Municipal solid waste (MSW) management is a global concern due to urban population growth, particularly in developing countries. Collaboration among stakeholders in the MSW sector is vital for addressing the challenges associated with MSW management. However, initiating and operating collaborations in this domain are complex and have received limited attention in existing research. This study aims to understand collaboration in the MSW sector, specifically focusing on the factors influencing collaboration initiation and the collaboration process. The study utilizes the collaborative governance framework developed by Emerson et al. (2012) and conducts a case study on Jakarta's MSW sector, examining the Large-Scale Social Collaboration (LSSC) forum for waste management. The analysis highlights the significant influence of the political and policy landscape in creating an enabling environment for collaboration in Jakarta's MSW sector. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) play a crucial role in initiating and nurturing the collaboration forum. The presence of discussion spaces for the discovery of shared interests among stakeholders contributes to building trust. However, challenges arise from the diverse range of participants in the forum, hindering the identification of joint action. Government endorsement and the institutionalization of collaboration through a government decree are essential for fostering collaboration. This study suggests further research on applying collaborative governance in various MSW collaboration settings and investigating the interconnections among the elements.

The unique relationship between the full-time professional school superintendent and the volunteer, part-time and untrained school board, creates challenges in the governance partnership for school districts across the nation. The superintendent-school board relationship is at the core of the governance team and essential to the success of the superintendency, and ultimately the building blocks for a school system which supports high academic achievement for all students. The purpose of this study was to explore a range of governance activities designed to promote and strengthen the school board-superintendent partnership. This study examined the preferences of both superintendents and school board presidents regarding specific governance activities. Respondents from small to mid-sized (1,500-14,999 student enrollment) public school districts in California completed questionnaires for this study. The data analysis was based on 191 superintendent surveys and 107 school board president surveys. The results of the study revealed that significant differences existed for superintendents and school board presidents regarding their preferences for specific collaborative governance activities. The study also revealed that some similarities existed for both groups regarding such activities. Additionally, several characteristics for superintendents and school board presidents, including whether or not the superintendent implemented an entry plan and district size, revealed that there were differences in preferences regarding collaborative governance activities. Finally, this study suggests that both superintendents and school board presidents were less likely to prefer or less likely to already be engaged in facilitating collaborative governance activities focused on non-instructionally related and organizational topics as compared to their preferences for academically centered activities. The outcomes from the survey results suggest that superintendents should strongly consider taking control of setting the professional development agenda for the governance team. Since survey results revealed that both superintendents and school board presidents were not likely to initiate such activities, the superintendent and the board president should explore using the services of expert facilitators. These experts may assist the governance team to set the foundation for team training, guide a workshop series regarding roles and responsibilities between the members of the governance team, and establish a board self-evaluation protocol.

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Hydropower generates renewable energy, but also local environmental damage. In Sweden, hydropower facilities are undergoing a process of environmental adaptation which aims at protecting water environments while also ensuring electricity production. Regional stakeholder collaboration has been introduced as part of the decision-making process. To explore opportunities and challenges with this governance strategy, this study analyses hydropower collaborations using the Integrative Framework for Collaborative Governance (Emerson & Nabatchi, 2015). Several types of documentation from all 27 finished collaborations have been collected and subjected to a qualitative thematic analysis. The results show that the main challenges are related to organising collaboration, balancing interests and managing needs for knowledge. While these appear closely interrelated, knowledge emerged as especially important. Knowledge contestation was a major driver for disagreements over interest balance, and accepted knowledge can overall be seen as a crucial capacity for joint action. The analysis also identified a discrepancy between stakeholders’ expectations for interest negotiation and reality. More research is however required to establish the connection between collaborative procedural arrangements and agreement among stakeholders.

