The role of institutional collaborations in combating covid-19 in dessie, south wollo and oromia special zones of eastern amhara, Ethiopia

COVID-19, declared as a global pandemic by WHO, is the ‘eye and ear’ of the world and disturbed the economic, social and political situations of almost all countries regardless of the economic development. In an effort to combat the virus, this descriptive survey tried to assess the role of institutional collaborations in Dessie City Administration, South Wollo and Oromia Special zones of Amhara National Regional State, Ethiopia. It also tried to examine the material, financial, technical supports and leadership commitment in combating COVID-19.A total of 385 purposely selected samples of institutions from government, private and NGOs were surveyed in 7 Woredas. Primary sources of data were used using questionnaire, interview and focus group discussions. Moreover, secondary sources of data mainly reports of anti-corona task forces reports were also used. The results of the study shows that an average financial and technical supports were provided in an effort to combat the pandemic. A below average material support and above average leadership commitments that results in an average overall outcomes of institutions collaboration in combating COVID-19 was exhibited in the study. The correlation result also found that material, financial, technical supports and leadership commitment has a significant positive impact on the outcomes of institutional collaborations in combating COVID-19.The study concluded that institutional collaboration played its own role in combating COVID-19. The study recommended that anti corona task forces organized in combating the virus from federal to Kebele level should incorporate non-government institutions together with government institutions as a member in the team so that all members of the community can be reached in an effort to mobilize adequate resources in tackling the problem.


Background of the study
Novel Corona COVID-19 is becoming the eye and ear of the world since its initial outbreak in China, Wuhan in December 2019.World Health Organization (WHO) declared it a global pandemic. The pandemic is affecting everybody and all nations regardless of their economic strengths, color, region or any other. It is also affecting the social, political and economic condition of the world. It affected millions and leads hundred thousand to die within this short period of time (WHO, 2020).
So as to reduce its impact countries are implementing different mechanisms that WHO recommended including awareness creations, hand washing, social distancing and the extremes total lockdowns (WHO, 2020).
The problem is chronic in developing counties like Ethiopia where the overall economic condition is extremely retarded. Accessing Personal Protective Equipments (PPEs) to millions of Ethiopians seems impossible unless a coordinated effort is made among different stakeholders. The interdependence and linkages among different stakeholders is becoming a global agenda in this critical time. The significance of this interrelation among the institutions in tackling national problems national problems like COVID-19 is explained very well by Scot,(2011), Mavoko, (2013.This calls for an integration and interdependence among different stakeholders called institutional collaboration(IC). According to Lee (2011), Institutional collaboration(IC) is defined as a linkage among private, public, Non government, formal and non formal institutes established to enable the diffusion of creativity, ideas, skills and people and mobilizing required resources with the aim of creating mutual value over time. IC enables countries to have broader innovation and economic success through mobilization of material and financial resources and the provision of technical competencies in solving problems (Dill & Vught, 2010).
The goal of IC is to promote the relevance and contribution of different stakeholders to the socioeconomic development of a country. Although there is no step-by-step model describing how ICs are to be developed, Cohen, Nelson, and Walsh (2002) outlined that collaborative research and development, technology transfer, financial, material, technical and managerial supports are the common areas that different institutions are interlinked for a common goal.
Based on the analysis of possible institutional collaboration types and possible outcomes of the supports, the aim of the study is to assess the role of institutional collaborations in combating COVID-19.

Statement of the Problem
Nowadays the interaction and interrelationship among different institutions are becoming more direct and interactive (Etzkowitz, 2003). Among organizations in a country, educational institution and industries play a significant role for a development of a nation. Institutional collaborations have a multiple faceted benefit for all stakeholders. If you see the collaboration between industries and educational institutions like Universities, IC makes all beneficiaries in that Universities produce and disseminate research results through publications, so that the industry can use it in their production/delivery requirements of different goods/services. Similarly, the real demands of industries in relation to human resource will be an input for universities in producing well equipped graduates in relation to knowledge, skill and attitude that the industries are in need. Hence IC is "a give and take" approach through which all stakeholders are beneficiary and contribute a lot to the overall development of the country in general and combating problems like COVID-19 in particular.
In countries like Ethiopia where there is a chronic unemployment, especially of the youth, the outbreak of national pandemics like COVID-19 will worsen the problem. Hence, creating a strong bond among institutions is the right option. This requires institutions to collaborate each others in tackling the problem and play their roles accordingly. For instance, educational institutions should know the real demand of industries and produce the right workforce. Research findings, technologies and different innovations should solve the problems in relation to productivity, efficiency, profitability, Problem solving and overall effectiveness of industries. Hence, the overall rational for IC lies on these issues. Beyond this efforts have to be made in tackling national pandemics like COVID-19.
Studies showed that IC benefited many countries in reducing unemployment, increasing profitability and productivity, enhancing effectiveness and efficiencies and solving national problems and pandemics jointly. In support of this, (Batti, 2014) found that the financial and material supports of medium to large business entities or the development of networks or value chains on a global basis is believed to offer a greater opportunity of innovation reaching a global level through an integrated IC.
In combating COVID-19, it is clear that PPEs are extremely important and Ethiopia is in an extreme shortage at this critical time. Most countries in the world and WHO recommend that when people are out of home, they are advised to wear PPE specially face mask. In the isolation and quarantine centers e-ISSN : 2620 3502 p-ISSN : 2615 3785 Volume 3, Issue IX, September 2020 | selected, lots of beds, apparel products, PPE are badly in need. Most of the available supplies in different isolation and quarantine centers are acquired from donations.
It is believed that strong IC can tackle such problems to a greater extent. This is mainly because the raw materials are available; the human resources are at hand. What is left is a coordinated effort among different stakeholders. Hence, mobilizing financial and material resources, using technical and managerial capabilities will no doubt contribute a lot in combating pandemic like COVID-19.
While the IC literatures in the areas of innovation management, technology transfer and commercialization provides insight into various organizational, contextual and relational success factors, gaps remain specially in tackling national pandemics like COVID-19.

