Partnerships for Sustainability in Contemporary Global Governance

"Sustainable development goals are being pursued by an unprecedented variety of government, business, and civil society actors operating at levels from the local to the global. Most of these actors now realize that they cannot succeed on their own, and in their search for collaborative governance arrangements have increasingly turned to various forms of partnerships. But which sorts of partnerships have been most effective in supporting the pursuit of sustainability? And how can existing partnerships be reformed to increase their effectiveness?

This volume provides the most compelling answers I know to these important questions. Its contributions range from the development of a theoretical framework that integrates multiple disciplinary perspectives on partnership effectiveness, through the use of that theory to analyze empirical evidence spanning an unprecedented range of issues and scales, to the identification of generalizable guidance for devising more effective partnership arrangements. In short, it is a must read for both scholars and practitioners working on sustainable development and global governance more generally."

William Clark, Harvey Brooks Research Professor of International Science, Public Policy and Human Development, Harvard University, USA

"A tour de force! Starting with a careful assessment of the concept of public-private partnerships, this book develops a sophisticated argument about conditions determining the effectiveness of such partnerships and explores the persuasiveness of this argument through a range of well-chosen empirical applications. All future research dealing with public-private partnerships will need to treat this book as an essential point of departure."

Oran Young, Professor Emeritus, University of California Santa Barbara, USA

"Public-private and multistakeholder partnerships have expanded enormously over recent decades in almost every sector of global governance, from health to education and the environment. Curiously, however, there are few systematic or comprehensive studies of their effectiveness despite their ubiquity. This original and impressive collection not only addresses this knowledge gap but also advances a unique analytical framework for evaluating partnership effectiveness. It applies this to a series of rich thematic case studies of partnerships in action, from climate change to drug development, whilst the case studies are complemented in the final section with contributions which adopt a holistic or systemic perspective to explore the structural conditions which impact the effectiveness of partnerships. A collection which presents significant challenges to many contemporary orthodoxies about partnerships for sustainable development. But equally one which offers practical insights into how sustainable partnerships could be re-designed to combine effectiveness with other important qualities such as accountability, transparency and democracy. A terrific and revealing collection for those with an interest in the workings of sustainable partnerships and the future of global governance."

Tony McGrew, Distinguished Professor of Global Public Policy, Shanghai University, China

"Partnerships for Sustainability provides a very timely book that allows us to use research results for practical design of pathways with high effectiveness. The sustainable development goals and necessary fast and bold changes cannot be reached without successful, highly effective collaboration of public and private. This book provides solid academic research and excellent cases for decision makers and thinkers. A truly systemic, multistakeholder approach for solutions and actions of highest effectiveness."

Gilbert Probst, Honorary Professor, Director of Innovation and Partnerships, Geneva School of Economics and Management (GSEM), University of Geneva, Switzerland

"Partnerships for Sustainability offers both a fresh way of thinking about the effectiveness of public-private and multistakeholder governance and a range of new empirical material on partnerships in action. By disaggregating the pathways and conditions underpinning the variable effects of partnerships the authors helpfully unpack the layers that make up governance and the politics that make them tick. The framework comes alive across a range of often intersecting issue areas. It provokes important questions that researchers, teachers, students, and practitioners will want to grapple with."

Deborah Avant, Sié Chéou-Kang Chair for International Security and Diplomacy, University of Denver, USA

"Over the last 20+ years, public-private and multi-stakeholder partnerships became centrally important forms of global governance. This book has finally given students, scholars and practitioners a systematic framework through which to assess multiple types of effects across environmental, energy and global health cases – and it has done so in ways that yield actionable lessons for the design and implementation of partnership forms of governance."

Stacy D. VanDeveer, Professor of Global Governance and Human Security, University of Massachusetts Boston, USA