Idea-based public partnership (IPP) - success factors and obstacles

Purpose and goal

The goal with this study was to examine the conclusion of a civil society-public sector partnership (CPP) which is an innovative way of collaboration between civil society and public welfare organisation sin Sweden. The project was a complement to an earlier study in which the start-up and implementation phase of the CPP was studied and contributes valuable knowledge on success factors and constrains for a CPP. The study investigated further differences between CPP and public procurement as well as the degree of implementation of principles for trust-based management and leadership.

Expected results and effects

Lessons learned: (1) Mutual knowledge on all partners prerequisites and ways of working are crucial for the handling of conflicts. (2) All stakeholders need to be represented in the partnership, not at least administrative city districts. (3) Large-scale long-term CPP efforts need to be strengthened by political decisions on local and national level. All principles of trust-based leadership (TBS) were represented in the CPP. A successful partnership seems to be strengthened by TBS and it is possible to achieve more trust-based management even in complex CPP with many partners.

Planned approach and implementation

The analysis was based on document studies and interviews with 11 keypersons from all main partners in the CPP (municipality, civil society) on both operative and strategic level. The design enabled us to catch all stakeholders view on success factors and obstacles for the CPP.