The SDGs provide a blueprint around which all sectors of society can and should converge.
The aim of KikaoCultures.com is to convey the magic of how multi-stakeholder partnerships at country level can deliver extraordinary results towards the Sustainable Development Goals and provide clear guidance on how to build the most robust, effective collaborations
As we move from the immediate crisis phase, through to rebuilding better, multi-stakeholder collaboration is even more essential to take advantage of the momentum and collectively build more inclusive, resilient and sustainable societies.
An ongoing collaborative relationship among organizations from different stakeholder types aligning their interests around a common vision, combining their complementary resources and competencies and sharing risk, to maximize value creation towards the Sustainable Development Goals and deliver benefit to each of the partners is what we are all about.
When it comes to partnering, no guidebook or training event can ever be a substitute for the learning that comes from the experience of actually doing it. Keeping a logbook and having an opportunity to discuss with colleagues or a mentor can help accelerate your own partnership-learning journey.
Our world has limited resources – whether financial, technological, natural or human – and, as a society, we must optimize the use of such resources to deliver sustainable development for everyone’s benefit. Building on the intrinsic alignment of interests among the holders of those resources (business, governments, civil society, academia, etc.), all actors must play their unique roles and utilize their unique resources, with partnerships an essential means to maximize the collective impact of available resources
Business, society, and the environment are strongly interconnected and must move together to ensure progress and long-term sustainability. Business or the environment prospering at the expense of people results in civil unrest; business or society prospering at the expense of the environment leads to pollution and climate chaos. Sustainable development can only happen if we progress all three strands together.
The goals are highly interconnected. Water, clearly, is an essential component of health, sanitation, and agriculture. Malnutrition can never be tackled without also engaging around agriculture, the food industry, health and education. This moves to system- transformational development requires acknowledgement of the interconnections between the SDGs and the need for holistic approaches that engage with, and cut across, issues.
While Goal 17 of the SDGs explicitly talks about a ‘global partnership for development’, and has a target (17.17) specifically related to multi- stakeholder collaboration, the reality is that all of the goals necessarily require the involvement of, and significant collaboration across, all societal sectors.
It is partnerships at the national, sub- national and city level – those that can best harness and optimize the resources available – that will drive forward the real change required to deliver the SDGs and impact people’s lives for the better. The challenge for all stakeholders is thus: how can we systematically collaborate across different societal sectors toward delivering the shared vision of the SDGs? How can partnerships genuinely become ‘the new normal’?
In recognition of the urgency of the 2030 Agenda, the Decade of Action calls for accelerating sustainable solutions to all the world’s biggest challenges — ranging from poverty and gender to climate change, inequality, and closing the finance gap.
In September 2019, the UN Secretary-General called on all sectors of society to mobilize for a decade of action on three levels: global action to secure greater
leadership, more resources and smarter solutions for the Sustainable Development Goals; local action embedding the needed transitions in the policies, budgets, institutions and regulatory frameworks of governments, cities and local authorities; and people action, including by youth, civil society, the media, the private sector, unions, academia and other stakeholders, to generate an unstoppable movement pushing for the required transformations.
Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals is, by definition, a challenging and complex task. If single-sector or single-stakeholder approaches could provide a solution, these issues would not be as intractable as they have proven to be. It is therefore almost inevitable that finding solutions will need the combined resources, skills, and efforts of multiple stakeholders. Partnerships must have the potential to create significant value and the ‘right’ partners must be included to be successful.
While we know a lot about practices that stimulate new ideas, innovation teams often struggle to apply them. Why? Because people’s biases and entrenched behaviors get in the way.
Carefully planned dialogues help students build on their diverse ideas, not just negotiate compromises when differences arise. And experiments with new solutions reduce all participants’ fear of change.
How does project-based instruction benefit students?
This approach motivates children to learn by allowing them to select topics in this case the 17Global Goals (Sustainable Development Goals) that are interesting and relevant to their lives Additionally, decades of research indicate that engagement and motivation lead to high achievement. Research on the long-term effects of early childhood curricula supports the rationale for incorporating project-based learning into early childhood education and secondary education.
In the hundreds of “PBL 101” workshops conducted each year across the world, teachers and administrators are asked to describe an “ideal graduate” from Project Based Learning. In other occasions district partners sometimes do the same exercise in their communities with parents, people from local businesses and civic organizations, and other stake- holders. Every time, everywhere, the outcome generated is remarkably similar, with items such as these:
• Problem solver
• Responsible
• Works well with others
• Can work independently
• Critical thinker
• Confident
• Manages time and work effectively
• Communicates well with a variety of people
This is the kind of generation of changemakers that is being raised in this age and here at KikaoCultures.com, recognizing this outcome and understanding the process, we make it a reality for students across the globe through our PBL approach to meeting the 17Global Goals.
