Collaborative governance in a mandated setting: shifting collaboration in stunting interventions at local level

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Collaboration is now a common way to make public policy and run government, and governments often make it a requirement. This article is a qualitative study of how people work together when they must. It is based on real-world research on a stunting intervention in three regencies in Indonesia’s West Java Province. The study collected data through in-person interviews, documentation reviews, and observation. The findings revealed that a mandated collaboration had been implemented, but with limited participation from nonstate actors. This situation occurred because government agencies remained the primary owners of the process while nonstate actors were not fully engaged. As a result, the collaboration in stunting interventions became merely a government program rather than a collectively owned process. To address this issue, the study proposes a new framework of mandated collaboration that is more inclusive, collective, and participatory, using the Hansel and Gash model of collaborative governance. Furthermore, the study recommends empowering the community to make the collaborative process more equitable in decision-making and encouraging non-state actors to take ownership of collaborative governance.