Collaboration between government and non-government organizations has been a recurrent feature of many development interventions in India. Despite a history of nearly two decades, relations between these groups are often uneasy. While reasons for expecting these agencies to work together remain valid, experiences have frequently been such that both groups feel ambivalent about the cost-effectiveness of further collaborative ventures. This paper is based on case studies of 11 such programs. Cross case analysis demonstrates that different objectives of collaborative activities demand particular forms of relationship between government and non-government agencies, and that these various forms of relationship require the support of specific organizational arrangements.

In the interventions studied it was found that tension between government and non-government agencies commonly arose over: understanding of operational objectives or outputs; perceived domains of responsibility; and operational disjunction. Cases in which the form of relationship was supported by mechanisms established to administer joint action and inter-agency relations were more effective and demonstrated greater ability to resolve difference than those using existing unmodified channels. Amongst those, interventions which incorporated opportunities for partners to evolve new ways of engaging and new rules governing interaction were the most productive. This leads to the conclusion that interventions involving government and NGO collaboration need to incorporate into their design more inclusive mechanisms, that is those which not only support administration of collaboration but which also ensure adequate agency of each party in management of the activity. In design terms this means addressing the closely related issues of (1) stakeholder organization and (2) the institutions which govern their behavior and interaction.

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