Editorial

Citation

Ahmed, A. (2017), "Editorial", World Journal of Science, Technology and Sustainable Development, Vol. 14 No. 4, pp. 266-267. https://doi.org/10.1108/WJSTSD-08-2017-0024

Private public partnerships (PPPs) as a policy tool to achieve the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

Introduction

We are pleased to present the final issue of the World Journal of Science, Technology and Sustainable Development (WJSTSD) for 2017.

As the flagship journal of the World Association for Sustainable Development (WASD), we are also pleased to see the journal developing itself extremely well across the world and spark a new debate on policy issues relating to the role of science, technology and innovation for achieving sustainable development (SD).

There is a continuous interest to highlight that a successful SD agenda requires partnerships between governments, the private sector and civil society. In recognition of this, at the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit, in September 2015, a set of 17 goals were formulated to transform our world by 2030 through SD. Among these goals notably, Goal 17 acknowledged that actions were needed to mobilize, redirect and unlock the transformative power of trillions of dollars of private resources to deliver on SD objectives. As such, highlighting the need for private-public partnerships (PPPs) to be used as a policy tool to support the desire of governments around the world to achieve the desired 2030 outcomes of SD in society.

Paragraph 67 of United Nations General Assembly Resolution 70/1 recognizes the role of the private sector in development and calls upon its contribution: “Private business activity, investment and innovation are major drivers of productivity, inclusive economic growth and job creation. We acknowledge the diversity of the private sector, ranging from micro-enterprises to cooperatives to multinationals. We call upon all businesses to apply their creativity and innovation to solving sustainable development challenges. We will foster a dynamic and well-functioning business sector, while protecting labour rights and environmental and health standards in accordance with relevant international standards and agreements and other ongoing initiatives in this regard […]”.

The need for partnerships is recognized in Sustainable Development Goal 17: “Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development”. This implies more qualitative and quantitative engagement of the private sector in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, an enhanced impact of the United Nations’ values and objectives, in particular related to sustainability, on the business models of private companies, advances in the engagement of businesses from corporate social responsibility to direct contributions to the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or expansion of for-profit actors’ activities in areas which were usually addressed by public entities.

Special issue on PPPs and SD

We are hoping to publish a dedicated special issue of WJSTSD next year focussing on PPPs as a policy tool to achieve the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The special issue will emphasize on the fact that the responsibility for achieving SD is a global one with the immense value of PPPs as a policy tool to further public policies in a wide range of fields, such as the national industrial policy, educational policy, reducing unemployment, improving employment conditions, support for small businesses, local development which in equal measure supports the realization of the SDGs. It is hoped that the outcomes of this special issue will help develop a framework for the analysis of the role of PPPs and help policy makers to construct an “ideal role” for such multi-stakeholder partnerships in the achievement of the United Nations SDGs.

You can find more relevant details about the special issue from WASD 16th International Conference entitled “Public-private partnerships for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. For the first time since its inception, the Annual Conference of WASD will be co-organized with, and hosted by a United Nations body, namely the Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) of the United Nations system in the Palais des Nations, 10-12 April 2018, Geneva, Switzerland as an expression of participatory, open and multi-stakeholder approach that underlies the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. We are specifically keen to explore the UN SDGs and PPPs as well as the work currently undertaken by the JIU on PPPs and SD. Please also kindly read the author guidelines on the journal homepage before submitting your manuscript, to ensure it is consistent with the journal style: www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/products/journals/author_guidelines.htm?id=wjstsd.

We invite theoretical, conceptual, empirical and methodological contributions focussing on two key issues; first our understanding of PPPs policy and secondly our understanding of the role of science and technology-based PPPs in supporting domestic resource mobilization focusing on SD. The following lead questions illustrate the broad remit and ambition of the special issue:

• What theories and concepts can help us to understand the conditions and challenges for PPPs’ policy?

• What theories help us to understand the political processes and institutional structures that determine the relationship between PPPs and SD in society? What is the specific role of the state in PPPs’ policy that defines the direction?

• How can we understand and improve processes to organize PPPs in the context of SD policies, which starts with or focusses on needs and demands of each country’s policy space to establish and implement policies for poverty eradication and SD?

• Are there any new models/frameworks of organizing PPPs policy that enhances the partnership for SD, in particular developing countries (DCs)?

• What do we know empirically about the effects of science, technology-based PPPs in terms of their contribution to achieving goals the desired 2030 outcomes of SD in society?

• What do we know about the development, transfer, dissemination and diffusion of environmentally sound technologies in the form of PPP to DCs on favourable terms, including on concessional and preferential terms, as mutually agreed support the achievement of SDGs?

• What do we know and need to know about the role of ICT in the monitoring and accountability of PPPs?

Finally, we would like to congratulate the authors for this issue for their valuable contribution and it is hoped that the ensemble of papers presented in this last issue of the year will help to stimulate debate amongst scholars, researchers, professionals, consultants, managers, executives and practitioners that will ultimately lead to a more integrated and multidisciplinary approach to SD. We are also grateful to all reviewers for graciously offering their invaluable comments, which have enriched the quality of the papers in this issue, and also for making available to us their valuable time and efforts. The suggestions and criticisms of these leading world experts greatly enhanced the quality of this issue, and much credit goes to them for the quality of this issue and all our previous issues.