• Public-private partnerships are key to achieving the Great Reset and meeting the sustainability targets.
  • Successful collaborations require multiple, sometimes unlikely partners, to come together.
  • Partnerships achieving the most impact share five elements.

If COVID-19 has taught us one thing, it is that the world is entirely interconnected and that change can only happen in concert. History echoes this lesson. The Marshall Plan was an early standout example of a multistakeholder alliance that brought diverse parties together to build markets and infrastructure, and stimulated investment and jobs across Europe as it recovered from an earlier profound shock, World War II.

The Marshall Plan was considered to be highly successful – contributing to a significant rise in GDP for those western European countries involved, and it contributed to the renewal of the western European chemical, engineering and steel industries.

Multistakeholder collaborations like the Marshall Plan often require unlikely partners to come together – which can be challenging – but such partnerships carry more impact. Single-issue based political pathways have their limits, as multiple parts of the economy and society need to be engaged in innovation and investment at the same time. Those who stand to lose out or who may feel neglected by a certain focus on one given issue, such as tackling climate change, may push back on any effort that is perceived to overlook their anxieties about, for example, a lack of jobs or new economic opportunities.

The reverse also holds true. A political push on policy, institutions, technology and finance to create new industrial jobs for some, will be resisted by others if they think these jobs are at the expense of tackling other pressing issues such as climate change. Confronting a lack of cohesion and the sustainability challenge, therefore, go hand-in-hand to achieve true political transformation.

The private sector has a compelling role to play. Forward-minded leaders can often mobilize resources, innovation and action, and influence a wide network, that many in governments and civil society cannot do on their own. There is a growing space for corporate leadership to drive political confidence and the opportunity to act.

As we gather for the Sustainable Development Impact Summit in an increasingly resource-constrained world, grappling with a major global development setback, impactful solutions are critical to making informed decisions about the best use of those limited resources. Collaborations and alliances between public and private sectors and new combinations and applications of policy, technology and finance provide a compelling approach to delivering the Great Reset.

If change-making is a team sport, what then defines the winning teams? Here are five examples of elements shared by some current partnerships which are achieving impact:

1. Trust

Meaningful engagement and trust between stakeholders, who manage to integrate unique perspectives and expertise.

The Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation is working with government and business partners to ensure cross border trade is simple, fast and cost-effective, creating new business opportunities, generating employment, enabling greater economic and social development and reducing poverty. In the first completed project in Colombia, the Alliance worked with the Colombian National Institute for Food and Drug Surveillance (Invima) and business, to introduce a risk management system for food, beverages, medicines and medical devices, allowing inspectors to focus their resources on high-risk shipments without jeopardising safety and security. The collaboration has fostered greater trust between government and business, reduced the number of physical inspections and stripped hundreds of hours of delays out of the border clearance process, saving business $8.8m in just 18 months.

2. Macro vision with micro application

A broad constituent group that combines diversity and breadth, with a common purpose that focuses on specific projects with achievable objectives.

Grow Asia is building Better Business by bringing together government, business, civil society organizations and farmer groups, to help scale up inclusive agriculture value chains across key commodities such as palm oil, rubber, coconut, rice and coffee – significant contributors to exports in South East Asia.

With many successes in the region, the Vietnam Coffee Story stands out, where partnerships were established to improve the sustainability of Robusta coffee in Vietnam, the world’s second largest coffee producer. Despite high levels of productivity, Vietnam is susceptible to climate threats and ageing farms, leading to declining yields. Through a National Committee formed by the by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Coffee Task Force of Grow Asia’s Vietnam chapter and public-private partnerships at the district and province level, an initial successful pilot was scaled up, to train 18% (around 100,000) of coffee farmer households in a national curriculum in sustainable practices.

These farmers have seen increased yields and improvements in the quality of yields. They have made progress in adapting to climate change, lowering greenhouse gas emissions by 40,000 tonnes annually (the equivalent of taking over 8,640 passenger vehicles off the road for one year), reducing water usage by 21 million m3 annually as well as fertilizer use. All this translates into $12.3 million of savings annually for farmers.

3. Empowering other change-makers

If other people or organizations have greater potential to create change, empower them.

Through the Communities partnerships, the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship is building Shared Prosperity and advancing the world’s leading models of sustainable social innovation. Since its founding 20 years ago, the Foundation has helped its 400 social entrepreneurs and innovators to amplify their impact by raising their visibility and inclusion at global events; through education programmes, peer learning and through strengthened global networks.

The impact of the social entrepreneurs and innovators on their communities has been significant. Around 622 million people have been directly affected by the operations and activities of this group. More than $6.7 billion has been distributed to people in communities through loans, or from the sale of products which have created value and enhanced livelihoods. Through their initiatives, 192 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions have been mitigated – the equivalent of taking more than 40.7 million passenger vehicles off the road for a year.

Read the rest of Dominic Kailash Nath Waughray’s article here at World Economic Forum