| SOC23 | Deep Dive: Navigating collaborative governance – strategies, dynamics and impact

Collaborative governance between public and private sector stakeholders has emerged as a central tool to respond to complex societal problems. This panel delved into key aspects of this evolving field. Panellists discussed how collaborative governance can drive innovation, foster trust and enhance decision-making for better outcomes in public service provision. It also highlighted the approach’s challenges around organisational differences and values, power imbalances, and high transactions costs. The panel explored strategies for implementing collaborative governance mechanisms, as well as the dynamics and impact of such an approach through a set of underlying questions:

• Leadership: What is the role and which capabilities do individual leaders need to have to reconcile the different interests in the collaborative network?
• Coping strategies: Which strategies do stakeholders apply to cope with the challenges of co-creation?
• Budget allocation: How are budgets allocated for collaborative governance?
• Hybridity: How do the different governance modes, underpinning the collaborative network, evolve over time?
• Trust & relational processes: If and how does an outcomes-based partnership facilitate trust-building across its multiple stakeholders?

At the same time, a parallel session on collaborative governance between public and private sector stakeholders explored how collaborative governance can drive innovation, foster trust and enhance decision-making for better outcomes in public service provision. The speakers discussed several key determinants including leadership, resources, hybrid structures, and trust and relational processes. Brian Ohl from the Maxwell School, Syracuse University, suggests that inflexible funding may be a challenge to collaborative governance and that if collaboration was included in the budget process, then better outcomes may be achieved.