The Declaration emerged from a consultative process involving partnership practitioners worldwide who have skills in cross-cultural negotiation, multi-stakeholder brokering, and collaborative management and who represent government, business, and civil society. A survey was sent out to 300 practitioners; results were analysed to create a raw document which was refined by the 130 participants from all sectors and all continents who attended The Partnering Event in Cambridge, UK (organised by the International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF), the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), and the University of Cambridge Programme for Industry, or CPI).

Titled "The 21st Leadership Challenge", the Declaration aims to urge action to tackle the problems of poverty, environmental degradation, and lack of government accountability. Available for viewing on the Partnership Declaration website, the document describes 7 actions that society's leaders need to take to create an enabling environment so that strategic alliances between businesses, government, and civil society organisations can flourish. Among the themes are: the development of public and corporate policies that value multi-stakeholder partnership; the creation of training programmes and staff advancement criteria that develop the potential of individuals as partnership professionals; and
the creation of new performance indicators for multi-sectoral partnership.

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are the key tool being used to facilitate dialogue about the Declaration, and to ensure that it reaches as many people as possible (those in positions of influence operating on a national or international level and partnership practitioners). Visitors to the Partnership Declaration website are asked to submit their comments on the Declaration (in the "Have Your Say" section) so that it may be developed and enriched based on experiences both at the policy level and "on the ground". Then, through a "Send it On" section of this site, people are encouraged to send the Declaration to sector leaders, policy makers, and donors. Passing it on via email, listservs, or "Partnership Declaration postcards" are other options described here for spreading the word about this call to action.

Sustainable Development.

According to organisers, multi-stakeholder partnerships are a "tried and tested approach to the intractable problems of poverty, environmental degradation and weak governance. Their impact has been exciting, with clear benefits, but their full potential remains untapped. Multi-stakeholder partnerships could achieve so much more if corporate, [non-governmental organisation, or] NGO and public policy frameworks were more explicitly supportive."