Governing lofty goals: assessing the potential effectiveness of multi-stakeholder partnerships for the SDGs

Abstract Multi-stakeholder partnerships (MSPs) are expected to connect actors across sectors and levels of society to facilitate the implementation of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), yet their effectiveness is debated. Given the aspirational character of the SDGs and the lack of progress by UN member states, however, the ability of MSPs to translate global goals into context-specific solutions remains a salient puzzle. Combining the governance-through-goals literature with research on partnership effectiveness and aspirational politics, this article addresses whether and how MSPs’ lofty goals are effectively translated into action. The article thus examines the potential effectiveness of MSPs with vague but ambitious goals by applying the Function-Output-Fit (FOF) framework, allowing a comparison between intended governance functions (what they say they do) and outputs (what they do). Conceptually, the article discusses the characteristics of distinct goals in sustainability governance and their role in explaining the effectiveness of MSPs. The empirical contribution to the Special Issue lies in the original evidence of whether and how MSPs with lofty goals have a high level of potential effectiveness; however, this is limited to a small range of governance functions.