Private and public authority interactions and the functional quality of sustainability governance: Lessons from conservation and development initiatives in Tanzania

Abstract

The changing shape of sustainability governance has been a key academic and policy concern in the past two decades, as part of a wider debate on the interactions between public and private authority in governing the economy, society, and the environment. In this article, we contribute to these debates by examining how these interactions operate locally and across jurisdictions in three conservation and development initiatives in Tanzania and what impact they have on the functional quality of sustainability governance. We find that clear division of responsibilities, coupled with material incentives for communities and equal and transparent distribution of benefits, are key positive contributors to functional quality. These factors underpin the complementary interactions (collaborative at the local level; institutional layering across jurisdictions) that are needed to successfully negotiate and implement the compromises needed to balance conservation and development goals. We also find that competitive dynamics are harmful to functional quality, especially those taking the form of local institutional duplication and of dominance by central government across jurisdictions. These tend to appear especially when sustainability initiatives involve multiple stakeholders with wide discrepancies in resources, interests, and power, which leads to compromises determined in a top-down manner.

How domestic contexts shape international private governance: The case of the European Accord and American Alliance in Bangladesh

“…Other work has looked into broader institutions that influence firms' CSR, similarly finding a general congruence with prevailing institutions (Amable 2005;Witt & Redding 2012). Indeed, public authorities have begun to take a much more active role in shaping the PG forms and choices of actors (Cashore et al 2021;Marques & Eberlein 2021;Ponte et al 2020).…”

Triple Helix and Decentralization Approach: Management of School Operational Assistance Funds

“…Decentralization is the delegation of authority to plan, make decisions and manage central government functions to local governments [1], [2]. Decentralization is formally embedded in governance [3]. The benefits of decentralization include adjusting planning to regional needs, cutting out unnecessary procedures, formulating programs more realistically and more effectively [2].…”

“…In the devolution education sector means the transfer of authority from the level of high authority to lower outside the education sector [1]. Fourth, privatization, which is a form of decentralization that is managed by the private sector and is free to regulate itself [1], is often associated with economic aspects [3]. Therefore, in the education sector, there are three types of schools namely private schools subsidized by the state following government guidelines, schools that are relatively autonomous but charge fees, and schools are funded by private and publicly controlled [1].…”

“…However, it is not explained how the authority mechanism is carried out as a result of research by several scholars explaining the importance of clarity about the authority mechanism. Private and public authority interactions and the functional quality of sustainability governance: Lessons from conservation and development initiatives in Tanzania found that clear division of responsibilities, coupled with material incentives for society and equal and transparent distribution of benefits, were the main positive contributors to functional quality [3]. The same research conducted at Abu Dhabi University on employees found that the level of administrative empowerment implementation has a high correlation on decision-making skills related to problem-solving provided clear delegation of authority is given [15].…”

“…Businesses and industries have an interest in acquiring company assets and taking opportunities and collaboration benefits [31], specifically the required human resource standards [32]. Business and industry can also be partners and donors [3], [27], which are the needs of schools. The need for school facilities and infrastructure requires collaboration with business and industry.…”