to facilitate sustainable management of the global commons and to achieve economic and financial stability.

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