The 2030 Agenda Partnership Accelerator is a collaborative initiative by United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) and The Partnering Initiative, in collaboration with United Nations Office for Partnerships (UNOP), UN Global Compact, and the UN Development Coordination Office. The initiative aims to help accelerate effective multi-stakeholder partnerships and engagement in support of the sustainable development goals.
The 2030 Agenda Partnership Accelerator
The Accelerator aims to develop the partnership enabling ecosystem that can systematically engage business as a partner in sustainable development and accelerate the number and effectiveness of partnerships to deliver the 2030 Agenda at the country level.
Direct partnership training support and advisory services are offered to member States and UN entities/resident co-ordinators/country teams wishing to foster stronger collaboration between stakeholders and sectors, and enhance their capacities in forging new multi-stakeholder partnerships and partnership platforms.
The Partnership Accelerator’s key objectives
Building partnerships and platforms at the national level
Support of effective multi-stakeholder partnerships and partnership platforms and mechanisms for engaging business and other stakeholders at national level, supporting new generation of UN Resident Coordinators and country teams.
Partnership skills and competencies
Build capacity of relevant stakeholders to develop and implement partnerships for the SDGs, and to support organizations to develop their policy and strategy, systems and processes, legal agreements and culture to support collaboration.
Enhance collaboration between sectors and stakeholders
Enhance trust, understanding and collaboration between different sectors and stakeholders in order to boost partnerships and engagement for SDG implementation.
The SDG Partnership Guidebook
The SDG Partnership Guidebook is the flagship publication of the SDG Partnership Accelerator and serves as a practical resource to help build high impact multi-stakeholder partnerships for the Sustainable Development Goals.
The Guidebook aims to convey the magic of how multi-stakeholder partnerships at country level can deliver significantly towards the sustainable development goals and provide guidance on how to build robust, effective collaborations that can achieve extraordinary results.
MSP Campaign
The Partnering Initiative and UN DESA (through the 2030 Agenda Partnership Accelerator), Partnerships2030 (a project commissioned by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development and implemented by the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit) and the Global Forum on SDG Advisory Bodies are jointly running a campaign, over the course of 2023, aimed at raising awareness and supporting governments and stakeholders to develop the partnership enabling factors that will develop, improve and scale up multi-stakeholder partnerships in support of the SDGs and beyond.
2022 Direct Support Activities
Direct partnership training support and advisory services are offered to member
States and Resident Coordinators/UN country teams wishing to foster stronger collaboration between stakeholders and sectors, and enhance their capacities in forging new multi-stakeholder partnerships and partnership platforms.
Below is an overview of the activities and achievements of the Partnership Accelerator in 2022, implemented with generous funding support from the Government of Italy, the Government of Ireland, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs and the United Nations Office for Sustainable Development.
- Strengthened partnerships between stakeholders in Maldives on waste management and mental health, through organisation of partnership labs and consultations.
- Supported the organization of the Mexico Partnership Forum to strengthen and scale multi-stakeholder and multi-sector engagement for SDGs, leading to the establishment of the Mexico Partnership Platform and UN’s Partnership Strategy as a first in the region.
- Training to national stakeholders from various sectors on how to build effective and impactful partnerships in the Bahamas.
- Established a network of partnerships champions to advance partnership knowledge in the Caribbean.
- Support to stakeholders on building partnerships for advancing Sustainable Development Goal 14.
- Launch of an online Partnership Learning Centre with learning modules and resources on how to build and manage effective multi-stakeholder partnerships for the SDGs.
- Contributed to partnership discussions and trainings at the ECOSOC.
- Partnership Forum and the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development.
Partnership Accelerator Learning Centre
To further support building and managing effective multi-stakeholder partnerships to advance the Sustainable Development Goals, the Partnership Accelerator has developed an online comprehensive Partnership Learning Centre.
The Learning Centre offers modules on various aspects of partnering for the SDGs, including on special issue such as partnerships in response to COVID-19, national partnership platforms and partnerships for small island developing states. The Centre also offers guided tours of modules and resources based on the level of experience the user has with partnerships.
Furthermore, the Centre includes a rich Resource Library containing guidebooks, national partnership landscape assessments, interviews, training videos and more.
Future plans
An SDG Partnering Academy
- Training of trainers to build up a faculty of partnership trainers (from the UN, INGOs, training organisations), and a low-cost cascading model able to deliver in-country training at considerable scale.
- Development of online training courses and further modules (including specialized SDG-specific training) for complete partnership professional development, including certification.
- Work together with other training providers to deliver their courses through the infrastructure created.
- Extensive online partnership resource centre.
- Direct support to UN and other organisations to undertake a process of analysis of their organisations and develop roadmap plans of action to build their institutional capability.
- Develop best practice guidance and training for building fitness for partnering to disseminate and cascade out the approach out widely.
An action network of partnership support platforms
- Build an action network of platforms for the exchange of learning and material; and the development of best-practice guidance
- Provision of direct support and capacity building to the UN and countries to build platforms for the SDGs (in association with UNDP wherever relevant)
- Creation of a map of qualified and experienced organisations and individuals able to provide direct support to partnerships, made accessible through the online partnership resource centre.
