The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development renews commitment to multi-stakeholder partnerships as important complementary means of implementation (SDGs 17.16 and 17.17). However, partnerships showed a mixed record in the past, in particular regarding some of the key principles agreed at the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness held in Busan in 2011. Hence, in the draft outcome document of this meeting it is called for more but also more ‘inclusive, coordinated and effective multi-stakeholder partnerships’.

In a similar vein, the recent General Assembly resolution under the agenda item entitled “Towards global partnerships” requests debate on “the best practices and ways to improve, inter alia, transparency, accountability and the sharing of experiences of multi-stakeholder partnerships and on the review and monitoring of those partnerships” (A/RES/70/224, para. 15). To improve the quantity and quality of partnerships, increased efforts are needed. Several initiatives are currently under way, initiated and led by various stakeholders, at the global and national level, to strengthen the enabling environment for and increase the quantity and quality of partnerships.

The Second High Level Meeting (HLM2) of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation (GPEDC) took place in Nairobi, Kenya from 28 November until 1 December 2016. At the HLM2, Dr. Anne Ellersiek held a side event with the objective to present and discuss several of these initiatives and provide space for discussion of lessons learned from past experience and on how these can be translated into guidance on the design and implementation of partnership support and coordinating initiatives, in line with the Busan Principles.