Setting the Scene Reflections on the partnership paradigm

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Setting the SceneReflections on the partnership
paradigm
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Chorus of a Dutch song

• 15 million people On this little piece of earth
  You do not lay down the law for them But let
  them use their own good judgment

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In what way, to what extent, and under which
circumstances can partnerships improve the
effectiveness and legitimacy of governance for
sustainable development?
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• The partnership paradigm
• Partnerships as collaborative arrangements
• Partnerships as steering mechanisms
• Partnerships and the liberal-democratic order

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The partnership paradigm

• Governance for sustainable development
• As a project
• As a process
• The UNCED and WSSD

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• Each of the parties from the public sector, the
  market, and civil society has an interest in
  sustainable development.
• A constructive dialogue among these interests can
  be convened in a setting that excludes hierarchy
  and authority.
• Dialogue can produce a shared normative belief
  that provides a value-based rationale for
  collaborative action.
• Collaborative action based on voluntarism, joint
  resource commitment, and shared responsibility of
  all actors for the whole project can serve public
  interests as well as private interests.
• Collective action can be commercial in nature
  the market mechanism can promote more sustainable
  practices through the leverage and spin-off of
  private-sector investments.

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Partnerships as collaborative arrangements
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The actor perspective

• Partnerships are seen as instruments for the
  advancement of actor-specific goals in relation
  to the goals of the other actors in a
  partnership.
• The partnering process is assessed on the basis
  of criteria that can make the process more
  effective.
• The aim is to provide practical recommendations
  for either one or all partners

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Core concepts

• Collaborative advantage
• Trust

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Partnerships as steering mechanisms
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• Partnerships that mainly serve to raise
  awareness.
• Partnerships that provide support for change
  processes.
• Partnerships that concentrate on the
  dissemination and accreditation of information.
• Partnerships that formulate the definition of
  sustainability for a certain product.

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Core concepts

• Scaling-up
• Legitimacy

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Scaling-up processes

• Replication
• Coverage enlargement
• Increasing the scope
• Transferring the initiative into the regular
  administrative practices of government

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Legitimacy and socio-economic effects
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Partnerships and the liberal-democratic order
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Various assessments

• A new form of democratic governance
• Erodes public authority and responsibility of
  governments
• A large but still unexplored potential for
  governance

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Focus of the colloquium

• Capacity-building within partnerships
• External steering capacities of partnerships
• Changes in the liberal-democratic order

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I wish you all a stimulating colloquium