D1.1 – Recommendations for governance and policies in the n-COV-2019 response

This report on COVID-19 Crisis Governance is Deliverable 1.1 of the project “HERoS - Health Emergency Response in Interconnected Systems.” Drawing on a selective review of published literature, theoretical constructs from organization sciences, public administration and political sciences, and feedback from experts in three countries (Netherlands, Finland and Italy), it conceptualizes the COVID-19 outbreak and its consequences as a wicked problem; a complex and dynamic societal challenge for which there is no single and widely accepted solution. It also analyzes the outbreak as a slow burning crisis, with long lasting effects well beyond when the “hot phase” of the crisis is over. The COVID-19 crisis has no clear beginning or end, which means that it can remain undefined and poorly understood for a long time.

This report utilizes social scientific methods, particularly (policy) document analysis, discourse analysis and interviews, to unravel the social and human aspects of decision-making practices, collective sensemaking and coordination. The guiding questions are: “How did various formal and informal stakeholders govern the COVID-19 crisis situation over time? How did they collectively make sense of the evolving situation and make joint decisions? How did the involved agencies collaborate and coordinate their activities in response to the COVID-19 crisis?”

The COVID-19 Crisis Governance Framework introduced in this report is based on the “whole-of-society” approach and contains three analytical layers: (1) The state and the institutional landscape, (2) Established and emerging response organizations and networks, (3) Societal resilience and participation. Using multi-level, network and participatory governance theories, vertical and horizontal dispersions of authority among local, provincial, national, supra-national, and global levels of government are addressed. The Framework also addresses the actions and interactions of non-governmental organizations, private actors and civil society. Societal resilience is used as a lens to recognize the professional and civic communities’ abilities to develop capacities to respond to the disruption, to recover from the societal shocks and to adapt and grow from the COVID-19 experience.

This report argues that, while formal decision-making based on fit-for-purpose scientific knowledge is important, formal authorities need to combine formal crisis management policies with emergent and participatory approaches for effective (cross boundary) collaboration and coordination. Capacity building for future emergencies means investing in people, building capabilities, nurturing networks and trustful relationships among a diverse and inclusive community of interacting and interdependent societal actors. The quality of the crisis response by (self)organizing communities and the coordinated actions of authorities is conditioned by the interconnectedness and interdependencies of stakeholders on policies and objectives in response to COVID-19. Trusting relationships provide the conditions for new collaborations, relationships, consortia and networks among citizens, communities, and private and public sector organizations so urgently needed to overcome the crisis. Transparency, accountability, predictability and shared understanding through the enactment of governance arrangements create trust, which enables these requirements to be accomplished, thus creating a virtuous and mutually reinforcing cycle.