The slippery terrain of collaborations to achieve zero hunger and sustainable agricultural transformations

 

Multi-stakeholder partnerships and collaborations for sustainable development among government, private sector, and civil society groups, enshrined in the final SDG 17, are understood as essential to achieving the previous 16 goals. However, more careful analysis of how partnerships enable or hinder transformative change towards the SDGs has been insufficient. The identity and interests of partners, what they do, and how they work together–or fail to do so– in structures created for the purpose of collaboration towards the goals is especially important. Focusing on SDG 2 and 17, this paper examines the nature and outcomes of collaborations for the transformative SDG 2 subtargets of smallholder agriculture and sustainable farming. The comparative historical approach driving the paper analyses the “Zero Hunger” policies in Brazil and Mexico during the period 2003-2009 and 2013-2017, respectively. In particular, we review Brazil’s example of majority civil-society participation in the governance bodies for Fome Zero, where spaces for decision-making on food security excluded its powerful agribusiness lobby. By contrast, Mexico’s tokenistic use of civil society in its National Crusade Against Hunger allowed corporate actors to reduce the country’s anti-hunger strategy to an expansion in the delivery of industrial food products. We suggest, based on the comparison, that SDG 17 offers a slippery terrain for pursuing transformative change because it allows for the entrenchment of short-term, individual and material gains, concentration of power and wealth, and disconnection from and domination over nature and people – all under the guise of advancing the targets associated with the SDGs. These outcomes are the underlying causes of biodiversity loss and nature’s decline. To pursue the transformative change needed for achievement of the SDGs, it is necessary to address power dynamics in partnerships for SDG interventions by creating structures for collaboration that protect representation from less powerful players as well as norms of transparency and accountability. Without such care in structuring partnerships for the goals, the risks of entrenching the status quo and misusing public resources increase significantly.