Basic Research Questions
This research tried to answer the following basic questions: To what extent financial resources are mobilized through IC in combating COVID-19?
To what extent material resources are mobilized through IC in combating COVID-19?

What do technical supports look like in combating COVID-19
To what extent were organizational leaders committed in combating COVID -19?
What were the outcomes of institutional collaboration in combating COVID-19

General objectives
The general objective of this study is to assess the role of institutional collaborations in combating COVID-19 in Dessie town, South Wollo and Oromia Special zone?

Specific Objectives
Specifically the study tried to: 1 Assess financial resources mobilized through IC in combating COVID-19 2 Investigate material resources mobilized through IC in combating COVID-19 3 Understand the technical supports provided through IC in combating COVID-19 4 Understand organizational leaders' committeemen in combating COVID -19 5 Analyze the outcomes of IC in combating COVID-19

Significance of the study
Knowing the role of IC is of greater important to institutional leaders, the government, the community and other policy makers from different perspective. To begin with, leaders will benefit from the study in knowing the types of support that different institutions provide for combating COVID-19. Moreover, knowing the practices will benefit the community to get advantages of tackling the problems through IC with the involvement of different stakeholders in their overall effort of combating COVID-19.
Understanding the practices and effectiveness of IC will also help government and other policy makers in supporting institutions in one side and reducing COVID-19 in the other side. Besides this, the study will e-ISSN : 2620 3502 p-ISSN : 2615 3785 Volume 3, Issue IX, September 2020 | strengthen industry relations in the process of reducing COVID-19. Moreover, IC is a relatively new agenda in Ethiopia. Hence it will be an add to the existing literatures.

Scope of the study
The study is delimited to the role of IC in combating COVID-19 in Dessie town, South Wollo and Oromia Special Zone. Government, private, NGOs and informal organizations in Dessie, Kombolcha, Kemissie, Haik, Mekaneselam,Dessie Zuria and Kalu were considered for the study. The methodological scope was explanatory and descriptive research design by using primary data and secondary information.

Institutional Collaborations
The interrelation among different stakeholders lays mainly on the mutual benefits that one get from others and what they contribute to their country. Batti (2014) and Mavoko (2013) distinguish different types of institutional relationships and supports among different stakeholders mainly of educational institutions. The first one is financial and material support, which embodies financial and equipment contributions made to institutions. These contributions can be unrestricted gifts of endowment trust funds that institutions uses to upgrade facilities, provide trainings to fill technical gaps, or provide seed money for promising new projects.
The second one cooperative research that includes contract research with individual investigators, consulting by faculty, and certain group arrangements specifically for addressing immediate problems.
Thirdly, knowledge transfer encompasses highly interactive activities that include on-going formal and informal personal interactions, cooperative education, curriculum development, and personnel exchanges.
Knowledge transfer mechanisms are the recruitment of recent university graduates and employing student interns, co-authoring of research papers by university and industrial firm members, industry-university consortia and, for example, also trade associations. Githinji (2013) indicated that the broader concept of knowledge transfer describes the movement of knowledge, ideas, concepts and techniques from a formative location, generally institutions of advanced education, out to all areas of the social and economic environment. This kind of broader approach is also used by the authors of this paper. Knowledge transfer between universities and industry can be considered the most important aim and also result in university-industry cooperation. Cohen, Nelson, and Walsh (2002)have considered collaborative research, contract research and technologyrelated consulting, staff mobility between firms and public science institutions, co-operation in the education of graduate students, vocational training for employees, use of intellectual property rights (IPR) by public scientific organizations, spin-offs, and Informal contacts and personal networks as main collaboration agendas.

