🌍🤝🇦🇪 Last month at the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF), I had the privilege of moderating the Global Designing Lab: Partnerships in Practice — a dynamic, solutions-focused workshop co-hosted by NYU School of Professional Studies, NYU SPS Center for Global Affairs and the Permanent Mission of the UAE to the UN – New York.
We brought together a high-level political delegation from the UAE, UN officials, diplomats, and global thought leaders to co-create innovative partnership models to advance SDG 17 – Partnerships for the Goals.
In just two hours, participants collaborated in roundtable innovation sprints on four themes — gender and inclusion, development and localization, finance and risk, and leveraging sport for development. The energy in the room was inspiring, with bold ideas emerging that could be scaled across borders and contexts.
Objective:
To co-create practical and scalable partnership models that advance SDG 17 – Partnerships for the Goals by engaging HLPF delegates in a participatory and solutions-oriented lab, drawing on insights from academia, policy, and practice.
Breakout Roundtables – Innovation Sprints
Participants divided into four facilitated roundtables for rapid co-creation, to:
- Frame a specific challenge related to SDG 17
- Identify a bold idea, practice, or model
- Co-design a potential framework or partnership proposal
- Be sure to consider the implications of technological advances such as generative AI and the potential impact of digital fragmentation
- Prepare a brief pitch to share with the wider group
| Theme | Challenge Focus |
| Gender & Inclusive Partnerships | How to embed gender equity into multilateral cooperation and scale inclusive governance models |
| Development & Localization | Strengthening South-South and local-global partnerships that reflect community needs |
| Finance & Risk | Innovative financing, risk-sharing, and PPPs that support SDG partnerships |
| Global Sport for Development | Using sport as a platform to build community, social cohesion, and youth-led cooperation. |
We explored challenges and cross-cutting themes:
- Cooperation as Innovation: Rethinking how innovation is defined in government work — beyond technology — to include new models of partnership, co-creation, and mutual learning.
- Institutional Capacity and Knowledge Diplomacy: Exploring how structured experience exchange mechanisms (like the UAE model) can strengthen institutions globally.
- Localization and Inclusivity of Partnerships: How to ensure that partnerships are grounded in local realities and include underrepresented stakeholders (women, youth, indigenous groups).
- Digital Platforms for Global Exchange: Leveraging digital tools and AI to facilitate real-time, inclusive global knowledge exchange.
- Future of Multilateralism: What does a next-generation multilateral system look like — and what roles can countries like the UAE play in shaping it?
| Challenge | Problem | Related Themes |
| Digital Fragmentation | Lack of aligned digital platforms, tools, and cooperation mechanisms globally | Digital Diplomacy & Tech Cooperation, Data Sharing & Policy Harmonization |
| Policy & Data Misalignment | National policies and data ecosystems are not aligned, slowing down global progress | Data Sharing & Policy Harmonization, Innovative Governance for SDGs |
| Scaling Partnership Models | Effective regional partnerships are hard to replicate or scale | South-South & Triangular Cooperation, Public-Private Partnerships for Development, Innovative Governance for SDGs |
Partnerships are the bridge between vision and impact. Through this innovative approach, we took meaningful steps across that bridge together.
A heartfelt thank you to my exceptional co-facilitators — Carolyn Kissane, Sylvia Maier, Jens Rudbeck, and Lee Igel as well as Eric Hamilton, PhD, Angie Kamath, Olajumoke (Jumo) Ayandele, Ph.D. and Michelle D’Amico — and to our UAE partners especially H.E Abdulla Nasser Lootah, Assistant Minister of Cabinet Affairs for Competitiveness and Experience Exchange and Her Excellency Amna Binzaal Almheiri, Consul General of the UAE in New York for fostering an environment where genuine collaboration and creativity could thrive. Thanks also to Elynore Moran, Reem Almazrouei, Sharon Bergman, and many more who were involved in making this unique event happen.
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