ABSTRACT
While collaborative initiatives in the field of sustainability are not new, their level of quality has not kept pace with the increasing urgency and complexity of the challenges to implement the SDGs. Since the beginning of the century, collaboration initiatives that bring together a variety of change agents – stakeholders from public sector, private sector, and civil society – have increased substantially. This reflects the expanding understanding of the interconnected nature of sustainability challenges, and the need to address them together with different societal stakeholders. However, such multi-stakeholder collaborations often fall short of the lasting difference they intend to make for a sustainable future. This chapter creates an in-depth understanding of the emerging field of multi-stakeholder collaborations in SDG implementation and explains different forms, purposes, levels, and dynamics in cross-sector and cross-institutional cooperation. In the context of social change, it elaborates the difference between multi-stakeholder dialogues, multi-stakeholder initiatives, multi-stakeholder platforms, and multi-stakeholder partnerships, as well as when these forms are appropriate. Building on the concept of systems aliveness, it introduces the approach of collective leadership as the necessary capacity for successful SDG implementation and outlines its key practical concept: the collaboration ecosystem as the composition of stakeholder that work together. Moreover, it gives an overview of the Collective Leadership Compass as a practical navigation tool for ensuring that collaboration works, and actors can lead transformative change collectively for SDG implementation.
