Abstract
Partnerships have long been presented as transformative and effective mechanisms to overcome challenges linked to the global governance of development. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and SDG 17 call for intensified involvement and engagement of partnerships in sustainable development, formalizing a role specifically for multi-stakeholder partnerships (MSPs). In this context, transnational MSPs that enmesh public and private to finance development, continue to flourish as a hybrid model of governance. This paper seeks to critically assess the accountability issues linked to channelling development financing through transnational MSPs using an accountability matrix, based on responsibility, answerability and enforceability, applicable to the system-level development cooperation/aid frameworks as well as to MSPs. The article then evaluates the accountability challenges and shortcomings arising from MSPs as development financing actors resulting in diffused responsibility, limited answerability and weak enforceability. Finally, the article outlines a research agenda and Policy recommendations to improve the accountability of MSPs when they finance development.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 177-189 |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| Journal | Global Policy |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| Early online date | 26 Dec 2020 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Apr 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2020 The Authors. Global Policy published by Durham University and John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Funding
The decade between the 1992 Rio Summit and the 2002 Johannesburg World Summit can be credited for the advent of these new modes of international cooperation in the form of partnerships. Since, MSPs with a development delivery role have flourished in various policy areas such as health, water management, energy and education. The partnership approach promised to address acute and structural governance gaps by fostering better governance, more participation, more effective implementation and sustained financing of sustainable development (Martens, 2007 ). The adoption of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) gave partnerships for development an official status. By the time preparations for the 2002 Johannesburg Summit finalized, there was a call to support the MDGs, including through the development of ‘innovative financing’ and the promotion of partnerships (UNWSSD, 2002a , paras. 3, 7(f), 8(a)). Such partnerships would be supported by multi‐annual and multidonor funds from both public and private sources to overcome difficulties encountered in negotiating interstate financial arrangements.
