As highlighted in a previous blog post, the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have the potential to stimulate positive global change. They do this through bringing together global, regional, and local actors. 

In this article, we focus on one SDG in particular – SDG 17 – “Partnership for the Goals”. SDG 17 is Pionero Philanthropy’s key focus. Our work brings together multiple actors through encouraging greater transparency, visibility and credibility to Guatemala’s nonprofit sector. 

Read to find out more about this crucial goal and about how Pionero Philanthropy is playing its part in contributing towards its achievement.

What is SDG 17?

SDG 17 urges worldwide collaboration for sustainable development. 

It emphasizes the significance of maintaining global macroeconomic stability and the necessity of mobilizing financial resources for developing nations. 

The importance of technology access is also emphasized in SDG 17, particularly with regard to internet-based information technologies.

SDG 17 aims are classified into five categories, each with its own set of indicators. The table below shows sample targets and their associated indicators. 

Why are Partnerships Important?

There are a few reasons why partnerships are essential in achieving global sustainable development;

1. Due to digital technology and international trade, the globe is more connected than ever 

This means that only a strong commitment to global partnership and cooperation will allow the SDGs to be realized. 

2. Coordination of policies to assist developing countries is critical to attaining growth and development. 

Over the last decade, the balance of responsibilities has shifted from donor-recipient to cooperation based on a more equal partnership. This rebalance in power dynamics means that more communication, and coordination are needed for development initiatives to be fully realized.

3. COVID-19 pandemic’s implications

The pandemic showed us that global alliances are more crucial than ever if we are to solve global problems going forward.

SDG17 compared to other SDGs

One study asked 85 global experts to define their top 20 SDG targets and rank them in order of significance. 

Their top targets were access to healthcare, poverty reduction, and women’s rights. Only one partnership-related aim shows at the bottom of the rankings.

Another tool, the SDG Index and Dashboard Report helps us grasp the relative importance of each SDG. It demonstrates progress toward reaching the goals country by country.

The graphic below depicts progress toward SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy.

Below is the same worldwide progress chart for SDG 17: Goal Partnerships.

When comparing the two, you can see that many major economic regions, such as the United States and much of Europe, do extremely poorly in SDG 17 compared to SDG 7. There is a vast disparity in progress.

Without considerable progress on SDG 17, fulfilling the remaining 16 goals will be nearly impossible.

It calls on the wealthier countries to take on greater responsibilities. This might include guiding cohesive policy formulation (Target 17.14), assisting developing nations with capacity building (17.9), or enhancing access to sustainable technologies and technology development in emerging economies. (17.7).

The red areas on the map above indicate that these things are just not happening at the rate required for developing countries to step up and contribute to meeting the SDGs.

The fact that “developing regions will see 97% of the world’s population growth of 1.2 billion people between 2013 and 2030″ adds to the urgency of the situation.

In other words, when world leaders meet in 2030 to review how well we’ve done with the SDGs, they’ll be doing so in a world that has grown the most in areas most affected by food, poverty, healthcare, and so on.

Why are Partnerships important in Guatemala?

Given the lackluster progress in Latin America towards SDG17, more efforts are needed that enable more collaborations for all remaining SDGs. 

Regarding Guatemala, and its enabling environment for cross cutting partnerships, there is still a lot of work to do. For example, there are over 15,000 nonprofit organizations in a country of only 17 million people. Most of these organizations have low visibility and transparency which makes it difficult for partnerships to even begin. 

On top of this, the civil war that ended in the 1990s is still felt within Guatemalan society. Indigenous communities are still distrusting of authorities. Even though the Civil War ended more than 24 years ago, poverty, and prejudice continue to plague the indigenous community.

Lastly, given 59.3% of the population living in poverty, migration levels to the US at record highs, and ranking very high in corruption indexes, partnerships and collaborations across sectors and countries are needed more than ever in order to more effectively and swiftly tackle these societal issues.

How Pionero Philanthropy is Addressing SDG17

According to the UN, 

“Multilateralism and global partnerships are more important than ever if we are to solve the world’s problems”

(UN)

Pionero Philanthropy believes that by increasing awareness and information about Guatemala’s nonprofit sector, multi-stakeholder collaborations will grow and thrive. We believe that with reliable and accessible information, that more fluid communication flows will result in more partnerships.

Pionero Philanthropy focuses on the following 3 SDG 17 Targets:

1. Target 17.3 – Mobilize additional financial resources for developing countries from multiple sources

We do this through ensuring our information is accessible, up to date and supported by on the ground support. These services make resource mobilization and channeling easier as they take place based on informed decisions and verified data.

2. Target 17.8 – Fully operationalize the technology bank and science, technology and innovation capacity-building mechanism for least developed countries. Enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology

Our enabling technology such as our online evaluation system for nonprofit verifications enables information gathering and flows for information seekers. This system also has robust resources for capacity building. We have also applied for grants in order for our technology to be accessible without internet connection in rural areas.

3. Target 17.16 – Enhance the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development, complemented by multi-stakeholder partnerships that mobilize and share knowledge, expertise, technology and financial resources.To support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals in all countries, in particular developing countries

The sharing of our knowledge is available online and through our bespoke data and/or consulting services. We are also members of several international networks such as WINGS. In these networks, we share knowledge across the Philanthropy support organizations. This has resulted in many successful partnerships and development outcomes.

We are excited at Pionero Philanthropy to keep growing and working towards SDG17. Doing this we hope that more partnerships result which lead to the achievement of multiple other SDGS.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us!