Reimagining the Government’s Role as a Partner: Improving the Practice of Co-Creation

Hello! My name is Julie Greene and I have the great pleasure of leading our partnership work in the Impact and Innovation Unit, at the Privy Council Office.

In my last position at the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), I had the chance to be part of a team that imagined and executed a new approach to multi-sectoral partnerships in chronic disease prevention, centred around the tenets of shared value, co-creation, matched funding, reporting on outcomes, and pay for performance.

There has been widespread recognition that “wicked problems” such as the health inequalities that influence chronic disease can only be addressed through a whole-of-society approach. At the time that we were considering a new program approach to chronic disease, the private and not-for-profit sectors were also making investments and raising their profile in healthy living interventions. This was an exciting development, but it highlighted the need for a higher level of collaboration to expect a greater impact from the way we were using our public and private funds to influence healthier outcomes.

Over a five-year period, we transformed our Grants and Contribution program, and put in place over 30 evidence-based interventions with new partners, many of whom had never previously worked with Government. Through brokering new relationships or redefining existing ones, and co-creating new interventions untested in the public health space — including digital incentives and social impact investing — we explored the use of Transfer Payments for social innovation and also helped to reimagine the Government`s role from funder to full partner. We also leveraged over $45M dollars in new resources for addressing chronic disease risk factors.

Turns out, people were interested in what we were doing, and how we were doing it. We knew we had to be able to provide more than anecdotal evidence about the ‘how and why’ of our partnership approach. Therefore, in 2013, I became the co-lead for a collaborative research project to explore partnership motivation, design and practice. We learned a lot about multi-sectoral partnerships — for example, what motivates players in different sectors to collaborate, some effective characteristics of partnerships, and the enabling conditions for collective impact that the government can help put in place.

All this work has lead me to my position here in the Impact and Innovation Unit, exploring how to scale these multi-sectoral, outcomes-based approaches across priority policy domains, using the Impact Canada Initiative as our foundation. But before the ‘how’ comes the ‘who’. I have learned that getting the right people to the table when all we have to work with is an idea is one of the greatest predictors of our future success. Here are a few other things that I have learned about partnerships so far, including links to articles our research team has published in the last few years.

1. Government as funders only? Totally transactional. When partners come together around shared value to co-create, starting with the dream and sweating through the details, we begin to recognize the myriad of resources that can leveraged for better impact. That is when fundamental transformation of how we partner begins.
2. How did our experience of brokering new partnerships for chronic disease prevention at PHAC compare to evidence on effective partnerships? We learned a lot about the importance of establishing trust with new or evolving partnerships, and the essential role the Government can play to secure and leverage resources, and build the necessary foundation and capacity to measure and understand impact.
3. When we launched a new partnership approach, we expected that we would acquire new partners, expand our reach, and leverage additional funds. But what else happened? We explored unanticipated effects amongst our partnerships, and learned about resource reciprocity, sharing unique skills to build capacity, and that the Government was flexible and responsive in ways our partners did not expect. Showing up as a public service collaborator in ways that surprise our collaborators helps to raise the bar on our value at partnership tables.
4. Transformational partnerships involve higher levels of engagement, resource reciprocity, and design complexity. We share responsibility and risk, and recognize more than financial contributions — where knowledge and networks are a valuable currency — allowing for more partners at the table. Considering all the actors who are involved in the creation, launch and response to public prize-challenges, or the development and investment in social impact bonds, here in the Impact and Innovation Unit, we are putting principles of co-creation and shared value into action.

Linked Articles:

• Strengthening the Evidence and Action on Multi-Sector Partnerships in Public Health: A Learning and Improvement Strategy. Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention in Canada: Research, Policy and Practice, Volume 36:6 (June 2016)
• Multi-Sectoral Partnerships for Preventing Chronic Diseases: Understanding Structures, Processes and Outcomes. Evidence and Policy: A Journal of Research, Debate and Practice, Vol 13:4, pgs. 623–45 (October 2016)
• Exploring the Unanticipated Effects of Multi-Sectoral Partnerships in Chronic Disease Prevention. Health Policy, Vol 121:2, pgs. 151–168 (February 2017)