By Darian Stibbe, Sarita Sehgal, and James Chapman.
The recent Cross-Sector Social Interactions (CSSI) conference in Cape Town highlighted a persistent challenge in partnership development: the effective engagement of government to scale impact and deliver systemic change.
The critical role of government
While the inception of partnerships may not always require government intervention, government participation may be essential for the long-term sustainability, scalability, and institutionalisation of partnerships. The value that government brings to partnerships is multifaceted. Beyond financial resources, government involvement provides crucial regulatory frameworks, access to – and the potential for integration into – public systems, legitimacy, credibility and the ability to institutionalise successful models – thus ensuring their long-term success.
This is particularly apparent for multi-stakeholder partnerships (MSPs) that have emerged in response to limitations in public service delivery, fulfilling critical needs in areas such as healthcare, energy access, and education. These partnerships are typically time-limited, either by design or due to funding constraints, thus reinforcing the need for public sector engagement or integration to solidify their place as long-term solutions to societal problems. For instance, a micro-energy generation project in a South African township could become commercially viable (and therefore scalable) if the government allowed its existing legally mandated ‘Free Basic Electricity’ programme to subsidise the costs. Or a successful after-school programme, initially delivered by an NGO in a particular community, could be scaled up if integrated into public school provision.
What are the barriers to effectively engaging government?
Although effective engagement is crucial to the long-term sustainability and impact of many partnerships, there are several challenges that create barriers to collaboration.
Public sector entities often face severe resource constraints, both financial and human, limiting their capacity to actively participate in collaborative initiatives. Further, an aversion to risk and strict bureaucratic and planning procedures, rightly designed to safeguard public funds and avoid conflicts of interest, can make it difficult for governments to engage flexibly or within the same timeframes as private sector or philanthropic partners might wish to act. Finally, any major new initiative will require political support and where there is political instability, e.g. changes in priorities, ministers, or the government, that support may fall away before the initiative is fully delivering and institutionalised.
On the private sector or philanthropic side of the partnership, there can also be an attitudinal or mindset challenge to overcome. We have seen partners with an over-inflated view of what they’re offering, with an expectation that government would be eagerly grateful for their generosity and should adjust their (long ago committed) workplans. While a $300k, 2-year investment in a programme may seem like a significant investment for a foundation, it may be seen as an insignificant distraction by governments with major programme budgets and planning horizons. There is a clear need for such partners to understand the public sector’s long-term priorities, commitments and resources, and align themselves accordingly. An inability to “step into their partners’ shoes” can hinder the development of truly collaborative relationships.
How to effectively engage government
Every government is unique and complex and careful navigation is required. Below are a few approaches that have come out of discussions at CSSI, along with findings from TPI’s “Partnering with Governments” programme.
- As with any transformational project, it’s essential to map the system and understand the actors you’re trying to influence. This includes fully appreciating the current role, regulations, priorities, commitments, capacities, constraints and political economy of the public sector. It’s important to appreciate that while the bureaucracy and risk aversion may slow progress to the point of frustration, that same bureaucracy is key to sustaining and scaling the initiative in the long run.
- Spend the time to find the right people within government to engage. Governments are complex structures operating at multiple levels through different ministries, units and departments with varied responsibilities. Influential, high-level champions within government can make all the difference, using their social and political capital to advocate for the project and helping to navigate and make the right connections. Many sustainable development programmes will fall across the mandates of different ministries, introducing the complexity of cross-ministry working that might necessitate backing from an advocate from the president’s office or the cabinet office.
- Reach out in full listening mode early on to understand how the government works in practice, ensure alignment with government priorities and determine where and how you can help. You will need to build the relationship and incorporate their essential insights into the design in order to gain their buy-in and critical support for initial engagement or future integration into the public system. For major – and therefore potentially political – programmes, aim to foster inclusion by engaging parliamentarians across the political spectrum to build cross-party understanding and support.
- Design the programme to work with or transform, rather than seek to replace or sit outside of, existing systems. From day one, consider the ongoing legacy model for sustained impact and/or operation, e.g. a low-cost commercially viable approach, sustainable community-run models or integration into public services. The role of the government may range from a one-off action (e.g. changing regulation that enables commercially viable approaches to flourish such as around local energy generation and networks), to ongoing commitment (e.g. provision of space for a community-run childcare service, or full integration into public services).
- Understand capacity gaps within government partners, and build public sector capacity development into the programme plan to allow the public sector to fully play its role.
- Finally, be patient (you can’t expect governments to instantly make major changes to existing workplans), start small to develop and prove the model and scale up from there. It is always far easier to get government buy-in to a pilot that doesn’t require considerable commitment on their part. Once the approach is clearly demonstrating success, a compelling case can be made to scale or integrate into public services.
Governments’ role in enabling collaboration
While we certainly see an increasing understanding within the public sector of the role of philanthropy and business in addressing complex societal challenges, there is still a long way to go for multi-sector collaboration to become standard, systematic practice. Through supportive policies, partnering capability development, and building platforms and other mechanisms for engagement, governments are in a unique position to create an enabling environment in which partnerships can flourish.
A framework of this kind, as examined in our joint paper ‘Unite to Ignite’, can ultimately facilitate the transition of collaborative efforts into long-term, sustainable, institutionalised solutions.
The future is bright
While meaningfully engaging government in partnerships presents significant challenges, it remains an essential step towards creating lasting, scalable solutions to societal problems. By acknowledging these difficulties, taking the time to truly understand government perspectives and priorities, adopting a legacy-focused mindset, and working to bridge the gap between public and private sector approaches, we can unlock the full potential of multi-stakeholder collaboration.
Read our Partnering with Governments Navigator for further guidance on how to effectively partner with governments.