By design, government agencies are set up as specialized, hierarchical organizations funded and governed in silos, providing visibility and accountability on how public funds are used. But that defined scope itself can act as a roadblock to the creation of greater public value. Indeed, siloed budgets, regulatory constraints on fund transferability, limited flexibility, and a lack of incentives to collaborate can lead agencies to narrow their efforts even as challenges such as climate change, homelessness, and intergenerational poverty demand a coordinated whole-of-government response.1
Governments have long recognized the need to break down funding barriers to achieve better outcomes. And though efforts may be at different stages, an increasing number of jurisdictions are looking to overcome silos where they impede progress on major agenda items, from shifting to a citizen-centric service delivery model oriented around life events, to addressing government’s cumulative quick-over-good tech debt, to giving more control over funding and decision-making to those closest to the problem at hand.2
The Next Generation EU (NGEU) plan represents one of the most recent, largest-scale initiatives to date. Focused on digitization, innovation, and sustainability, the NGEU plan aims to support transformational change by distributing over €800 billion to state ministries, regional governments, local governments, and state-owned enterprises to assist in postpandemic recovery, helping to put the European Union on the path toward resilient economic growth. Structure and accountability are key: The plan establishes a governance framework that links disbursement stages with the fulfillment of milestones and targets.3 Some countries are maximizing opportunities by supplementing the funding with local money, and the NGEU plan is acting as a catalyst for greater private investment toward a more digital, sustainable, and inclusive future for EU businesses, governments, and citizens.4
In the sections that follow, we highlight some of the models governments are using to drive more shared problem-solving and collaboration–from shared-funding initiatives, to delegating more funding authority to lower levels of government to provide more flexibility to coordinate around specific community needs. The infographic below provides an overview of some innovative funding models deployed by government agencies around the world.
Across the globe, governments are setting up shared-funding initiatives that aim to increase intergovernmental and cross-sector collaboration. Over the last decade, Singapore’s whole-of-government approach has used funding mechanisms to encourage agency collaboration, generating programs such as Life SG and One business. The prime minister’s office coordinates and oversees whole-of-government projects supported by a team of senior officials from multiple agencies. The funding is allocated to the agency leading the effort and is then dispersed to supporting agencies.5
Building on these, Singapore has embarked on an even more ambitious “whole-of-nation” approach wherein agencies actively collaborate with businesses, citizens, and other stakeholders to develop solutions designed to bolster the nation’s finances and social services, reaffirm its digital transformation leadership, and even shore up national defense.6
Some countries have adopted an issue-based funding model in which multiple agencies work together to tackle a particular wicked problem. To advance clean energy nationwide, the Australian federal government established the Rewiring the Nation initiative with AU$20 billion in funding to transform the country’s electric grid. Low-cost financing will enable new transmission lines, boosting economic activity and job creation.7 Projects include the construction of the VNI West (KerangLink) transmission line between Victoria and New South Wales (NSW) and the Marinus Link transmission line between Tasmania and Victoria using a combination of low-cost financing and commonwealth equity investment.8 Additionally, an AU$7.8 billion joint agreement was reached with NSW to support eight crucial transmission and renewable energy zone projects. Funding is available to all states.9
Some local and regional governments are using similar models. The city of Houston’s “The Way Home” program built an ecosystem of businesses, nonprofits, churches, and federal government agencies to help people without homes get into permanent housing with supportive services.10 This large-scale effort draws on funding from a US Department of Housing and Urban Development Emergency Solutions Grant and Community Development Block Grant, in addition to state, local, and private-sector funding.11 In 2022, Houston, Harris County, and the Coalition for the Homeless collective received US$45 million in federal funds12 and allocated US$100 million in COVID-19 relief.13 The Bezos Day 1 Families Fund also awarded the city a one-time US$5 million grant to help area families move to permanent housing.14 To date, the effort has reduced the number of Houston-area people without homes by 63%, moving more than 25,000 people into housing.15
Other cities have launched similar efforts. The nonprofit Family League of Baltimore pools funds from multiple public and private sources to help Baltimore children, focusing on them being born healthy, succeeding in school, graduating high school, and transitioning into higher education and the workforce.16
While shared governance is key for collective funding, in certain cases central government entities take charge of governance and accountability to effectively facilitate funding across silos.
