From Data Coordination to Convergent Action: Collaborative Governance for Subdistrict Stunting Prevention A Theory-to-Practice Conceptual Review

Abstract

Stunting prevention is a multisectoral public-administration problem in which formal mandates, fragmented authority, uneven capacity, and disputed or weakly used data can interrupt the conversion of coordination into joint action. This conceptual review examines how the Collaborative Governance Regime (CGR) can explain and guide that conversion at subdistrict level, using Sembakung Atulai, Nunukan Regency, Indonesia, as a bounded practical anchor. A Theory-Focused Narrative Literature Review with a Theory-to-Practice orientation was conducted using Scopus as the sole database. Five documented search runs yielded an analytical corpus of 38 verified full-text journal articles, comprising 18 theory-role and 20 application-role sources. Qualitative-interpretive synthesis reconstructed CGR's system context, drivers, collaborative dynamics, joint action, impacts, and adaptation; compared applications, criticisms, contradictory evidence, and rival explanations; and traced each practical domain to theory and full-text evidence. The synthesis identifies six governance domains: contextual mandate and interdependence architecture; trusted joint discovery and shared problem definition; inclusive deliberation, influence, and priority determination; commitment, authority, and multilevel alignment; mobilized joint-action capacity and coordinated implementation; and multilevel performance feedback, adaptation, and accountability. These domains form an eight-stage data-to-action cycle that distinguishes administrative activity from consequential joint action and separates process, action, output, outcome, equity, and population impact. The article contributes a conceptual and translational framework for diagnosing governance thresholds and designing context-sensitive decision artifacts. The framework has not been field-validated and does not establish that collaboration caused reductions in stunting.