How relevant is governance to financing for development and partnerships?

It would be hard to fathom any Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) being achieved without either adequate human and financial resources and partnerships or institutions that are effective, inclusive and accountable. One would expect, therefore, that two of the most cross-cutting SDGs of the 2030 Agenda, SDG16 on Peace, justice and strong institutions and SDG17 on the Means of implementation and partnerships for development would receive ample attention in scholarly work and policy analysis. A quick overview of the literature reveals, however, that although SDG16 and SDG17 are examined quite extensively in and of themselves, linkages between the two seldom receive attention.

This article attempts to fill in the gap by undertaking a preliminary comparative analysis of the targets of these two Goals. It asks if certain means of implementation included in the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on Financing for Development (AAAA) and in SDG17 can address some of the governance challenges covered by SDG16 targets, and vice-versa. The overall aim of the paper is twofold: (i) to provide ideas on how a targeted focus on SDG16-SDG17 interactions can assist in mainstreaming the AAAA into the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development[1], and (ii) to elucidate how a public administration focus can be instrumental in doing the latter and in interlinking SDG16 and SDG17.