Johannesburg and Beyond: The 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development and the Rise of Partnerships

In early Sep 2002, presidents and prime ministers from more than one hundred nations gathered in Johannesburg, South Africa for the World Summit on Sustainable Development. An in-depth look at the Johannesburg Summit reveals a much different picture. The Summit represented a dramatic break with past UN mega-conferences. In Johannesburg, the US strongly advocated for partnerships. The US announced 19 of its own new partnerships, setting an important example. These included initiatives on water, energy, clean fuels, and the protection of tropical forests in the Congo Basin. The Johannesburg Summit reflected a major change now underway in the international system. Over the last decade, the international community has begun to recognize that making a grand promise is easy but is of little value when not followed by effective performance. Partnerships should be a vehicle for improving the performance of international treaties and institutions and not an excuse for governments to avoid commitments and accountability.