INNOVATION AND INTER-INSTITUTIONAL COLLABORATION IN TIMES OF COVID-19: THE CASE OF THE INFORMATION AND TERRITORIAL MANAGEMENT UNIT OF THE METROPOLITAN REGIONAL MINISTERIAL SECRETARIAT OF HEALTH OF CHILE

Abstract

Collaborative governance and inter-agency collaboration is one of the most recurrent ways of  addressing complex problems and large-scale crises. The COVID-19 pandemic forced national and regional governments, public and both private actors, to make consensual decisions to mitigate the effects of the health emergency. This article studies innovative collaborative governance solutions developed in Chile to address this problem. Specifically, it analyses inter-institutional collaboration in the case of the Information and Territorial Management Unit (UIGT) of the Metropolitan SEREMI of Health of Chile. It argues that processes of public innovation and inter-institutional governance were key in the successful implementation of the Ministry of Health's testing, traceability and isolation (TTA) strategy. Flexibility, experimentation, and trial-and-error learning made it possible to respond to the challenges presented by the pandemic.