Responsible Accountability? Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships, Sustainable Development and Global Health

Abstract

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.