The United Nations Sustainable Development Group has recently launched a coherent framework for UN’s urgent socio-economic support to countries and societies in the face of COVID-19, putting in practice the Secretary-General’s report on “Shared responsibility, global solidarity: Responding to the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19 ”. Moving beyond the initial response phase, the UN Secretary-General underlines the need for the world to “recover better” and that any recovery strategy should ensure that we collectively remain on track towards the longer-term objectives outlined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The report also underlines the importance of mobilizing partnerships with all stakeholders to accelerate the global response to COVID-19 and recovery from its impact.

In 2019, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), United Nations Office for Partnerships, United Nations Development Coordination Office, Global Compact, and The Partnering Initiative launched the 2030 Agenda Partnership Accelerator - a project aimed at significantly accelerating effective partnerships in support of the 2030 Agenda.

To advise the work of the 2030 Agenda Partnership Accelerator and ensure that it can be impactful in the recovery phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, the side event will explore how partnerships can help assist in particular developing countries to address the COVID-19 crisis and its aftermath and promote synergies between key sectors, including the scientific and technological community and the private sector.

• What are some examples of multi-stakeholder partnerships that have formed to tackle COVID-19?
• How has the urgency of the crisis changed the ways of forging multi-stakeholder partnerships? What can we learn from the experiences in order to be able to partner more rapidly for better recovery?
• In the current crisis, how can governments, including local and regional authorities, foster an enabling environment, including necessary policy frameworks, that can lead to more effective – and rapid – partnerships?

• Mr. Darian Stibbe, Executive Director, The Partnering Initiative

• Ms. Lotta Tahtinen, Chief, Outreach and Partnerships Branch, Division for Sustainable Development Goals, UN DESA (Introduction to the 2030 Agenda Partnership Accelerator)

• Mr. Fatmir Bitiqi, Special Advisor at the Cabinet of the President of the Government of North Macedonia
• Ms. Christine N. Umutoni, Resident Coordinator, Mauritius and Seychelles
• Ms. Gabriela Ocampo, United Nations Global Compact
• Mr. Kingsley Opoku Amaning, Resident Coordinator, Liberia
• Mr. Scott Ratzan, Business Partners for Sustainable Development
• Mr. Parfait Eloundou-Enyegue, Professor and Department Chair of Development Sociology, Cornell University, member of the Independent Group of Scientists for the Global Sustainable Development Report

• The side event will be in the format of a panel discussion.
• At the outset, the moderator will ask each panelist to introduce themselves and their experience around partnerships and COVID-19, drawing from the guiding questions.
• No PowerPoints will be used.
• After the introductory remarks by the panelists, the moderator will facilitate a dialogue with the panelists. At the end, each panelist will be asked to come up with one conclusion based from the dialogue.
• The moderator will seek to take some questions to the panelists from the participants, through the virtual chat window.

The format of the event will be moderated panel discussion. As a participant, you will have the possibility to pose questions to the panelists through the virtual chat window.

Registration is now closed. The video recording of the event will be posted here after the event has concluded.