In 2021, the German Council for Sustainable Development (Rat für Nachhaltige Entwicklung, RNE) jointly with GIZ conducted a study to understand the processes and stakeholders that are conducive to national multi-stakeholder platforms for sustainable development. The study shows how a typical set-up and composition of SDG councils that play a formal and consultative role for national decision-makers can look like, where they can be located in national institutional architectures, and what functions they can take on. In order for development practitioners in partner countries to learn from others for their own specific context, they can find an overview of stakeholder landscapes and engagement processes for policymaking in Kenya, Tanzania, Benin and Ecuador.