Goal 17: Revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development

A successful sustainable development agenda requires partnerships between governments, the private sector and civil society. These inclusive partnerships built upon principles and values, a shared vision, and shared goals that place people and the planet at the centre, are needed at the global, regional, national and local level.

Urgent action is needed to mobilize, redirect and unlock the transformative power of trillions of dollars of private resources to deliver on sustainable development objectives. Long-term investments, including foreign direct investment, are needed in critical sectors, especially in developing countries. These include sustainable energy, infrastructure and transport, as well as information and communications technologies. The public sector will need to set a clear direction. Review and monitoring frameworks, regulations and incentive structures that enable such investments must be retooled to attract investments and reinforce sustainable development. National oversight mechanisms such as supreme audit institutions and oversight functions by legislatures should be strengthened.

Facts and figures

●Official development assistance stood at $146.6  billion in 2017. This represents a decrease of 0.6 per cent in real terms over 2016.

●79 per cent of imports from developing countries enter developed countries duty-free

●The debt burden on developing countries remains stable at about 3 per cent of export revenue

●The number of Internet users in Africa almost doubled in the past four years

●30 per cent of the world’s youth are digital natives, active online for at least five years

●But more four billion people do not use the Internet, and 90 per cent of them are from the developing world

Goal 17 targets

Finance

●17.1 Strengthen domestic resource mobilization, including through international support to developing countries, to improve domestic capacity for tax and other revenue collection

●17.2 Developed countries to implement fully their official development assistance commitments, including the commitment by many developed countries to achieve the target of 0.7 per cent of ODA/GNI to developing countries and 0.15 to 0.20 per cent of ODA/GNI to least developed countries ODA providers are encouraged to consider setting a target to provide at least 0.20 per cent of ODA/GNI to least developed countries

●17.3 Mobilize additional financial resources for developing countries from multiple sources

●17.4 Assist developing countries in attaining long-term debt sustainability through coordinated policies aimed at fostering debt financing, debt relief and debt restructuring, as appropriate, and address the external debt of highly indebted poor countries to reduce debt distress

●17.5 Adopt and implement investment promotion regimes for least developed countries

Technology

●17.6 Enhance North-South, South-South and triangular regional and international cooperation on and access to science, technology and innovation and enhance knowledge sharing on mutually agreed terms, including through improved coordination among existing mechanisms, in particular at the United Nations level, and through a global technology facilitation mechanism

●17.7 Promote the development, transfer, dissemination and diffusion of environmentally sound technologies to developing countries on favourable terms, including on concessional and preferential terms, as mutually agreed

●17.8 Fully operationalize the technology bank and science, technology and innovation capacity-building mechanism for least developed countries by 2017 and enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology

Capacity building

●17.9 Enhance international support for implementing effective and targeted capacity-building in developing countries to support national plans to implement all the sustainable development goals, including through North-South, South-South and triangular cooperation

Trade

●17.10 Promote a universal, rules-based, open, non-discriminatory and equitable multilateral trading system under the World Trade Organization, including through the conclusion of negotiations under its Doha Development Agenda

●17.11 Significantly increase the exports of developing countries, in particular with a view to doubling the least developed countries’ share of global exports by 2020

●17.12 Realize timely implementation of duty-free and quota-free market access on a lasting basis for all least developed countries, consistent with World Trade Organization decisions, including by ensuring that preferential rules of origin applicable to imports from least developed countries are transparent and simple, and contribute to facilitating market access

Systemic issues

Policy and institutional coherence

●17.13 Enhance global macroeconomic stability, including through policy coordination and policy coherence

●17.14 Enhance policy coherence for sustainable development

●17.15 Respect each country’s policy space and leadership to establish and implement policies for poverty eradication and sustainable development

Multi-stakeholder partnerships

●17.16 Enhance the global partnership for sustainable development, complemented by multi-stakeholder partnerships that mobilize and share knowledge, expertise, technology and financial resources, to support the achievement of the sustainable development goals in all countries, in particular developing countries

