System context and drivers

Collaborative governance is situated within a dynamic system context that can include resource or service conditions, policy and legal frameworks, socioeconomic and cultural characteristics, network characteristics, political dynamics and power relations and the history of conflict, among other dimensions.16 In particular, prior relationships and existing networks as well as the institutional context matter as they shape opportunities and constraints, and influence if, how and when collaborative governance unfolds and operates.21–24

Scholars have studied the specific conditions or drivers that are essential to the formation of collaborative systems or, what Emerson and Nabatchi refer to as collaborative governance regimes (CGRs). Four factors have surfaced in the research as significant combined drivers of CGRs:

• Uncertainty about the nature of a problem can drive groups to work together to understand and define the problem6 22 and how to approach it in order to reduce, diffuse and share risk.

• Interdependence among organisations who are unable to accomplish goals on their own turn to other organisations to foster collective action through mutual reliance.25–28

• Consequential incentives that make acceptance of the status quo undesirable drive cross-boundary collaboration.11 These incentives may be internal pressures (salient issues, resource needs, interests or opportunities) or external pressures (situational or institutional crises, threats or opportunities).16

• Initiating leadership matters in motivating the preliminary engagement of participants in a potential CGR. Boundary-spanning capacities, in particular, can be helpful in framing issues for diverse participants and creating the right conditions to launch collaboration dynamics.28 29

Collaboration dynamics

Once initiated, the dynamics of cross-boundary collaboration unfold as iterative interactions between behavioural elements (principled engagement), interpersonal elements (shared motivation) and functional elements (capacity for joint action).16 Research suggests that collaboration dynamics foster desired actions and outcomes and that each of these elements contribute to performance.

Collaborative actions, outcomes and adaptation

Collaborative governance regimes are instrumental by definition. They must produce public value and benefit participating organisations, those that have sponsored or funded them, the directly affected stakeholders and the public at large. Through their collaboration dynamics, CGRs generate actions that in turn lead to outcomes and eventually to adaptation. Depending on the context, purpose and type of CGR, collaborative actions will vary, ranging from strategic outputs such as securing external endorsements; providing information or training to constituents or the public; enacting policy measures, laws or regulations and marshalling external resources—to direct action—such as deploying staff; sitting or building facilities; issuing permits; cleaning or restoring environments; carrying out new management practices; monitoring implementation and enforcing compliance.10

The recent findings from empirical research on the performance of collaborative governance regimes are instructive. In a 2015 multicase study of marine and freshwater ecosystem restoration partnerships in the Puget Sound, Scott and Thomas found evidence supporting the contribution of principled engagement and capacity for joint action to reported increases in consultation, planning or implementation among CGR participant organisations and within larger networks.69 They also found that within principled engagement, three specific facets—awareness of other organisations’ interests and values, increased face-to-face communication and the use of common language—are associated with increases in network ties. Their measures of joint capacity also were associated with increases in network ties. Based on their study, the authors suggest that collaboration dynamics reduce transaction costs, which in turn helps form and strengthen ties between organisations in the CGR and those in other networks.

In another comprehensive study, Ulibarri looked at the effect of collaboration dynamics and its individual components on outcomes across 24 hydropower relicensing cases under the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s alternative or integrated licensing processes.18 Based on survey research with 270 participants, Ulibarri found evidence of reinforcing relationships between the three components of collaboration dynamics (principles engagement, shared motivation and capacity for joint action) and of their effect on decision making, participant satisfaction and the perceived quality of the license decision and predicted environmental and economic changes.

In a related study, Ulibarri compares three different cases with high, medium and low ratings on collaboration dynamics and found significant differences in the reported quality of the resulting environmental decisions.70 She also finds that high-quality collaboration led to jointly developed and highly implementable operating regimes designed to improve numerous resources, whereas lesser-quality collaboration resulted in operating requirements that ignored environmental concerns raised by stakeholders and lacked implementation provisions.

Finally, Scott, in one of the first major outcome performance studies of its kind, demonstrates through an examination of 357 watersheds in the USA, that collaborative watershed groups directly contribute to significant improvements in water chemistry and in-stream habitat conditions, as measured objectively by watershed data, not participant reports.20

Take a longer view and a systems approach

As we know, collaborative governance regimes are complex, multilevel systems that change over time. They combine structures and processes and agency into dynamic systems that can be formed in different ways and can evolve over time along different trajectories (figure 2).

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Figure 2

Collaborative system.

