On 3 May 2021, a webinar on “Stakeholder engagement and partnerships during and beyond COVID–19″ was organized by United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), as part of the 2030 Agenda Partnership Accelerator webinar series.
The event was organized in the margins of the 2021 ECOSOC Partnership Forum and the Multi–stakeholder Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation for the SDGs. The webinar also featured a panel to explore what impact COVID–19 has had on stakeholder engagement, how partnerships have formed a critical response to the pandemic and addressed what lessons can be learned moving forward.
The following publications were presented on the occasion of the event:
Stakeholder Report
As a result of a broad survey with governments and stakeholders, UN DESA has recently launched a report on The Impacts of COVID–19 on Stakeholder Engagement for the SDGs, which presents new data on the impacts that COVID–19 has had on stakeholder engagement in the implementation, follow up and review of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at national, regional and sub–national levels. The report sought to catalogue important effects, highlight challenges, and present good practices and innovation for stakeholder engagement.
Dr. Emily Clough and Dr. Graham Long, New Castle University presented the report and amongst the findings revealed that some of the biggest challenges named by stakeholders were their ability to maintain or create partnerships (57%), ensure the participation of vulnerable or marginalized groups (65%) and to mobilize funds for SDG activities (75%).
Partnership Study
UN DESA has undertaken a study on Partnerships in response to COVID–19 –Building back better together to inform the work of the 2030 Agenda Partnership Accelerator. The study aims to identify and address the following: typology of partnerships forged during COVID–19, impact, partnership development process, enabling conditions that allowed partnerships to develop, challenges and success factors, and any lessons around partnerships’ response to other crises, i.e., climate change, ocean protection, etc.
Dr. Xiaolan Fu, University of Oxford presented the study and highlighted that despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the international community has made significant efforts to mobilize partnerships to accelerate the global response –providing urgent health and socio-economic responses and supporting communities to live with the pandemic, as well as working towards post-pandemic recovery and ensuring we “build back better”. During COVID-19, partnerships were built up rapidly in just a few weeks or months.
Programme
Welcome – Ms. Lotta Tähtinen, Chief, Outreach and Partnerships, Division for SDGs, UN DESA
Kick-off presentations
- Impact of COVID-19 on stakeholder engagement – Dr. Emily Clough, Dr. Graham Long, Newcastle University
- Partnerships in response to COVID-19 – Dr. Xiaolan Fu, University of Oxford
Dialogue
- Ms.Florence Syevuo, Country Coordinator, SDGs Kenya Forum
- Mr. Mohammed Nabil, Initiative on COVID-19 in Yemen
- Mr. Christian Skoog, COVID-19 Women and Children Safe at Hotels in Mexico
- Ms. Nathalie Strub-Wourgaft, The ANTICOV Clinical Trial
- Mr. Ian Macpherson, Global Partnership for Education (GPE)’s COVID Response Closing reflections
- Ms. Naiara Costa, Senior Sustainable Development Officer, Division for SDGs, UN DESA
- Mr. Darian Stibbe, Executive Director, The Partnering Initiative