From global multistakeholder partnerships to local action: the translation of partnering practices

Abstract In this article, we use translation and legitimation as a framework to analyze how the Global Water Partnership (GWP) translates ideas of partnership at the global level into partnering practices at the country level in South and South-East Asia. The United Nation 2030 Agenda promotes multistakeholder partnerships (MSPs) as important means of implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which gain legitimacy with a dedicated goal, SDG17. Little attention has been paid to how the dynamic between partnering and legitimation practices plays out across governance levels. With a focus on legitimacy, we therefore ask: How is partnership translated into practices across different levels of governance? We use qualitative document analysis, participatory observations, and in-depth interviews to study the partnering practices in GWP at different levels of governance. The analysis shows that while GWP’s translation of partnership on the global level has enabled it to act as a partner in a complex network of global organisations, at the national level partnership translates into loosely connected networks of partner organisations providing bottom-up legitimacy to the network. Partnering practices reveal that the identification as a neutral convener was a common legitimation practice across levels, and that this identity was challenged by changing accountability measures and relations between governance levels. Furthermore, the movement of water management into the issue area of climate change widened the scope of interventions and partners globally, while national level water sectors maintained strong siloed identities, which inhibited change through partnering practices. Our analysis demonstrates that partnerships, exemplified by the GWP, vary across governance levels and that the nature of partnering practices is strongly shaped by the legitimation of the partnership.