SEED was invited to partake in the joint thematic debate/forum on partnerships, held on 09 and 10 April 2014 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York: “The role of partnerships in the implementation of the Post-2015 Development Agenda”.

The event consisted of three interactive, multi-stakeholder panel discussions and two partnership sessions. The panel discussions addressed key lessons learned since the signing of the Millennium declaration in 2000, stimulated continued collaboration with businesses, civil society and other actors beyond the year 2015, and considered ways for a more effective framework for monitoring the implementation of global development goals.

In the Panel discussion ‘Scaling up partnership opportunities in food and nutritional security and marine resources’ SEED provided insights, based on the experiences of SEED Winners, on how entrepreneurial multi-stakeholder partnerships can play a major role in addressing local issues and in generating local triple bottom line solutions relating to food security and protection of natural resources.   

Four factors that are critical for those partnerships to be effective

SEED identified four factors that are critical for those partnerships to be effective. Entrepreneurial partnerships will be able to scale up their contribution to food security and marine resource management in the post-2015 development agenda if:

1. Governments introduce incentives for local green enterprises, and develop national and international standards and certification schemes, and help enterprises to meet them.

2. Medium enterprises and large corporations reach out more to micro and small enterprises to include them in their value chains and provide expertise and access to markets.

3. Governments and national, regional and global institutions come together to create spaces, platforms, and road maps for entrepreneurs to engage easily in a range of partnerships.

4. Recognised mechanisms are developed at the global level to enable small, micro and medium-sized enterprises to report their social, environmental and economic impacts so as to capture their contribution to development and stimulate the market for sustainable products and services, while protecting natural resources.

The panel discussion is available here and the introduction by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon can be found here.

For more information, please visit the website: http://www.un.org/en/ecosoc/partnership2014/