Quantitative Evidence of Leadership in Collaborative Governance: The South Florida EMAs’ Experience with HIV/AIDS

The enactment of the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act in 1990 enabled establishment of Health Services Planning Councils across the U.S. in areas disproportionately impacted to help provide care and treatment to infected and affected populations. These Councils impacted areas called Eligible Metropolitan Areas (EMAs) that used collaborative governance model to complement implementation efforts. To promote cross sector stakeholders’ representation and participation in collaborative governance, these Councils relied on collaborative leaders to ensure effectiveness, collaborative success, and sustainability of outcomes. Using quantitative evidence from surveys on dimensions of collaborative governance, this research analyzes the efforts of leaders in collaborative governance in the Councils of Broward and Palm Beach Counties of South Florida. The results highlight similarities between the two Councils in terms of the leadership’s contributions to deliberativeness, consensus, and collaboration. The results also accentuate the iterative and multi-dimensional nature of collaborative governance as a viable postmodern alternative to traditional bureaucratic governance in collective problem solving with integrated collaborative leadership to foster multi stakeholder engagements, and exemplify local governments’ constructive efforts as part of the overall national response to issues surrounding HIV/AIDS. Keywords: Leadership, HIV/AIDS, Collaborative Governance, Health Services, Collaborative Process, Outputs/Outcomes DOI: 10.7176/JESD/11-8-01 Publication date: April 30th 202