A/HRC/44/40 Funding and partnership 47. The success of the SDGs relies heavily on adequate funding, but as the Financing for Sustainable Development Report 2020 concludes, “international economic and financial systems are not only failing to deliver on the SDGs, but … there has been substantial backsliding in key action areas.” 75 The outlook is even worse in light of the COVID-19 recession, inadequate official development assistance, growing debt, trade wars, and climate change. In addition, “poverty, corruption, and tax evasion limit domestic resources in developing countries.”76 48. The response of the international community has been to rely ever more heavily on private sector funding, which is increasingly presented as the only viable way forward. The Secretary-General has called on business to “move further and faster … to meet the global goals” and has argued that “corporate leadership can make all the difference to creating a future of peace, stability and prosperity on a healthy planet.” 77 Corporations have been enthusiastic in demonstrating their embrace of the SDGs, though much of this has been superficial such as boasting of female workforce participation.78 49. The central strategy is “to use public funds more sparingly [and] ensure a better mobilization of private capital.”79 But there are many problems with this approach. First, it begs the crucial question as to whether privatization in its various forms is capable of achieving many of the SDGs, especially for the most vulnerable whose inclusion may not be profitable. There are powerful reasons to doubt this. 80 Second, it recasts the overall SDG enterprise as one focused largely on the building of infrastructure and prioritizes an enabling business environment over empowering people. Third, the role of governments is downplayed, often relegated to insuring private investments. Fourth, all too little is done to promote domestic revenue mobilization, leaving in place destructive fiscal policies, systematic tax avoidance strategies, and illicit outflows that entrench poverty and inequality. Fifth, the commitment to “a revitalized Global Partnership,” promoting “solidarity with the poorest and with people in vulnerable situations,” is lost in the fog of an overriding focus on Public-Private Partnerships with troubling track records. 81 Accountability 50. The drafters of the 2030 Agenda explicitly rejected the concepts of monitoring and accountability in designing the SDG follow-up and review processes. The resulting system is characterized by its voluntary nature, deference to national choices, and institutional arrangements that minimize opportunities for sustained scrutiny.82 The principal mechanism is the High-level Political Forum, which meets for eight days each year and has garnered high levels of stakeholder attendance. In 2020 it is expected to spend 23 hours considering 47 Voluntary National Reviews submitted by States. 83 Its main outcome is a Ministerial Declaration, largely negotiated in advance. 51. Many reforms have been put forward, designed to respond to concerns about the superficiality of the review process, the marginality of civil society, the formalism of the outputs, and the lack of meaningful engagement with VNRs at the national level. One close 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 12 UN, Financing for Sustainable Development, p. xvii. UN, “30 Business Titans Join UN Push to Scale Up Private Sector Investment for Sustainable Development,” 16 October 2019. António Guterres, “Progress toward sustainable development is seriously off-track,” The Financial Times, 4 November 2019. Private Equity International, “Why SDGs are a Game Changer,” 14 February 2018. Djeneba Doumbia and Morten Lykke Lauridsen, “Closing the SDG Financing Gap – Trends and Data,” International Finance Corporation, EM Compass, Note 73 (2019), p. 3. A/73/396 (2018); Alessandra Cepparulo, Giuseppe Eusepi, and Luisa Giuriato, “Public-Private Partnership and Fiscal Illusion: A Systematic Review,” Journal of Infrastructure, Policy and Development, vol. 3 (2019), p. 288. See Eurodad, History RePPPeated: How Public Private Partnerships are failing (2018). Kate Donald and Sally-Anne Way, “Accountability for the Sustainable Development Goals: A Lost Opportunity?,” Ethics & International Affairs, vol. 30, no. 2 (2016), p. 206. UN, “High Level Political Forum,” available at https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/hlpf/2020.