Governance Challenges in Co-production

In recent years, co-production of public services involving collaboration between professionals and citizens has attracted increasing interest from policymakers, scholars and practitioners. Public service reform has thus fostered many different forms of co-production as well as substantial innovation and experimentation. While co-production offers the opportunity for improved effectiveness and greater citizen engagement, co-production can present complicated governance dilemmas related to equitable and sustainable community participation, accountability, transparency and appropriate programme design, especially for programmes with public funding. This chapter focuses on different types of co-production programmes involving nonprofit organisations and provides a detailed analysis of the governance challenges of co-production including the complex relationship between the formal and informal sectors. Finally, the chapter offers insights on strategies to enhance fairness, engagement and sound programme management.