Barriers for collaboration
| Category | Subcategory | |
| Barriers | Lack of resources | The most common barrier in collaboration efforts was a lack of resources. These barriers were related to a lack of stable and sufficient funding, lack of time for collaboration efforts, staff turnover or staff shortage and competing demands from other interventions.60 64 66 78 80–82 85 95 98 106 108 110 112 116 120 121 127 |
| Structural factors | Structural aspects could also hinder collaboration through different organisational obligations and jurisdictions among collaboration partners, bureaucratic long decision processes, lack of leadership or lack of clear and supportive policies for collaboration with clear role descriptions.62 64 80 81 83 106–109 112 120 122 124 127 | |
| Differing missions and motivations | Challenges within this category concerned diverging organisational missions (not all organisations are health-oriented), conflicting expectations on, for instance, project outcomes, and lack of enthusiasm among certain collaboration actors.55 64 66 78 80 106–108 112 120 | |
| Lack of trust | There were examples in which LAs were suspicious of the political agendas of the CSOs or saw the CSOs as policy critical. Likewise, there were depictions of CSOs being sceptical about the intentions of LAs and perceiving them as authoritarian. Lack of trust could also be regarding the financial contributions of the collaboration partners.55 106 107 120 124 127 | |
| Problems with communication | These communication problems were due to, for instance, challenges in communicating effectively among several partners in the collaboration, reluctance to share information or diverging cultures regarding ways of working among the partners, making communication more difficult.55 106 107 115 122 127 | |
| Political changes | Political events could negatively impact collaboration efforts. For instance, a change in political leadership could lead to diminished political interest and changes in priorities. Political budget cycles could affect the possibility of funding collaboration projects.66 98 106 113 124 |
CSOs, civil society organisations; LAs, local authorities.