Translating the Policy Capacity Framework for Local Fisheries Administration: A Theory-to-Practice Review in the Indonesian Multilevel Governance Context

Abstract

Local fisheries administration depends on policy knowledge, organizational resources, coordination, lawful authority, and public legitimacy, but these requirements are distributed across government levels and are often reduced to isolated shortages. This article examines how the Policy Capacity Framework (PCF) can support disciplined diagnosis in Indonesian local fisheries administration, using Kaimana Regency as an illustrative context grounded in public regulatory, organizational, statistical, and fisheries sources rather than as an empirical agency assessment. A theory-focused narrative review synthesized 28 verified full-text peer-reviewed sources and used four fisheries-governance studies and six official documents for contextual boundary checking. The analysis reconstructs the 3 × 3 PCF matrix, examines its contextual, dynamic, and relational boundaries, and maps the synthesis into eight diagnostic pathways. The findings show that capacity is a task-specific configuration of mutually conditioning skills and enabling resources rather than a universal score or proxy for performance. Organizational capability mediates whether individual competence can be mobilized within multilevel authority, interorganizational relations, and local operating conditions. The resulting framework covers task and demand, evidence and analysis, staff enablement, infrastructure and operations, coordination and partnerships, authority and legitimacy, adaptation and preparedness, and performance and public value. It offers diagnostic questions and conditional practice directions, not findings about the capacity of the Kaimana Fisheries Office or proof of intervention effectiveness. Responsible application therefore requires a defined policy task, verified legal authority, and organizational and contextual evidence.