Following the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, multi-stakeholder partnerships (MSPs) have received renewed political attention. In several policy fields, MSPs have been criticized for a lack of accountability, resulting in efforts to redress this problem. However, it is still unclear how accountability challenges and shortcomings differ across partnerships operating within the same policy field, while little is known about how MSPs themselves understand and frame accountability. Using policy documents and interviews, this paper investigates accountability challenges across two global health MSPs: UHC2030 and Medicines for Malaria Venture. Our analysis shows that MSPs face different accountability challenges depending on their official and de facto responsibilities. We also observe that accountability gaps look different depending on how horizontal accountability is understood as well as on the prevailing logics (either public or corporate) that inform MSPs. Accountability and responsibility are strictly intertwined, and the ways in which accountability is enacted are directly dependent on varying framings of responsibility. Consequently, accountability is understood and framed inconsistently among MSPs contributing to the 2030 Agenda. Hence, the transformative potential of these partnerships should be understood in relation to the specific governance contexts in which these MSPs are embedded.
Policy implications
- There is a strong relationship between accountability and responsibility: The ways in which global health multi-stakeholder partnerships (MSPs) frame their responsibility has direct repercussions on how accountability is enacted by MSPs themselves.
- MSPs should ensure that their responsibility is straightforward and clearly specified for accountability to be demarcated and hence verifiable. If MSPs' responsibility is diffuse or blurred, accountability will be similarly affected, leading to uncertainty and vagueness.
- In order to realize the transformative potential of MSPs in the framework of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, actors engaging with MSPs should understand and acknowledge the context in which MSPs are embedded. Actors' difficulties in appreciating the complexity of broad policy issues can affect MSPs' mission statements and practice. Similarly, if actors frame policy issues in narrowly technical terms, MSPs may have limited flexibility and capacity to adapt to new challenges.
- Understandings of accountability are important for the legitimacy of MSPs. However, if MSPs and their stakeholders understand accountability in an ‘intermediary’ sense, MSPs' relevance and impact may be affected. Conversely, if MSPs and their stakeholders understand accountability in a direct but narrow sense, they risk overlooking the bigger picture.
Photo by Chiara Holzhaeuser