One can think of these various system dimensions as contributing incentives, inspiration, interconnections and inter-relations as depicted in figure 2. There is no one right way of viewing these complex, social phenomena. The only wrong way is to view them through too narrow a lens. Cross-sector collaborative governance systems require mobilising and managing institutions, networks, processes and leadership. All of these dimensions are subject to change over time, institutions being the slowest to change, while leadership and processes are most dynamic and vulnerable to external shifts and events. Collaborative governance structures fit this dynamic environment and are more responsive and adaptive than formal organisational structures.62 But this requires of conveners, funders and managers a wide-angle perspective, patience and flexibility to balance, integrate and orchestrate these moving parts over time.

The collaborative governance of Uganda’s HIV response illustrates both the dynamic and evolutionary nature of multisectoral collaboration, and the complex ways in which the dimensions identified above may interact. Uganda’s response to HIV/AIDS, during the late 1980s and 1990s was widely acclaimed, but also rare in the extent to which it adopted a multisectoral approach.71 When the disease was first identified in Uganda in 1986, President Museveni responded by creating a National Committee for the Prevention of AIDS (NCPA), which he chaired and was situated within his own office. The NCPA held monthly meetings that brought together multiple ministries, donor representatives and increasingly over time, civil society organisations. In 1990, the government sought to institutionalise this approach through the establishment of Uganda’s AIDS Commission and its Secretariat, which was responsible for developing a new strategy for a multisectoral response to AIDS control.72 While this new Commission was tasked with coordinating activities, sharing information and monitoring and evaluation across sectors, it struggled with these tasks, perhaps lacking the clear authority that the NCPA, housed in the President’s office had possessed. Due to the disappointing performance of this Commission it was disestablished in 1997, but only to be re-established when an influential donor required a structure of this nature in order to be able to disburse funding.71 Despite the shifting institutional arrangements, the collaborative commitment to address the challenge of HIV across multiple sectors, and the networks that were established early on across ministries as diverse as health, defence, education, involving both government and non-government actors, were key to rapidly mobilise the response and address issues of stigma and discrimination which plagued HIV/AIDS programmes elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa at this time.73

Use a design approach

All collaborative governance regimes start with an itch, a tension, a challenge, sometimes an opportunity. Thinking about the condition or problem from a design perspective leads inevitably to questions like—What do we know about this condition or problem? What do we need to know? Whom should we ask? How can they help us? Who should be involved in solving the problem? In other words, a careful assessment of the condition or problem and the system context in which it exists and was created must be conducted. Part of that system context is the political economy and the nature and sources of power and authority that can be brought to the table (or can hinder the initiative). Are they sufficient, and if unbalanced (which is always the case), how can one rebalance the power dynamic through design?

A second set of design questions focuses on the appropriateness of a collaborative approach—What is the added value or ‘collaborative advantage’ of collaboration versus other alternatives? Are the conditions sufficient to initiate a collaborative governance regime? Are there consequential incentives? Is there uncertainty? Is there a recognised interdependence among the stakeholders involved? Is there identifiable leadership to initiate collaboration? Is there sufficient capacity to engage partners or what would it take to assure that capacity?

There are also practical considerations and operational constraints that must be taken into consideration when designing for collaboration governance. The capacity for joint action develops over time but there are early transaction costs that must be overcome for CGRs to get underway. There are institutional requirements, be they laws, regulations, contracts or norms, often at multiple levels, to understood and comply with. In some cases, new institutions need to be created. There are often jurisdictional requirements to address. There are time frames required of collaborative governance that need to be accommodated. Important external deadlines or schedules, such as review periods, funding deadlines, election cycles, need to be considered. There are resource issues, staffing and logistics to plan for. These operational matters may be handled up front or in stages, depending on the nature of the initiating leaders and conveners. For self-initiating CGRs, the core participants share the support of these functions. For third-party assisted CGRs, a disinterested convener or funder steps up to handle the initial transaction costs of the collaboration. With externally directed CGRs, it is most often thegovernment that makes provision for collaboration and guides or induces participants to engage.

The Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) in India offers insight into the challenges that may arise if a design approach is not taken, and inadequate attention paid to local issues of power and authority. The ICDS was initiated >40 years ago with a mandate to provide six connected services: immunisation, supplementary nutrition, health check-ups, referral services, preschool non-formal education and nutrition and health information. These services are supposed to be provided by community-level workers focused on nutrition and childhood development (anganwadi workers (AWW)) and health (auxiliary nurse/midwives (ANM)). As a flagship project, the government has invested heavily, spending approximately US$5.4 billion on the programme between 2000 and 2010.74 While there is some evidence of positive impact of the ICDS programme, India remains one of the worst performing countries in terms of childhood nutrition and a recent evaluation indicated serious and persistent design flaws that have undermined the programme, and proved quite intractable.75

Historically, evaluations have highlighted the lack of infrastructure for the scheme, and failure to provide adequate food commodities; however, the 2011 evaluation explored further the underlying reasons for these failures, drawing attention to:

• the lack of awareness among beneficiaries—in one assessment only 3% of potential beneficiaries could identify a specific centre or worker associated with the scheme;

• ineffective coordination committees, and the fact that frequently such committees were centrally concerned about how they as individuals could benefit from the Scheme;

• widespread corruption, leakage of funds and patronage;

• the fact that AWWs are only minimally trained (they receive just 3 months training), and ill equipped to coordinate with other services, and if AWWs were to perform fully their duties (from supporting nutrition to preschool education), they would face excessive demands on their time.

