Partnerships: Advancing Interlinkages and Means of Implementation

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Over the last several days we have highlighted specific partnerships and initiatives that, through their delivery of on-the-ground services, have helped "bring to life" the consensus texts all of us have negotiated over the last fifteen years.

From our perspective, partnerships are a primary tool for moving from words to the actions necessary to achieve the development goals we have negotiated. Partnerships are an efficient and effective means to create or nurture linkages between stakeholders -- particularly women's groups -- and to address the crosscutting nature of the sustainable development challenges we face, especially in Africa and the Least Developed Countries.

Since the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), the action-oriented reforms of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development has shifted the international community's focus from "words are good, actions are better," to "results matter." The challenge for governments and all stakeholders is to measure and voluntarily report on the results of our sustainable development partnerships and initiatives.

As an elected member of the Governing Board of the Global Village Energy Partnership or GVEP, I have personally witnessed the power of partnerships to achieve positive on-the-ground results. GVEP is a WSSD partnership that is still growing. GVEP's aim is to use increased access to modern energy services to increase economic and social development. GVEP partners commit to a process that involves all of the stakeholders within a country - donors, national and local governments, NGOs, and the private sector - in a dialogue to set priorities and pool expertise and resources to effectively increase energy access. Since its inception in 2002, two of GVEP's action-oriented results of note are:

• The implementation of innovative rural electrification programs in Senegal and Brazil. The Brazil "Lights for All" program has provided energy to over 1.5 million historically disadvantaged people to date, and has a target of providing energy services to over 12 million Brazilians and;
• GVEP activities are facilitating investments in energy-poverty reduction activities by the World Bank and other regional banks in excess of $770 million of new loans. In 2006, the Russian, UK, and Dutch Governments committed $30 million, $8 million, and $5 million, respectively, to support GVEP's Business Plan.

Through USG support for GVEP and other programs from 2002-2005, 19.1 million people have received increased access to modern energy services. In addition, the U.S. government has moved to more broadly institutionalize partnerships. Since 2001, the U.S. Agency for International Development has created over 400 multi-stakeholder partnerships through its Global Development Alliance.

Next Steps

In 2004, through the direction of this body, the CSD Secretariat created a Partnership Database designed to communicate "24/7" information about CSD-registered partnerships. Over the last five years the Partnership Database has grown, and continues to be refined. Given CSD's increased focus on results, the Secretariat should explore how to further highlight the results of the myriad partnerships in the database.

The United States is committed to transparent reporting on our partnership efforts, and created the U.S. Government's Sustainable Development Partnership website at www.sdp.gov. We are continuing to improve the site, such as by adding "Featured Results." By featuring results and reporting regularly on the results of the partnerships and initiatives in which we participate, we are seeking to create a transparent and positive feedback loop that enables others to scale up and replicate successful efforts.

Thank you Mr. Chairman.