When the General Assembly of Partners published its consensus outcome document, Partnerships for the New Urban Agenda, in May 2016, the choice of title did a lot of quiet work. The document could have been called a manifesto, a charter, or a set of demands. It was called partnerships because that is the mechanism on which the whole Agenda rests.

The logic is set out plainly on our Our Role page: the challenges of urbanisation are too large and too complex for any single actor. National governments need local authorities, civil society and the private sector to deliver. The New Urban Agenda can describe a destination, but only partnerships move anyone towards it.

What made the GAP proposal unusual was that it specified the plumbing: a Decade of Sustainable Urbanisation, a knowledge platform, an advocacy arm, an innovation laboratory, a monitoring mechanism and an investment advisory committee. Each is a place where a stakeholder voice can attach to a decision. Strip those away and partnership becomes a photograph; keep them and it becomes a workflow.