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Goal 17: Partnerships for the goals

Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.

Goal 17 naturally lies at the heart of Agenda 2030. It is about getting things done. Consequently, it is a cross-cutting Goal that straddles all of the other 16 Goals. It emphasizes the partnerships that will be required between governments, the private sector and civil society to implement a successful sustainable development agenda - to promote partnership and highlight the interlinkages between people, planet, prosperity and peace at the global, regional, national and local levels.

This is the people’s Agenda, a plan of action for ending poverty in all its dimensions, irreversibly, everywhere, and leaving no one behind. It seeks to ensure peace and prosperity, and forge partnerships with people and planet at the core. The integrated, interlinked and indivisible 17 Sustainable Development Goals are the people’s goals and demonstrate the scale, universality and ambition of this new Agenda.Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations (Ban Ki-moon, 2015)

Goal 17 is the continuation of Millennium Development Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development. As one might expect, many of the targets from Goal 8 are continued but also developed, such as non-discriminatory trading17.1, debt17.2, information and communications technology (ICT)17.3 and aid delivery17.4. But Goal 17 takes a broader perspective, for example, where emphasis is placed not only on implementing official development assistance (ODA) commitments17.5 but also on domestic resource mobilization17.6 and raising finance from other sources17.7. Goal 17 also introduces new issues for the first time, such as investment17.8 and enhanced North-South, South-South and triangular cooperation17.9. Goal 17 also echoes the call for a data revolution acknowledging the importance of data as a critical driver for development17.10.

Strengthening the means of implementation will require resources and funding. Targets from 17.1 to 17.5 deal with the financing aspect of Agenda 2030. These targets identify the need for countries, in particular least developed countries (LDCs)The category of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) was officially established in 1971 by the UN General Assembly with a view to attracting special international support for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged members of the UN family.
more, to improve domestic, international and additional resource mobilization. The finance section also highlights the need for developed countries to fulfil their ODA commitments, the need to address debt sustainability and improve investment promotion regimes.

In order to monitor progress, data will be required and this need is enormous and will itself require significant resourcing and investment. At the 47th session of the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC), an indicator framework comprising 230 indicators was agreed (United Nations, 2016). In addition to their general supporting role, as noted above, official statistics and data will also play an explicit role in targets 17.18 and 17.19. But arguably, the most important contribution to the debate regarding data may be in relation to target 9.117.11 where the importance of developing quality, reliable and sustainable infrastructure is highlighted. It is not often appreciated, but organized data are a critical piece of nations’ soft infrastructure, every bit as important as roads, sewage or broadband (MacFeely and Dunne, 2014; Dunne and MacFeely, 2014). If data can be linked to other data then the power of all those data increases immeasurably.

Notes and references

Notes

17.1: Millennium Development Goal target 8.A - Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system. Sustainable Development Goal targets 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.
17.2: Millennium Development Goal target 8.D - Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of developing countries. SDG Target 17.4 - long-term debt sustainability.
17.3: Millennium Development Goal target 8.F - In cooperation with the private sector, make available benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications. Sustainable Development Goal target 17.7 - Encourage and promote effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships, building on the experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships.
17.4: Monitoring aid delivery.
17.5: Target 17.2 - Developed countries to implement fully their ODA commitments, including the commitment by many developed countries to achieve the target of 0.7 per cent ODA/GNI to developing countries and 0.15 to 0.20 per cent of ODA/GNI to LDCs; ODA providers are encouraged to consider setting a target to provide at least 0.20 per cent of ODA/GNI to LDCs.
17.6: Target 17.1 - Strengthen domestic resource mobilization, including through international support to developing countries, to improve domestic capacity for tax and other revenue collection.
17.7: Target 17.3 - Mobilize additional financial resources for developing countries from multiple sources.
17.8: Target 17.5 - Adopt and implement investment promotion regimes for least developed countries.
17.9: Target 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.
17.10: Targets 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.
17.11: Target 9.1 - Develop quality, reliable, sustainable and resilient infrastructure, including regional and trans-border infrastructure, to support economic development and human well-being, with a focus on affordable and equitable access for all.

References

Ban Ki-moon (2015). The International Conference Finance for Development. Addis Ababa York. 13-16 July. Available at https://www.un.org/esa/ffd/ffd3/press-release/consensus-reached-on-new-sustainable-development-agenda.html.
Dunne J and MacFeely S (2014). Laying the foundations for a new approach to census taking in Ireland. Statistical Journal of the International Association of Official Statistics. 30(4):359 - 365. Available at http://content.iospress.com/download/statistical-journal-of-the-iaos/sji00848?id=statistical-journal-of-the-iaos%2Fsji00848.
MacFeely S and Dunne J (2014). Joining up public service information - The rationale for a national data infrastructure. Administration. 61(4):93-107. Available at http://ipa.ie/pdf/Forum_Vol_61_4.pdf.
United Nations (2016). Report of the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal Indicators. Note by the Secretary-General. Forty-seventh session of the Statistical Commission. United Nations Economic and Social Council. E/CN.3/2016/2/Rev.1. Available at https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N16/045/24/PDF/N1604524.pdf.