Partner with us for Partnership Forum 2022

By Collen Vixen Kelapile, President of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)

Partnerships mean different things to different people. To some, partnerships can mean sharing the financial burdens and profits of joint ventures. To others, partnerships may entail a deeper commitment to common objectives and working with others to find solutions to shared problems.

Today, more than ever, we need multi-stakeholder partnerships to mobilize and share the efforts, knowledge, expertise, technology and financial resources needed to combat the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and ensure a resilient and sustainable recovery that is anchored in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In the face of the significant challenges imposed by the pandemic and the deep economic recession it has yielded, it is encouraging to see that the global community has stepped up its efforts to mobilize new partnerships from all stakeholders. The years 2020 and 2021 witnessed a growing number and scope of multi-stakeholder partnerships that address the various challenges brought by the pandemic, from developing vaccines and providing urgent health and socio-economic responses, to supporting communities and working towards a post-pandemic sustainable recovery.

My own country, Botswana, managed to achieve breakthrough progress in addressing HIV/AIDS through partnerships, including with the scientific community and other actors. It is building on this experience that we can address the COVID-19 pandemic.

Not only do we need to forge more partnerships to address and overcome common challenges, but we also need spaces for discussions and learning among all stakeholders, engaged or potentially engaged in partnerships, on how to employ and promote the SDGs as a framework for recovery efforts, integrating the principles of ”leaving no one behind” and ”whole-of-society” implementation and review.

Held annually, the Partnership Forum of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) is an opportunity for Member States and a wide range of stakeholders to brainstorm with some of the world’s most influential thinkers and actors about how we could engage and partner better in support of the SDGs. It also allows to exchange views and feedback for the upcoming work of both the ECOSOC and the UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) and related UN meetings.

The theme of the upcoming Partnership Forum on 2 February 2022 “Building back better from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) while advancing the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda” could not be timelier.

To prepare for the Partnership Forum in late 2021, UN DESA conducted an open global online consultation to compile views, experiences, and recommendations from all stakeholders. A recently published report summarizes the key messages. One such message is that the ECOSOC Partnership Forum should prioritize discussions around themes such as: the interconnectivity and cross-cutting nature of the SDGs, capacity building for partnership and mutual learning, support to vulnerable groups, especially those that are not reachable by modern communications means, quality education, vaccine equity and sustainable healthcare models and gender equality.

My hope is that the 2022 ECOSOC Partnership Forum will go beyond just bringing together governments and other key actors to share their relevant experiences and insights on these and other topics. My ambition is for us to co-create effective and inclusive multi-stakeholder collaboration that will have a lasting impact on the ground, where action is most direly needed. I would like to invite you to visit the website of the 2022 ECOSOC Partnership Forum to learn more about the event and join us at the 2022 ECOSOC Partnership Forum!

* The views expressed in this blog are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of UN DESA.