Human communities across the globe are currently facing an epidemic of lake water quality degradation, primarily resulting from resource and land-use decisions that introduce excessive amounts of nutrients into the lake system. In many of these communities, local volunteer groups called lake associations work to protect these cherished lake resources. Lake associations and similar groups commonly respond to issues that are most prevalent in their respective watersheds including, but not limited to, algae blooms, declines in water transparency, and fish kills. Yet, there is little research on the role these groups actively or potentially play in lake governance and management. This study investigates the specific structures and strategies lake associations use to address lake water quality challenges using a comparative case analysis of two organizations: Lake Sunapee Protective Association (LSPA; Sunapee, NH) and Clean Lakes Alliance (CLA; Madison, WI). I performed a content analysis of self-published newsletters, annual reports, and news publications mentioning either lake association, and supplemented this data with semi-structured interviews of key individuals from each organization. I characterized and compared the missions, capacity, and activity of the two case studies by applying a conceptual framework as a lens through which to better understand the function these groups serve in their communities and what makes them effective. I found that, although the two groups structure themselves differently, take on distinct activity pathways, and orient themselves differently with respect to lake conservation, they have both been effective in achieving decision-making or management outcomes. This is a first step in identifying the diversity of ways community-based conservation organizations, such as lake associations, can meaningfully contribute to collaborative environmental governance processes on the local scale. / Master of Science / Around the world, people who live on lakes are dealing with significant declines in lake water quality. These declines have been linked to various land management decisions, which can introduce excess nutrients to the lake system that promote excessive algal or bacterial growth, and to the ways people choose to use the lake resource, which can introduce non-native, or invasive, plant and animal species. In many lake communities, local volunteer groups called lake associations work to protect their local lake resources. Lake associations can respond to the specific problems facing their lake and act to manage the lake resource and the land around it. Yet, there is little research on the role these groups actively or potentially play in lake management and conservation. This study investigates the specific organizational structures and strategies lake associations and similar groups use to address water quality declines in lake communities. I collected historic documentation and completed oral interviews for two case study associations, Lake Sunapee Protective Association (LSPA; Sunapee, NH) and Clean Lakes Alliance (CLA; Madison, WI), to characterize and compare their missions, organizational capacities, and activities. This analysis allows me to better understand what makes these groups effective and the functions they serve in their communities. I found that, although the two groups are structured differently and implement different strategies to achieve outcomes, they both have been effective in achieving lake management and conservation outcomes in line with their respective missions. This is a first step in identifying the diversity of ways community-based conservation organizations, such as lake associations, can meaningfully contribute to local environmental management and conservation.

This study aims to understand the importance of prerequisites for collaboration between public/political agencies with the help of literature about the concept of collaborative governance. The choice of using collaborative governance is based on the fact that the concept has not been applied to collaboration between the public/political actors before. This paper has the Swedish project Stop the shooting (Sluta skjut) as an example to understand the importance of prerequisites for collaboration between the Police, Probation Service, and Malmö municipality. With the help of this project, I will try to understand some of the promoting and hindering factors for collaboration in the studied project. To ascertain the prerequisites, I study will be interviewing representatives from the three mentioned actors.  To study the importance of prerequisites I used Ansell & Gash's (2008) theory about starting conditions which includes three prerequisites that according to them can make or break any collaboration process. These prerequisites are power-resource balance, incentives for participation, and prehistory of collaboration. In addition, to examine how much these prerequisites mean for collaboration, I will also see if any prerequisites are of importance that Ansell & Gash (2008) do not mention. The result of the study concludes that Ansell & Gash's (2008) starting conditions are of big importance for a successful collaboration process and were of importance for deeming ‘Sluta skjut’ as a successful project. The conclusion of the study shows that there are two more important prerequisites in addition to Ansell & Gash (2008) that all actors should aim to fulfill before collaborating, these are the time aspects regarding implementation and understanding of the different logics for each actor.

The UNFCCC initiated mechanism Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) is an important policy instrument for combating climate change, using payments to create economic incentives for developing countries to preserve their forests. However, there is a need for closer scrutiny of whether the mechanism is able to generate its intended outputs and outcomes. The study assessed REDD+ productivity performance in collaborative governance using an instrumental case study of a Collaborative Governance Regime (CGR), the CarBi project in Vietnam. The assessment was based on Emerson and Nabatchi’s productivity performance matrix encompassing three units of analysis - the Participant Organisations, the CGR and the Target Goals. The study was conducted as a Minor Field Study (MFS) using in-depth interviews, complemented with official documents. The findings showed that progress was made in achieving target goals such as forest restoration and enhanced biodiversity, but that REDD+ was not adapted to suit the CGR’s need for stable payments and was not financially feasible to implement in a conservation focused project. Instead, outputs and outcomes were sustained as a result of the transition to the national Payment for Forest Ecosystem Services (PFES). However, the REDD+ safeguards, supporting the inclusion of local communities and indigenous peoples, were lost in the transition and PFES reliance on funding from hydropower dams posed both environmental and social challenges to CGR sustainability.

