Collaboration at the Crossroads aims to demonstrate that although large-scale cross-sector collaborative development projects are renowned for their complexity and extreme difficulty success can be achieved.

 

The book explains how the chronically violent area of Crossroads was transformed during South Africa’s rocky road out of apartheid through a collaboration of thirty different communities and constantly changing government structures, for the benefit of more than thirty thousand households. By comparing this experience with the evidence of international case research the book identifies some new keys for success for addressing large-scale social crises in volatile, turbulent environments.

 

Collaboration at the Crossroads answers the following questions:

·      Under what circumstances is cross-sector collaboration required?

·      Who must be involved?

·      On what terms?

·      With what mandates?

·      How can they be brought together?

·      How can they be kept together?

·      What structures are required?

·      What process should be followed?

·      How should decisions be made?

·      How can attacks be anticipated and repelled?

·      What if there is a walk out?

·      What if violence and lawlessness persist?

·      How can interminable changes within participating organisations be accommodated?

·      What if participating personnel are transferred or lose interest?

·      What is the sign of success in a collaborative project?

 

The book identifies the characteristics of a small band of enablers who will make the difference between success and failure – and the decisions that are required to empower them.