●17.17 Encourage and promote effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships, building on the experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships

Data, monitoring and accountability

●17.18 By 2020, enhance capacity-building support to developing countries, including for least developed countries and small island developing States, to increase significantly the availability of high-quality, timely and reliable data disaggregated by income, gender, age, race, ethnicity, migratory status, disability, geographic location and other characteristics relevant in national contexts

●17.19 By 2030, build on existing initiatives to develop measurements of progress on sustainable development that complement gross domestic product, and support statistical capacity-building in developing countries

PARTNERSHIPS: WHY THEY MATTER

Strong international cooperation is needed now more than ever to ensure that countries have the means to achieve the SDGs

(UN Photo / Isaac Billy)

What’s the goal here?

To revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development

Why?

In 2015, world leaders adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development that aims to end poverty, tackle inequalities and combat climate change. We need everyone to come together—

governments, civil society, scientists, academia and the private sector— to achieve the sustainable development goals.

Why does this matter to me?

We are all in this together. The Agenda, with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals, is universal and calls for action by all countries, both developed countries and developing countries, to ensure no one is left behind.

How much progress have we made?

Support for implementing the SDGs is gaining momentum, but major challenges remain. A growing share of the global population has access to the Internet, and a Technology Bank for Least Developed Countries has been established, yet the digital divide persists.

As partners, what would we need to do to achieve the Agenda?

We will need to mobilize both existing and additional resources—

technology development, financial resources, capacity building— and developed countries will need to fulfill their official development assistance commitments.

Multistakeholder partnerships will be crucial to leverage the inter-linkages between the Sustainable Development Goals to enhance their effectiveness and impact and accelerate progress in achieving the Goals.

How can we ensure the resources needed are effectively mobilized and monitored?

This will be primarily the responsibility of countries. Reviews of progress will need to be undertaken regularly in each country, involving civil society, business and representatives of various interest groups. At the regional level, countries will share experiences and tackle common issues, while

on an annual basis, at the United Nations, the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF),

they will take stock of progress at the global level, identifying gaps and emerging issues, and recommending corrective action.

What can we do to help?

Join/create a group in your local community that seeks to mobilize action on the implementation of the SDGs.

Encourage your governments to partner with businesses for the implementation of the SDGs.

Register your initiatives on the SDGs Partnerships Platform to inform, educate, network, and be inspired!

https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/partnerships

Source: un.org

●Cases

Seminar Uses Innovation Case to Show the Strength of Shenzhen's Sustainable Development to the World

On January 16, 2019, the International Mayors Communication Centre hosted “Change the City — the Forum on the Construction of Shenzhen National Innovation Demonstration Zone for Sustainable Development”, and commissioned Shenzhen Green City Public Service Co., Ltd. (GCPS) to organize the forum, which utilized the state-of-the-art high-tech mobile conferencing capabilities of the Open Green City Laboratory (OGCLab) to innovate the world’s most efficient conference model with the lowest carbon emission, featuring the interaction between global leaders and local citizens.

The mobile video device collaborated with the conference software system that had served the G20 Hangzhou Summit, and it took only 11 hours to be technically ready for the forum. We chose to hold this international seminar in a 69-sqm conference room renovated from an old factory in OCT LOFT, one of China’s best pilot zones in cultural industries. Aiming to reduce the flight carbon footprint, conference space and human resources for a large-scale meeting, the seminar invited Nobel Peace Prize recipient and former IPCC Chair Dr. Rajendra Kumar Pachauri to deliver an 18-minute speech from thousands of miles away through video connection. He encouraged Shenzhen to participate in improving climate change as an important action to implement the UN’s sustainable development agenda. His speech was well received by 29 attendees, including a managing director of HSBC, a partner of Sustainable Development Capital, L.L.P., Chinese entrepreneurs, a Shenzhen hospital president, and an urban public safety expert.

Former IPCC Chair Dr. Rajendra Kumar Pachauri delivered a remote speech.

IPCC Vice-Chair Dr. Youba Sokona attended the seminar and interacted with 15,600 citizens online, sharing the details of the UNFCCC COP24 in Katowice, Poland. Sustainability experts, green finance investors and Shenzhen citizens spent five hours discussing low-carbon travel, green industries, green finance investments, employment and technological innovation.

IPCC Vice-Chair Dr. Youba Sokona delivered a speech.

This innovative form of meeting was applauded by various Chinese media. Mainstream media institutions, including Xinhuanet and People’s Daily Online, had a lot of coverage on how the OGCLab used technological innovation to implement the 17 SDGs, revitalize global partnership and prove to the world China’s implementation of President Xi Jinping’s commitment to realize the vision of sustainable development, which he made at the UN Development Summit in 2015.

Some media reports on the seminar.

The IMCC’s written statement to the 2019 ECOSOC High-Level Segment introduced the innovative solution by the OGCLab, and the statement was circulated worldwide. It was also translated into French and Spanish versions by the segment’s organizer.

The statement can be viewed and downloaded at:

https://undocs.org/en/E/2019/NGO/119

https://undocs.org/fr/E/2019/NGO/119

https://undocs.org/es/E/2019/NGO/119

The innovative solution by the OGCLab was also submitted to the fourth annual Multi-stakeholder Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation for the Sustainable Development Goals (STI Forum) held at UN Headquarters in New York in May 2019, and the page of the solution is now kept on the relevant website:

https://www.globalinnovationexchange.org/innovation/ogclab.

Shenzhen shares experience on sustainable development with the world

In recent years, Shenzhen has planned an open layout with a global perspective, actively participated in global sustainable development, established a domestic and international open cooperation platform, and strived to achieve a higher level of internal and external connection and two-way opening, and shared it's experience on sustainable development domestically and internationally.

The main practices of Shenzhen include:

On one hand, strengthen regional cooperation in China and provide “Shenzhen Example” for China's sustainable development. As a leading Chinese city in sustainable development, Shenzhen has been striving to promote regional exchanges and cooperation, set more examples on regional development, and share Shenzhen's successful experience.

Shenzhen-Shantou Special Cooperation Zone is a model for coordinated development of regional cooperation. In May 2011, Guangdong provincial Party committee and provincial government decided to establish a special Shenzhen Shantou cooperation zone with a total area of 468.3 square kilometers, which is jointly managed by Shenzhen and Shanwei. Shenzhen is in charge of economic management and construction, and Shanwei is in charge of land acquisition, demolition and social affairs. The establishment of the cooperation zone is an initiative to explore regional coordinated development and cooperation mode in innovated zone. It is a vivid practice of the five development concepts of innovation, coordination, green, opening and sharing. Shenzhen undertakes the mission of building a world-class industrial new city with Shenzhen's speed, quality and standards, and will provide Guangdong samples for the coordinated development of the whole country. In September 2017, the provincial Party committee and the provincial government issued the official reply on the adjustment plan of the system and mechanism for Shenzhen-Shantou Special Cooperation Zone, which requires Shenzhen to fully implement the responsibility of comprehensively leading the economic and social affairs of the cooperation zone, provide all-round policy and resource support in accordance with the "10 plus 1" (10 districts of Shenzhen plus Shenzhen-Shantou Special Cooperation Zone) model, and ensure the cooperation zone to be rapidly working under the new system and mechanism and make it larger and stronger as soon as possible. In December 2018, the Party Working Committee and Management Committee of Shenzhen-Shantou Special Cooperation Zone were officially listed.

The Shenzhen-Shanwei Special Cooperation Zone of Shenzhen Municipality is a model of regional cooperation and coordinated development. (Photo by Li Xingzhao. Source: Shenzhen Economic Daily)

The location of the Shenzhen-Shanwei Special Cooperation Zone.

