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The Intersectoral Cascade: a Case Study on Perceived Conflict in Implementing Child Development Systems

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Abstract

This article presents a case study on perceived conflict and its outcomes on implementing a system of programs and services for child development support. A multi-level collaboration model is used to deeply examine aspects of conflicts perceived by professionals responsible for implementing the system at the national, state, and local levels. This research adopted a single case approach with qualitative methods using semi-structured interviews and exploratory thematic analysis. A total of 29 professionals working at social development and health ministries, state departments, and one municipality participated in this study. The results show that professionals perceive one main unresolved conflict at each of the ecological levels. These conflicts are related to an informalized collaboration agreement between the Ministry of Social Development and the Ministry of Education, an interrupted resource flow from the national level to local level, and an unmanageable internal pressure at the state level. Furthermore, the compensatory strategies they use to deal with these conflicts are ineffective and lead to negative implementation outcomes. We suggest that future research should explore systemic conflict for the collaboration processes among the professionals to improve, thus increasing the quality of system implementation.

Highlights

  • Professionals perceive one main unresolved conflict at each of the three ecological levels examined.

  • Conflicts are related to informalized agreements between ministries, interrupted resource flow from the national level, and pressure from the local level.

  • Professionals use compensatory strategies to cope with unresolved conflicts.

  • The compensatory strategies identified are ineffective and lead to negative implementation outcomes.

  • Findings reveal opportunities for future research to explore systemic conflict to better understand and improve collaboration processes.

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Notes

  1. Component 4 is comprised of the following programs: Municipal Strengthening, Interventions fund in Support of Child Development, and Funding Competition for Childhood Initiatives (MIDESO, 2015).

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Funding

This work was funded by the National Agency for Research and Development (ANID), postdoctoral scholarship /2018 – no 3180771.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Psychology, Universidad del Desarrollo, Av. Plaza 680, San Carlos de Apoquindo, Las Condes, Santiago, 7610658, Chile

    Rodrigo Quiroz-Saavedra & Jaime Alfaro

  2. School of Nursing, Universidad del Desarrollo, Av. Plaza 680, San Carlos de Apoquindo, Las Condes, Santiago, 7610658, Chile

    Matías E. Rodríguez-Rivas

  3. School of Psychology, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Av. Vicuña Mackenna 4860, Macul, Santiago, 7810000, Chile

    Valentina Lastra

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  1. Rodrigo Quiroz-Saavedra
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Correspondence to Rodrigo Quiroz-Saavedra.

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Quiroz-Saavedra, R., Alfaro, J., Rodríguez-Rivas, M.E. et al. The Intersectoral Cascade: a Case Study on Perceived Conflict in Implementing Child Development Systems. J Child Fam Stud 32, 2820–2833 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-022-02331-z

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