Many governance failures of the past have been attributed to the "command and control" ways of governments. The common historical experience was that governments were considered the supreme ruler and provider. As these roles spell power, they were protected from erosion by keeping an arm's length and even adversarial relationships with other stakeholder groups. This stance and the resulting limited participation of the citizenry in various development matters, sowed mutual distrust between governments and their peoples, and bred discontentment amongst the citizenry. Fortunately, this also led to the reinvention of governance and a shift to a paradigm that promotes optimum participation and partnership among members of society. Government, civil society, and business sector have increasingly chosen to engage one another and work with each other. More recently, there has been growing recognition among these three sectors that they need each other for a concerted and effective pursuit of society's shared goal of a general improvement in human welfare for both present and future generations.

Governance through partnership with different stakeholders has been a growing trend and happening at all levels in the Asia and Pacific region. For instance, local governments have been working closely with NGOs and the business sector to safeguard the environment by improving the economic status of local population. At the national level, the different stakeholders organize themselves, usually in the form of National Councils for Sustainable Development (NCSDs), to address national development challenges and to formulate sustainable development strategies and policies. The same partnership is happening at the regional and global levels albeit in a less direct and distinct way. Intergovernmental bodies such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and UN Commission on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) have made it a practice to consult and ask inputs from other stakeholders on matters taken up in their meetings. These are usually done through the conduct of parallel meetings among government officials, among business sector representatives, and among NGOs of the member countries, and submit the results of these meetings to the next higher-level meeting.

But consultation is a less effective partnership mode compared to direct participation. The goal, therefore, is to open up intergovernmental meetings and discussions to civil society and business. The UNCSD has somehow been slowly phasing in civil society and business in NCSD sessions, whereas before, civil society participation was confined to side events in its annual sessions. But starting in 1998, UNCSD has institutionalized a segment (about one-and-a-half day) of the sessions to a dialogue among government, business and civil society.