My views not that of my employer. Intergovernmental Coordination and Collaboration: Prospects and Challenges in Building State Capacity 1. Introduction Intergovernmental coordination and collaboration are essential for strengthening state capacity and ensuring efficient service delivery. However, challenges such as bureaucratic silos, political rivalries, and resource competition hinder effective cooperation. A key issue is the culture of competition among government departments, where branding efforts and media briefings divert limited funds from service delivery. 2. The Culture of Competition in Government Despite the constitutional mandate for cooperative governance, government departments often operate in silos, prioritizing individual visibility over collaboration. 2.1. Branding and Media Briefings Departments allocate significant resources to branding efforts—logos, slogans, and promotional events—rather than joint initiatives. Media briefings, often held separately by different ministries on related issues, further reinforce competition instead of presenting a unified government response. The COVID-19 pandemic illustrated this, with conflicting statements from national and provincial departments creating public confusion. 2.2. Political and Bureaucratic Rivalries Political factions within government influence interdepartmental interactions, with some departments resisting collaboration to maintain autonomy or political leverage. This results in duplicated programs, inefficient resource use, and fragmented policy implementation. 3. Challenges to Coordination and Collaboration 3.1. Institutional Fragmentation Rigid bureaucratic structures discourage information-sharing and integrated governance, with departments prioritizing their mandates over broader national priorities. 3.2. Budget Competition Limited financial resources drive departments to compete for funding, often prioritizing branding and PR campaigns over essential services like healthcare and infrastructure. 4. Strategies for Improvement 4.1. Strengthening Institutional Mechanisms Inter-ministerial committees and digital integration platforms should be enhanced to facilitate joint planning and real-time collaboration. 4.2. Performance-Based Budgeting Funding should be linked to service delivery outcomes to discourage wasteful spending on branding and PR. 4.3. Learning from International Best Practices South Africa can adopt models such as Germany’s Cooperative Federalism and Canada’s Intergovernmental Agreements to promote structured collaboration. 5. Conclusion Intergovernmental coordination is crucial for building state capacity. Moving away from competition and prioritizing cooperative governance will ensure efficient service delivery and a capable state. #arewetransforming?