On the other hand, we should extensively carry out high-level international cooperation and elaborate the Shenzhen story to the world. Through high-level international exchanges, we can not only learn from the advanced international experience of sustainable development, but also get the opportunity to show the world the story of Shenzhen's sustainable development.

A promotion conference for Shenzhen's city image is held in the Hague in September 2018. The Shenzhen Municipal Government sent a delegation to visit the Netherlands, Sweden and Russia, and held two overseas image promotion conferences in the Hague, the Netherlands and Stockholm, Sweden respectively, opening up new channels for high-level international cooperation. (Source: Shenzhen Evening News, NetEase Account)

The establishment of the international low-carbon city reflects Shenzhen's good vision to advocate international cooperation to cope with climate change. In 2010, scholars from China and the Netherlands proposed to build a green and low-carbon ecological knowledge city at the junction of Shenzhen, Dongguan and Huizhou. On June 17, 2013, the project was officially released for the first time and became the flagship project of China EU sustainable urban partnership.

In June 2017, Shenzhen, as one of the 15 initiating cities in the world, actively promoted the establishment of the "International standardized Sustainable City Club" (ISSCC) under the guidance of the international organization for Standardization (ISO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), committed to promoting the standardization construction of international cities and improving the level of sustainable development of global cities. In the meantime, Shenzhen proposed to take the lead in releasing shenzhen standard on sustainable development in China. On October 12, 2017, the "Shenzhen standard" was officially released.

In the sustainable development plan of Shenzhen (2017-2030), Shenzhen municipal government pointed out that we should adhere to open cooperation and win-win development. We will make full use of the two markets and resources at home and abroad, establish a multi-level cooperation mechanism, build more cooperation platforms, and open up more channels for cooperation, so as to summarize the experience of Shenzhen's sustainable development, elaborate the story of Shenzhen's sustainable development, and share the experience of Shenzhen's sustainable development to the world.

Text source: Nanfang No. of the comprehensive development institute and research, Nanfang Daily 

Exchange and cooperation at home and abroad to promote new business opportunities

Strengthening exchanges and cooperation with domestic and global cities in the field of sustainable development can not only learn, use for reference and share the experience and achievements of sustainable development, but also bridge the industrial cooperation and create new business opportunities.

In May 2019, Rugui Chen, mayor of Shenzhen, led a delegation of Shenzhen municipal government to visit the Netherlands. The visit strengthened exchanges and cooperation between Shenzhen and the Netherlands in green, low-carbon, water environmental governance, investment and trade, cultural tourism, higher education and other fields. During his visit to the Netherlands, the delegation of Shenzhen municipal government also investigated the Ampleon company, which is a well-known enterprise in communication industry. Shenzhen is an important base for R & D, production and export of global electronic information industry. There is broad cooperation space between the two. This visit will strengthen the closer cooperation between Shenzhen and the Ampleon company.

In October 2019, Shenzhen-Shantou Special Cooperation Zone Management Committee and overseas Chinese Town Group Co., Ltd. jointly held a two-day "international expert seminar on Xiaomo Bay cultural tourism town". Experts and scholars highly appraised the positioning and conceptual design of Xiaomo Bay cultural and tourism town. Xiaomo Bay culture and tourism town is rich in natural resources like mountains, seas, rivers, lakes and wetlands etc. with good conditions to try the avant-garde development concept. Therefore, relevant enterprises can rely on the unique local ecological and cultural characteristics to build a culture and tourism town that pays more attention to multi-level experience as an individual and is different from other similar projects in Greater bay Area.

The construction of the Xiaomo Bay culture and tourism town in the Shenzhen-Shanwei Special Cooperation Zone of Shenzhen Municipality has been put on the agenda. (Source: Shenzhen Evening News)

●Background

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 

On January 1, 2016, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including 169 targets, of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development — adopted by world leaders in September 2015 at an historic UN Summit — officially came into force. Countries will mobilize efforts to end all forms of poverty, fight inequalities and tackle climate change, while ensuring that no one is left behind.