| Abstract [eng] |
The increasing number of natural and man-made transboundary crises stresses the need of cross-sectoral collaboration, which would strengthen the capacity of public sector to deal with those challenges. A growing body of evidence suggests that collaboration between non-governmental and public sectors could improve their capacity to prepare for, respond to and recover from disasters. In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the crisis is constantly evolving and creating new challenges there is a need for long-term collaborative networks that are able to withstand the entire pandemic without breaking up after the end of each wave of COVID-19. Despite stating that long-term collaborative networks can be employed in a more time efficient manner in the face of new or renewed crises, the research does not provide sufficient evidence on what factors determine the formation of such networks between public and non-governmental sectors. The aim of this thesis is to examine the collaboration practices between municipalities and NGOs during the first, the second and the third waves of COVID-19 and to identify the combinations of factors that determine the formation of long-term collaborative networks. Theoretical basis for this research is drawn from collaborative governance literature and resource dependency theory which helps to identify five key factors, that could have significant influence on long-term collaborative networks. With the reference to the key factors and theory, five hypotheses are formulated. In order to select cases for the study, a survey of all Lithuanian municipalities on cooperation with NGOs during COVID-19 pandemic was conducted. The results of the survey provided a systematic overview of trends in cross-sectoral collaboration and showed that it remained rather stable throughout the whole pandemic. The survey also allowed selecting three municipalities that maintained long-term collaboration during the COVID-19 pandemic and, accordingly, three municipalities where collaboration was short-lived. In addition, 12 interviews with representatives of selected municipalities and NGOs working in them were conducted. This method allowed taking a closer look into the cross-sectoral collaboration in times of COVID-19 on the municipality level as well as better defining the independent variables that could have influenced this process. Finally, qualitive comparative analysis (QCA) method was employed in order to identify the combinations of factors that influenced the formation of the long-term collaboration. The results of QCA offer that long-term collaboration requires good relationship between actors, strong leadership, tangible results and municipality’s lack of resources. However, the results also point to the relevance of leadership, which had the biggest impact of all independent variables. While it was mainly representatives of NGOs, whose leadership contributed to the initiation of cross-sectoral collaboration in the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, some leadership efforts from the public sector also became evident in the course of the crisis management. The observed leadership traits were most in line with the definition of horizontal leadership municipalities coordinated NGO activities but did not interfere in petty leadership, and NGO representatives were able to participate in decision-making. Another important insight is that cooperation agreements or the involvement of NGOs in emergency management plans (the factor of institutional design) did not have a significant impact on long-term collaboration. This thesis provides possible factor combinations that could be applied while analyzing other non-COVID related crises in the future. Although the small number of cases does not allow to generalize these findings beyond Lithuanian borders, but this research provides recommendations to decision makers and NGOs how leadership could be strengthened and collaboration better implemented. |
