Towards the Creation of Effective Partnerships with the Private Sector for Sustainable Development

Abstract

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were launched to promote partnerships to enhance developmental effectiveness. This is especially apparent in Goal 17. The private sector is one of the prospective partners for the realisation of a sustainable society. Collaboration with it has accelerated internationally to challenge various development issues through businesses. This trend is impelled by both the public and private sectors, whose activities have different aims and purposes. Both multilateral and bilateral donors, including Japan, have planned and implemented various development projects in collaboration with untraditional partners, such as corporations. This chapter examines how partnerships with the private sector have been formed, focusing on Japan. First, it briefly studies international initiatives to understand the process by which previously separated entities—public and private sectors—gradually move closer to solve development problems. It then explores the way the Government of Japan and the Japan International Cooperation AgencyJapan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), who are responsible for the public sectorPublic sector, have come to create or support projects in collaboration with companies. Their shift in the direction of international development responds to international calls for sustainable development. The chapter concludes by discussing the prospect of partnership with the private sector to realise the sustainable future that the SDGs aim to create.