The Collaborative Approach to Sustainability: A Model of Commissioning System Intervention in Supporting Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships from National to Global Levels

The paper addresses the role of intermediaries in optimizing collaborative practices for sustainability and provides new perspectives on how the commissioning system intervenes in supporting multi-stakeholder partnerships that operate on different geographical scales. We present in this study a unitary model for the development of the commissioning system with geographically hierarchical structures, from local and national to regional and global levels, capable of creating a network of interdependent connections with international potential between a wide range of parties engaged in collaboration for sustainable territorial development. The paper highlights the potential of the commissioning system to provide better support for sustainability partnerships and identifies the roles that commissioning structures can play for the benefit of the parties interested in mobilizing and accessing capabilities and resources for development. Through its intervention, the collaborative actions between the parties are streamlined and the management of demands and offers of development resources is optimized. Our findings show that such an intervention adds value to partnerships for sustainability at regional and global levels by dynamizing the collaboration, exchange and transfer of resources between the states, using functional collaboration networks created among multiple interacting stakeholders to support the sustainable development goals implementation.