While the lack of coordination between the health sector workers (ANMs) and the AWWs working for the ICDS scheme is clearly problematic, more deeply rooted challenges related to design of the scheme and its fit with the local context, notably the lack of accountability of the scheme to local communities, the power relations between the largely female AWWs and ANMs on the one hand, and village leaders on the other hand, and the significant resources made available by the government for food commodities, have often critically undermined programme functioning.

Focus on leadership

Do not misspecify or underestimate the leadership requirements of collaboration. Across all the research on collaborative governance, the need for effective leadership is found to be critical. An excellent study by O’Leary et al on the skillset of collaborative managers offers valuable insights into the attributes and skills required to effectively manage in these complex settings.76 Individual attributes, such as openness, patience and self-confidence, and interpersonal skills, such as being a good communicator and listener, were mentioned most frequently among senior level federal officials in the USA responding to survey and interview questions about effective collaborative leaders. Surprisingly, these ‘soft’ skills were viewed as essential for successfully collaborative leaders, well ahead of group process skills, such as facilitation, negotiation and collaborative problem-solving; strategic thinking skills and substantive and technical expertise and knowledge. This makes sense in light of the research on the importance of trust and trusting relationships to collaboration previously noted.30 47–49 O’Leary et al are now beginning to study civil service officials in other countries to see if such findings are culturally specific.

These findings underscore that collaborative leadership is more than skillful execution of tasks. It is about building relationships and trust with standing as well, important elements that are needed to initiate collaboration and to foster in partners over time. Effective collaborative leadership must be demonstrated and shared by the convener or manager of a collaboration and by all the participants who must represent their organisations, networks or constituencies. Multiple leaders and multiple kinds of leadership skills are needed throughout the development and sustainment of a collaborative governance regime. If collaborative leadership is lacking at the various scales where collaboration is operating, then there may need to be some front-end, possibly sustained investment in leadership training, mentoring and knowledge/awareness building before moving forward.

Research also tells us conflict management skills are important for effective leadership in collaborative governance.34–36 By definition, collaborative governance engages participants with different interests and values, roles and resources and relationships to the services being sought. While coming together for a common purpose and finding common ground, these differences are not meant to be stifled or suppressed, but rather surfaced and expressed so that the full group can understand the full dimensions of the issue at hand and the differential impacts and challenges being faced. Competition and power differentials can exacerbate these differences. Multicultural settings are also likely to present additional conflict challenges. Handling these potential conflicts by acknowledging and honouring differences is an essential skillset for shifting gears into joint problem solving for mutual gains.28 38 56

One example of the centrality of leadership to effective multisectoral collaboration comes from the process of negotiating the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). The FCTC is the only treaty developed under the auspices of WHO, and was established through an extensive consultative process involving all member states, as well as representatives of Ministries of Health, Trade and Industry, Finance and state-owned tobacco producers.77 The Brazilian government was widely acknowledged as providing critical leadership for the treaty.78 Despite the fact that Brazil hosted a sizeable tobacco industry it had already taken multiple progressive steps to curb tobacco use. It gained credibility and standing among other countries on the basis of its own tobacco policies, as well as the role that it had previously played in brokering other global health agreements, for example, around access to antiretroviral drugs for people living with HIV/AIDS. Multiple individuals from the Brazilian government took leadership roles in the FCTC process.78 The former coordinator of the Brazilian National TB Control Programme was recruited to lead the WHO’s Tobacco Free Initiative, and the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body that conducted the FCTC negotiations was chaired by one, then another, Brazilian diplomat. The Brazilian delegation to the negotiations were also critical in advocating strongly for key aspects of the convention, such as the use of large graphic designs on cigarette packs, and the establishment of regulatory bodies to oversee tobacco content and emissions. Analysts of the FCTC case have commented on how critical support from the Brazilian Foreign Affairs ministry was to the success of the negotiations, and in particular have drawn attention to the diplomatic and coalition building skills of the top diplomats who chaired the negotiations. These individuals spearheaded Brazil’s strategy to build regional consensus about the FCTC within Latin America, and then build linkages across regions. The same group of diplomats was also critical in drawing civil society into the negotiation, which ultimately played a critical role in pressuring governments to support the treaty.