A Guide to Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships

Do you know about Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships? Let’s talk about it! With the adoption of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015 and the subsequent drive to realise the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), interest in Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships (MSPs) as a means of accelerating essential transformations has increased. The central importance of decent work as both a means and an end to achieving the SDGs makes the ILO a key player in several MSPs.

Many of the ILO’s existing MSPs involve other UN entities reflecting both the ILO’s commitment to enhanced policy coherence and the UN Secretary-General’s reform agenda, which emphasises the need to address fragmentation in the UN development system’s approach to partnerships and the need to scale up and improve their effectiveness. Looking ahead over the next decade to 2030, MSPs are set to become increasingly important for the ILO and its role in a strong UN sustainable development system.

The present tool provides practical guidance for ILO staff engaged in multi-stakeholder partnerships. It explains the processes and accompanying challenges that characterize working in and with multistakeholder partnerships in their typical phases of development and implementation. Although still evolving several basic principles have been identified and agreed. South-South and triangular cooperation can also benefit from the Multi-Stakeholder partnerships approaches of the ILO and that is why we are sharing it here. We proudly present you A Guide to Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships.