Enhancing the Effectiveness of Sustainability Partnerships

Sustainable development—meeting human needs while nurturing and restoring the planet's life support systems—requires a continuous process of scientific innovation, new knowledge and learning, and collaborative approaches to implementing technologies and policies. To address these challenges, different stakeholder groups are increasingly seeking to ally themselves through partnership, in order to implement projects, deliver services, establish secure funding mechanisms, and achieve on the ground results. Advocates of this collaborative approach point to the failure of governmental regulations, international commitments, or business as usual. However, skeptics often question the effectiveness of partnerships at achieving sustainable development goals and, in the absence of demonstrated results, wonder where partnerships are adding value. A symposium held in June 2008 and summarized in this volume, attempted to advance the dialogue on partnerships for sustainability in order to catalyze existing knowledge and inform future efforts. Ideas that came out of discussions at the symposium will help leaders in government, the private sector, foundations and NGOs, and universities, both in the United States and internationally, as they develop and participate in new partnerships for sustainability. Table of ContentsFront MatterI IntroductionII Partners Coming Together--Summary, Panel DiscussionIII Partnership Organization and Governance--Summary, Panel DiscussionIV Partners and Co-production--Summary, Panel DiscussionV Evaluating Outcomes and Enhancing Effectiveness--Summary, Panel DiscussionVI Partnerships for Sustainability: Examining the Evidence--Background paper prepared for the symposium--Derek VollmerCASE STUDIES ABSTRACTSVII Networks, Club Goods, and Partnerships for Sustainability: The Green Power Market Development Group--Liliana B. AndonovaVIII Assessing the Role and Relevance of the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) in Global Sustainability Governance--Philipp Pattberg, Kacper Szulecki, Sander Chan, and Aysem MertIX Clean Water and Sanitation for All: Global Water Challenge--Derek Vollmer, Kathleen McAllister, and Jacqueline CotéX Agua para Todos: Water for All--Cortnie Shupe and Julia SteetsXI The Sustainable Forest Products Global Alliance--William SugrueXII The Common Code for the Coffee Community (4C)--Petra Kuenkel, Vera Fricke, and Stanislava CholakovaXIII Sustainable Silicon Valley: A Model Regional Partnership--Blas Pérez HenríquezXIV The ACS Green Chemistry Institute®: A Case Study of Partnerships to Promote Sustainability in the Chemical Enterprise--Kira JM MatusXV The Multilateral Initiative on Malaria: An Alliance to Enhance African Malaria Research--Barbara SinaXVI Public-Private Partnerships and Pro-Poor Livestock Research: The Search for an East Coast Fever Vaccine--David J. SpielmanXVII The Farm to Fork Initiative: A Shareholder and Management Partnership--LeRoy C. Paddock