Collaborative Governance and Crisis Management: A Focus on COVID-19

The growing nature of complex public challenges renders resolution mechanisms somewhat ineffective, unlike the emergent collaborative governance that encourages creative solutions grounded in cross-sector stakeholders’ representation and participation. Whether it is a global health complexity like COVID-19 or HIV/AIDS, bushfires, flooding, ecological disasters, or natural or manufactured disasters, the usually established bureaucratic top-down and somewhat network approaches are not as robust as collaborative governance for comprehensive decisions and implementation actions. The recent COVID-19 pandemic accentuates the essence of collaborative governance relative to multisector stakeholders’ representation and participation in all stages of decision-making and implementation as a conduit to meaningful and sustainable outcomes for societal benefits. The palpable evidence of cross-sector involvement in the case of the U. S. at the municipal, county, state, regional, and national levels, and as is the case in numerous other countries, is encouraging the benefits of inclusive strategies and approaches in tackling complex societal concerns or problems. The policy and administrative realities of the COVID-19 response highlight disturbing disparities in the healthcare system. However, the lessons and measures offer the opportunity to revamp or build robust and interconnected systems to foster a more proactive and efficacious response to future pandemics. This chapter examines the COVID-19 pandemic based on the collaborative governance framework. It underscores some elements with a confirmed case and a proposed case to stimulate intervention strategies and actionable tasks in public service and society context.