Type II Partnerships
Type II partnerships were developed at the
Background and development
First proposed at the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002, Type II partnerships are characterised by collaborations between national or sub-national governments, private sector actors and civil society actors, who form
The Johannesburg negotiations concluded that Type II partnerships must meet seven key criteria: i) they should be voluntary and based on shared responsibility, ii) they must complement, rather than substitute, intergovernmental sustainable development strategies, and must meet the agreed outcomes of the Johannesburg summit, iii) they must consist of a range of multi-level
Implementation and management
Following the Johannesburg summit, the
An example of one of the larger partnerships supervised by the UNCSD is the
Role in environmental governance
Transition from government to governance
“This Summit will be remembered not for the treaties, commitments, or eloquent declarations it produced, but for the first stirrings of a new way of governing the global commons, the beginnings of a shift from the stiff formal waltz of traditional diplomacy to the jazzier dance of improvisational solution oriented partnerships that may include non-government organizations, willing governments and other stakeholders.” World Resources Institute, 2002[8]
The dominance of Type II partnerships as a primary outcome of the Johannesburg summit represented a fundamental shift in the governing of sustainable development; a transition from the top-down, government-centred method favoured by the
The UN guidelines for Type II partnerships specified that the agreements should be complementary to, not an alternative to, intergovernmental action plans for sustainable development. As opposed to developing the partnerships as a method of 'governing without government', the agreements were designed to govern alongside traditional government approaches. Rather than treating Type II partnerships as a panacea for sustainable development, it was hoped that such participatory multi-stakeholder governance mechanisms would increase the flexibility and enhance the implementation of sustainable development policy in collaboration with states and international organisations. After the Johannesburg summit, the concept of environmental governance was no longer understood as a legalistic function performed solely by governments, but rather as a collaborative, informal approach to the management of environmental issues, involving both state and non-governmental actors. This new understanding demonstrates that the changing approach to sustainable development which arose from the Johannesburg summit influenced a much wider shift in global environmental governance.[1]
Competing rationalities of government
Within a
However, Mert
Transnational governance networks
Type II partnerships exemplify a growing reliance on public-private-civil co-operation in environmental governance. The architects of the summit placed an emphasis on discussions which would encourage the creation of multi-stakeholder partnerships with the objective of fulfilling UN sustainable development goals, acknowledging that traditional intergovernmental agreements were inadequate to sufficiently promote sustainable development.[11] Furthermore, state actors were notoriously unwilling to improve international environmental co-operation prior to the Johannesburg summit, leaving those who sought a positive outcome to the WSSD to search for alternative solutions which incorporated a broader variety of actors.[12] Type II partnerships emerged as the dominant outcome of the Johannesburg summit, highlighting their importance as agents of change in the achievement of sustainable development. The partnerships were considered by advocates to be representative of a new era of environmental governance, characterised by collaborative decision-making and shared responsibility between public, private and civil actors in the management of transnational public issues.[13]
The development of Type II partnerships marked the emergence of a broader phenomenon within environmental governance- the introduction of transnational governance networks in the management of global environmental issues. Transnational governance networks combine actors from the public, private and civil sectors in the pursuit of common practices and ideas.[12] The role of networks of private and civil actors in transboundary communication is not novel to the academic community; however, the emphasis on transnational public-private-civil networks as mechanisms for achieving sustainable development during the Johannesburg negotiations led to recognition of the ability of such networks to integrate private and civil actors into the global environmental governance process.[14]
Transnational governance networks address a number of shortcomings in traditional state-centred approaches to the management of transboundary issues such as sustainable development. They can diffuse information to the public perhaps more effectively than governments or international organisations, particularly when such information requires a degree of technical expertise to deliver, such as the transfer of specialised knowledge from the private sector to industry groups regarding sustainable business practices. They can also facilitate the implementation of global management strategies at the local level, and they may potentially close the participation gap in global environmental governance by involving private and civil actors in decision-making processes.[15]
Reframing of sustainable development discourse
The Johannesburg summit represented a further shift in the governing of sustainable development; rather than considering environmental issues in isolation, as had previously been common practice within sustainable development policy, the Johannesburg negotiations concluded that a reframing of sustainable development discourse, which re-conceptualised sustainable development as a dynamic interaction between three interdependent pillars- society, environment and economy- was necessary in order to pursue a more
Issues
Imbalances of power
Although designed to incorporate a broader range of social, environmental and economic perspectives into the environmental governance process and to facilitate the inclusion of actors from all levels into decision-making, the extent to which imbalances of power between actors involved in the partnerships affects their implementation has provoked concern among their critics.[11]
Brinkerhoff and Brinkerhoff[16] theorised that an effective partnership must fulfil two essential criteria: mutuality- interdependence and equality between partners, and organisational identity- the equal maintenance of each partner’s missions and goals. In the event of a partnership between Northern and Southern actors, for example, the North will inevitably contribute greater financial and material resources to the partnership than the South, creating a power inequality which may enable the North to assume control of the partnership and impairing the mutuality necessary for the partnership to function successfully.[17] This concern was reflected by a number of developing nations who formed a coalition to lobby against the development of Type II partnerships, fearing that the partnerships would award too much authority over sustainable development to the global North, whilst simultaneously reducing the responsibility of industrialised nations to develop and implement legally binding intergovernmental management strategies.[1]
In order to maintain mutuality, it is therefore essential that the definition of a contribution within Type II partnerships is extended beyond financial and material resources, and includes knowledge, skills and other relevant strengths which can be incorporated to redress the balance of power within the partnership.[17]
Accountability
Critics of Type II partnerships have expressed concern that the initiative is simply a means by which to deflect accountability for sustainable development management from states and international organisations. The United States, a nation infamously opposed to state-led environmental governance as evidenced by their withdrawal from the
The ensuring of accountability and transparency is a key criterion of Type II partnerships; however, the diverse multi-stakeholder composition of the partnerships negates the use of traditional accountability methods, such as the introduction of a centralised authority charged with maintaining the accountability of the partners involved in Type II agreements.[19] Bäckstrand[20] suggests that a pluralistic system of accountability, incorporating market and reputational accountability measures such as financial sanctions and naming and shaming, could improve the accountability of the actors involved in Type II partnerships by providing more flexible methods of ensuring accountability which can be adapted to the nature of the actor in question.