It is widely agreed that marine protected areas (MPAs), which can provide long-term protection to marine ecosystems of high ecological, economic, social and cultural value, will only be successful if they are designed and implemented with the involvement and support of stakeholders and other key actors. Putting a collaborative approach into practice is not easy, though. Appropriate governance structures, which formalize and facilitate information sharing, consensus building, and decision making are necessary, but insufficient. Also needed is a shared interest on the part of all groups – beginning with MPA agencies themselves – to work together, notwithstanding the often considerable investments of time, effort and material resources that are required. Perhaps most fundamentally, effective collaboration depends on trust, and strong interpersonal relationships. Consistent with a global trend in favour of more inclusive and participatory approaches to protected area planning and management, Canada’s federal government has set out to develop a national system of MPAs in cooperation with a broad array of interest groups, including marine resource users and other stakeholders; government actors with responsibilities and authorities for oceans activities that relate to the objectives of MPAs; and Aboriginal communities and organizations within whose territories MPAs are situated. The overarching goal of the study was to understand the extent to which federal MPAs in British Columbia (BC), Canada, are established collaboratively, and what is required to overcome obstacles to successful collaboration. This goal was pursued through an in-depth investigation of two MPA planning processes in BC: the proposed Race Rocks MPA, at the southern tip of Vancouver Island; and the Gwaii Haanas National Marine Conservation Area Reserve and Haida Heritage Site, in the Haida Gwaii archipelago. Data for the study was collected through semi-structured interviews; documentary research; and a participant questionnaire. The study found that, while MPA agencies engaged with outside parties in a variety of ways to plan Race Rocks and Gwaii Haanas, these processes fell short of expectations for genuine collaboration in a number of respects. In the case of Race Rocks, this has resulted in the failure (for a second time) to designate the MPA. The dissertation illuminates the challenges and shortcomings that were encountered in both cases, and offers practical solutions to address them. / Graduate / 0366 / pipakins@gmail.com

The environmental management of watersheds presents a complex governance issue due to their large spatial scales that include overlapping jurisdictions, competing interests in resource use, and lack of coordination among stakeholders. The Rideau Canal, spanning 200 km between the cities of Ottawa and Kingston, is an interesting case study as it is a multi-watershed system over which municipal, provincial and federal governments have authority. However, these governments have been unsuccessful in addressing system-wide issues such as shoreline development, erosion and invasive species that have significantly impacted the ecological integrity of the canal. A shift toward polycentric governance, which are systems of multi-scale governance, in which well-informed publics can contribute to the Rideau Canal’s management is required. This thesis examines how co-governance can be conceptualized for the RC by (1) analyzing convergences in stakeholder perspectives about the environment and governance, and (2) comparing collaborative causal mapping exercises with various stakeholders to current government engagement efforts. A tiered co-governance framework that intentionally links existing small-scale activities to system-wide formal venues of knowledge sharing could democratize environmental governance on the Rideau Canal to improve its management. Beyond its practical contributions, this research also contributes to developing the academic literature on co-governance for multi-watershed waterways that have both constructed and natural aspects.

Magister Public Health - MPH / Background: Actions on addressing the social determinants of health are necessary for reducing health inequities and improving health outcomes. These actions can, however, fall outside the scope of the health sector alone and require collaborative actions across sectors. Through the Western Cape Government’s stated commitment to following a whole-of-society approach to increase the wellness of people, this Province has committed to exploring intersectoral collaboration and action for health. This study is therefore aimed at exploring the experiences and perceptions of intersectoral collaboration and action for health amongst mid-level and frMethodology: The study design was qualitative and explorative in nature, using non-probability sampling to deliberately select study participants that were both relevant to the study and represented a diversity of views. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven health managers and non-participant observation of one intersectoral meeting was utilised to observe interactions that were relevant to the study. A thematic coding analysis approach was followed to inductively determine themes and analyse the data.ontline health managers working at the primary health care level in two sub-districts within the City of Cape Town, Western Cape Province. Results: Intersectoral collaboration for health at the primary health care level tends to take the form of collaborations between government departments, between the department of health and non-governmental organisations, between the public and private health sectors and between the Department of Health and the communities it serves. These collaborations overwhelmingly focus on expanding health services provision rather than addressing the social determinants of health. Conclusion: The concept of intersectoral collaboration and partnerships at the primary health care level in two sub-districts of the City of Cape Town, Western Cape, is perceived by health managers as being critical in addressing the social determinants of health. In practice, however, intersectoral collaboration and partnerships tend to focus on expanding health service provision and have limited value for addressing social determinants of health.