By Javier Surasky
Suggested citation: Surasky, Javier (2024, April 4). Partnerships for Development Beyond the 2030 Agenda: Integrating AI for Sustainable Development. Eighth Meeting of Latin American and Caribbean Countries on Sustainable Development Forum, Session: SDG 17. Partnerships for the Goals, ECLAC, Santiago, Chile, March 31–April 4, 2025. Version shared by the author.
Good afternoon, everyone. I'm grateful for the opportunity to share some thoughts on the future of development partnerships within the framework of the 2030 Agenda, particularly in today's challenging global context for international cooperation.
As we all know, cooperation and conflict share a dialectical relationship: collaboration opens the door to disagreement, yet paradoxically, we must cooperate to resolve those tensions. Keeping these fundamentals in mind feels especially relevant today, in a world marked by a resurgence of isolationism—something we've seen materialize just this week with the imposition of tariffs under President Trump's administration.
Such dynamics hinder international cooperation, especially when coupled with a low aversion to conflict among some global leaders. We're at the opposite end of a landscape conducive to international development cooperation. So, in this context, what role do partnerships for sustainable development play?
Answers like "to implement the SDGs" or "to advance sustainable development" are both everything and nothing—they lack the precision and direction we need. And if we narrow it down to "building partnerships to tackle SDG 13 on climate change" or "target 13.2," do we gain the clarity we're after? Yes, but at the cost of slicing sustainable development into silos. I don't think that's the way forward, either.
Among the many aspects we could explore, I'll focus on one today due to time constraints: we need to root partnerships in forward-looking thinking. When we consider where the world is heading, we can't ignore the impact of digital technologies—artificial intelligence (AI) in particular. Countries that lag in innovating, generating, and adopting these technologies will fall behind, deepening their underdevelopment through an ever-widening digital divide. This setback could ripple across decades, given these technologies' profound social and economic effects.
The driving forces behind these technologies aren't in our region, nor are they in the public sector. They're concentrated in private actors from the Global North. This reality, while a given, opens doors for multi-stakeholder partnerships. We already have examples to draw from:
Take the program Disconnected: Skills, Education, and Employment in Latin America, led by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) alongside regional governments, tech giants like Microsoft and Cisco, and local educational organizations. It's made strides in narrowing the educational digital gap in countries like Colombia, Mexico, and Uruguay.
In Costa Rica, a partnership between the Ministry of Environment, UNDP, private tourism companies, and Indigenous communities has powered the Payment for Environmental Services program, boosting the country's forest cover from 26% to 52% in under 30 years.
But we need to go further. Lacking a strong voice in global debates on AI regulation and governance, Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) must join forces with diverse actors working on AI safety, ethics, and governance. For different reasons and paths, states and non-state entities have a shared interest in shaping an AI future that prioritizes equity, control, transparency, and accountability.
Partnership efforts should focus on building structures that deliver in the short and medium term while aiming for long-term goals. That means creating institutional frameworks that endure over time and flexible internal governance that adapts to the rapid evolution of digital technologies.
To be both effective and efficient, these "Partnerships 2.0" need to be embedded in broader programs and policy frameworks that provide direction, resources, clarity, and transparently define the needs and goals justifying their creation.
This calls for transformation across all actors—not just states:
- NGOs must step up as proactive partners in designing and implementing policies, shifting their watchdog role to the background.
- Businesses must weave social well-being and equity into their core operations, as "B Corporations" and even Open AI—with its hybrid profit-and-social-impact model—are attempting to do.
- Universities should integrate digital technologies, sustainable development, and multi-stakeholder collaboration into training professionals across all fields, preparing them for the world ahead.
- Unions must recognize that we're facing a redesign of the working world—one that makes clinging to current structures and practices untenable. They must join the change, advocating for workers' rights in a transformed labor market.
Only through coordinated, coherent efforts from all actors can LAC gain meaningful influence in debates about the future of AI and other digital technologies.
While there's no one-size-fits-all recipe for building these Partnerships 2.0, we know some ingredients are non-negotiable:
- Clarity of objectives, shared and agreed upon by all participants—not imposed top-down by the state.
- Willingness to invest financial and human resources, with a clear plan from the outset about where those resources will come from.
- Formalized processes to ensure stability, longevity, and transparent governance—potentially even backed by legislation.
- Mapping capacities at national and regional levels to identify strengths and gaps for launching these partnerships.
We need a new kind of future-oriented alliance. LAC has significant assets to leverage internationally through the strength these partnerships could lend to our region's voice on the global stage. To start, AI proliferation—at least at today's pace—won't happen if LAC presses on the bottlenecks it controls: energy, lithium, rare earths, and data.
This challenge stretches beyond the 2030 Agenda and its SDGs—especially SDG 17 on partnerships. It may be one of the defining political issues of the coming era, where the most substantial capacities in digital technologies, data management, and work with vulnerable populations no longer reside with states.
I propose three concrete steps to move forward:
- Develop a legal framework to enable Partnerships 2.0. The region could create non-binding guidelines or principles to shape these frameworks.
- Build a regional network of incubators for Partnerships 2.0, offering technical assistance, training, and co-creation spaces for new collaborative initiatives.
- Establish a regional blended finance fund to provide seed capital for early-stage Partnerships 2.0 and scaling funds for proven initiatives with demonstrated impact.
Creating Partnerships 2.0 isn't just an option to bolster sustainable development—it's a political responsibility with a vision for the future.
Let me close with a brief story: When Picasso was painting Guernica, commissioned by the Spanish government for its pavilion at the 1937 International Expo, government officials kept dropping by to check his progress. During one visit, an official asked, "What are you painting?" Picasso replied, "You're the ones painting it." Guernica captured his present, yet it still moves those of us who were his future. So I'll end by asking you: What kind of canvas are we painting today?
Thank you for your attention.
