Introducing and implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) brings an opportunity to discuss the world’s response to global challenges and to rethink positions on global public goods (GPGs). One of the transformational impacts that the acceleration of globalisation has had is that it has brought to the fore a class of development challenges characterised by the fact that they require collective action to have any chance of success. It is this characteristic, the need for a united response, that means that the concept of GPGs has a key contribution to make to current debates about the future positioning of the UN system.
The UN must continue to explore and widen the paths to effective collective response and that this should be an integral part of the new Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The UN has to organise itself to ensure it is an effective instrument in facilitating solutions to these challenges, Jenks argues. Over the last decade, increased attention has been given to thematic partnerships. Examples from the health sector demonstrate how goal-based public-private partnerships have achieved impressive results. Other UN led initiatives of such new types of public-private partnership that have emerged over the last five years include energy, women and children, and nutrition. The challenge will be to expand and institutionalise these alliances. The new global sustainable development agenda should provide a golden opportunity for this to happen.