Community participation and resource Mobilization
Community participation is a process by which communities are empowered to make effective decisions Githinji (2013), Mulwa (2010). Armitage (2003) views that community participation is a process by which citizens responds to their concerns, express what their opinion concerning what is affecting them and become responsible to make changes that their community needs. Chapel (2005) indicates that community support in material and finance are also common areas where communities are participated. e-ISSN : 2620 3502 p-ISSN : 2615 3785 Volume 3, Issue IX, September 2020 | According to Mavoko (2013), engaging the community in its own development ensures that the proposed development targets people's needs, incorporate local knowledge, create grassroots capacity to undertake other projects and maintain facilities, distribute benefits equitably and help lower costs. To achieve outcomes through participation, considerable investment in time and resources by parties facilitating and engaging in the process are required. Often pressure for delivery of outputs may compromise the process.
Unfortunately development progress is measured not only by developers but also by public opinion formers, by the speed in which tangible results are produced (Ababa, 2013) According to Adhiambo (2012),for any organization to live to its long-time goals, it must have the necessary physical resources required in the organization. Some of them are; good workspace, communication systems, enough information system among others. Acquisition of physical resources as an aspect of resource mobilization is considered the costliest aspect.

Independent variable Dependent variable
Source: own model adapted from literates

Research Design
The research design appropriate for this study is descriptive which cross sectional is as it sought to answer the question of what is going on which is an important aspect to consider for social researchers. Besides, explanatory research design is employed to examine the effect of the different supports on outcomes of IC in combating COVID-19.

Sample size and sampling Techniques
To determine the sample size of institutions collaborated and participated in combating COVID -19 in the study area, the researchers used the formula for large population the representative sample size by (Cochran, 1963): Where N is the required sample size; is a value corresponding to your significance level (and is called the "standard normal deviation"). Z = 1.96 (rounded to 2) for 5 percent significance levels; p is the rough value you provided for your estimated percentage (proportion); e is the precision you wish to achieve.
Employees and leaders of individuals, Public organizations, NGOs and informal organizations (Idir/equib) were purposely selected and included in the sample. Hence, judgmental (purposive) sampling technique was used to select respondents in the study areas. This is because researchers believe that the  Financial support  Material Support  Technical Support  Leadership commitments

Outcomes of IC in Combating COVID-19
International Journal on Integrated Education e-ISSN : 2620 3502 p-ISSN : 2615 3785 Volume 3, Issue IX, September 2020 | organizations selected have a relatively better participation and collaboration in the process of combating COVID-19 and their overall role and involvement infighting the pandemic is believed to better than others. Taking this fact in to account, the following sample size was taken from the respective Woredas

Sample collection and Measurement
The study used both open and close-ended questionnaires to collect the required data from the target respondents. The questionnaires have two parts. The first part of the questionnaire included demographic characteristics of respondents. The second part included issue related with institutional collaborations in combating COVID-19.
Moreover, structured and semi-structured interviews were used as a data gathering instrument to get indepth information from anti-corona task force in each woreda. Observation were also be made with selected organizations so as to practically observe efforts made in combating COVID-19 in their areas of work. Moreover, Focus group discussion were conducted with selected organizational leaders to get indepth information about the issue under study

Method of analysis
After the data is collected it was edited, coded and encoded to SPSS and made ready for analysis. In analyzing the data, SPSS version 25 was used. Descriptive analysis that includes tables, frequency distribution, percentages, means and standard deviations were used to analyze closed ended questions.
Moreover, data collected through interview, open ended questions, observations and focus group discussions were analyzed using descriptive narrations. In addition inferential analysis was made using correlation and regression analysis.

Analysis and Discussions
This analysis was made on a total of 337 fully responded questionnaires out of the 385 samples distributed. This makes the response rate 87.5%.Moreover in ensuring the reliability of the instruments a pilot test was made on 20 respondents and Cronbach's alpha value was 0.911. According to Haire et al., the reliability coefficient more than or equal to 70 % (α≥ 0.7) is acceptable.

Source: Survey (2020)
It is clearly depicted in table 3 above that, government and private supports take the leading position in providing supports in combating COVID-19.The role of NGOs and informal organizations is also not to be underestimated as the tables clearly shows.  Source: Survey (2020)

Table 5 above clearly depicts that the role of institutions surveyed in providing material supports so as to combat COVID-19 is not as such significant as the individual and grand mean values show. But the contribution of institutions surveyed in posting educational banners and posters is relatively better in
their overall effort to combat the virus.

Summaries , Conclusions and Recommendations
The material support from different stakeholders in combating