Discussion
The Type II partnerships developed at the Johannesburg summit demonstrated a paradigm-shifting impact upon sustainable development discourse and the conceptualisation of global environmental governance. By addressing the limitations of the state-centric, top-down method which typified environmental governance prior to Johannesburg and facilitating the participation of private and civil actors in the governing of sustainable development, the partnerships became emblematic of the transition from command-and-control government to the informal, participatory governance mechanisms by which global environmental governance is now classified. Furthermore, the partnerships exemplify the use of transnational governance networks as a mechanism by which to implement environmental policy at local and regional level. Such factors led the World Resources Institute[8] to declare the partnerships representative of a ‘new era’ of environmental governance.
However, considering the flaws inherent in the partnerships, it is crucial that advocates of the agreements resist the temptation to consider them a magic bullet with which every shortcoming of a centralised approach to environmental governance can be addressed. Although advantageous in terms of increased flexibility and effective lower-level implementation of policies, partnerships lack the internal and external accountability of intergovernmental strategies, and may intensify power inequalities between the industrialised North and developing South. The decision of the UN to introduce Type II partnerships as complementary governance mechanism is therefore the most appropriate application of the partnerships, as the dynamic interaction between intergovernmental strategies and voluntary public-private-civil partnerships can potentially produce a far greater positive impact upon global environmental governance than the sum of its parts.
References
- ^ a b c Witte, J.M.; Streck, C.; Benner, T. (2003). T. Benner; C. Streck; J.M. Witte (eds.). or Peril? Networks and Partnerships in Global Environmental Governance. Washington D.C.: Global Public Policy Institute.
- ^ Baker, Susan (2006). Sustainable Development. Abingdon: Routledge.
- ^ a b c d Death, Carl (2009). Governing Sustainable Development: Partnerships, Protests and Power at the World Summit. Abingdon: Routledge.
- . Retrieved 10 May 2011.
- ^ a b UNESCAP (2003). Regional Follow-Up to the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Asia and the Pacific. Italy: United Nations Publications.
- ^ Bull, B (2011). G.A. Hodge; C. Greve; A.E. Boardman (eds.). International Handbook on Public-Private Partnerships. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
- ^ Global Water Partnership. "About GWP". Retrieved 11 May 2011.
- ^ a b World Resources Institute. "The Johannesburg Summit- News Release". Archived from the original on 7 August 2011. Retrieved 11 May 2011..
- ^ Foucault, Michel (1998). The Will to Knowledge: The History of Sexuality, vol. 1. London: Penguin.
- ^ .
- ^ a b Andonova, L.B.; Levy, M.A. (2003). "Franchising Global Governance: Making Sense of the Johannesburg Type II Partnerships" (PDF). Yearbook of International Co-operation on Environment and Development 2003/04. Retrieved 5 May 2011.[permanent dead link]
- ^ a b Andonova, L.B. (2009). F. Biermann; B. Siebenhüner; A. Schreyögg (eds.). International Organisations in Global Environmental Governance. Abingdon: Routledge.
- ^ Glasbergen, P. (2007). P. Glasbergen (ed.). Partnerships, Governance and Sustainable Development: Reflections on Theory and Practice. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
- ^ Evans, J (2011). Environmental Governance. Abingdon: Routledge.
- ^ Biermann, F; Chan, M-S.; Mert, A.; Pattberg, P. (2007). "Multi-stakeholder Partnerships for Sustainable Development: Does the Promise Hold?" (PDF). Paper Presented at the 2007 Amsterdam Conference on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 September 2011. Retrieved 6 May 2011.
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- ^ a b Blagescu, M.; Young, J. (2005). "Partnerships and Accountability: Current thinking and approaches among agencies supporting Civil Society Organisations". ODI Working Paper No. 255. Retrieved 14 May 2011.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Bigg, T. (2004). T. Bigg (ed.). Survival For a Small Planet. London: Earthscan.
- .
- .
External links
- United Nations Johannesburg Summit website, a comprehensive resource regarding the summit and its outcomes.
- UNCSD Type II Partnerships database and information, which details the requirements of Type II Partnerships and lists the partnerships currently registered under the UNCSD.