The SDG challenges facing the developing world are complex and intertwined. To add to this, the world today is about $ 7.5 trillion short annually to establish the SDGs in time to meet the deadline for 2030. That investments from all corners are welcome, would be stating the obvious.

The private sector could be a good source, except there is a trust deficit here. The long list of projects with private participation that are languishing or have perished is not an encouraging precedent.

While the reasons behind the failed projects may be many, the prominent ones read like a list of worst practices – sub-optimal solutions, incorrect project definitions & selection, improper planning, inaccurate projections, weak implementation, sub-optimal technology and many more.

The situation calls for new approaches, new methodologies and possibly new types of institutions, at the country and provincial level – where the Business as usual approach is abandoned and “out of the box” solutions are adopted to work with the private sector.

New age problems require new solutions, which often need to be incubated in a favourable tailor-made environment conducive to making a project successful right from the beginning.

Instead of reinventing solutions the innovative approaches already being practised in any part of the world should be easily available to the partners for them to replicate. This calls for a virtual platform to exchange ideas and map solutions; so that they can be adapted and applied to the local issues.