Government agencies often default to working as single-purpose organizations, with inconsistent horizontal coordination between agencies. This siloed approach can create costly inefficiencies when it comes to common problems such as technology modernization. To tackle this issue, in 2017, the US government established the Technology Modernization Fund, an innovative funding vehicle that supports federal projects to modernize technology and make them more equitable, secure, and user-centric.17 The fund has invested over US$500 million in 33 projects across 18 federal agencies, ranging from implementing single sign-on experience across government portals to digitizing temporary worker visa programs.18 These investments have been directed at improving citizen data protections, strengthening cybersecurity across government silos, saving taxpayer dollars, and advancing public-facing digital services.19 With an additional US$1 billion from the 2021 American Rescue Plan and US$175 million from the annual budget process, the fund aims to continue financing modernization projects.20
At the state and regional levels, some governments have created funding mechanisms that are set up and run by one agency but are accessible to others that meet established criteria. In Australia, NSW established the Digital Restart Fund in 2019 to accelerate whole-of-government digital transformation and fund cross-agency projects such as life-event initiatives, shared digital assets, legacy systems modernizations, and government workforce capability building.21 NSW is now starting to see the benefits from the fund’s investments. To date, the fund has disbursed AU$2.2 billion, supporting more than 140 projects, saving more than 3,000 working days of customer time, and generating AU$2.3 billion in economic returns.22
In an effort to drive shared objectives, some governments are providing regional authorities more flexibility to deploy funds and coordinate multiple siloed funding streams around specific community needs in the jurisdiction.
The state of California created the Community Economic Resilience Fund to promote regional resiliency, equity, sustainable growth, and inclusive planning.23 Thirteen regions will get funds for planning and implementing road maps around climate change, regional infrastructure, workforce development, and other areas. Three state agencies together form the fund’s leadership team, tasked with managing the program, creating program guidelines and conducting oversight.24
Further north, the Canadian Community-Building Fund permanently provides funds for provinces and territories to support local infrastructure priorities. The fund disburses some CA$2 billion annually to 3,600 communities across the country, supporting approximately 4,000 projects each year. Municipalities can pool, bank, and borrow against this funding, giving them greater financial flexibility.25
Sir Howard Bernstein, former chief executive of Manchester City Council (1998-2017) and former head of Paid Service for the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (2011-2017)
In 2016, the UK government passed the Cities and Local Government Devolution Act, establishing combined regional authorities with a directly elected mayor. Greater Manchester was one of the first areas to seize this opportunity. Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), an umbrella organization comprising 10 constituent local authorities, was formed as part of the devolution agenda, allowing the combined power to identify problems and create evidence-based interventions.26 Officials formulated integrated governance structures, giving GMCA and the mayor of Greater Manchester additional authority, flexibility, and budgetary responsibility over policing, fire services, transportation, skills strategy, planning, and economic regeneration.27
GMCA also oversees Greater Manchester’s adult education budget, allowing the authority to develop a bespoke skills strategy tailored to needs, and is responsible for providing employment support for long-term unemployed and disabled workers.28 Greater Manchester was one of the first regions to include health and social care in its devolution plan, which studies have linked to better health outcomes.29 Collaborating with the NHS allows GMCA to exert partial control over a £6 billion health and social care budget, with NHS England granting the region control of its share of the national sustainability and transformation fund (£450m).30 Greater Manchester also received £243 million from the Transforming Cities Fund for transport investment.31
In broad terms, this devolution agenda gives local authorities more budgetary control and incentivizes a more collaborative model by providing broader flexibility to coordinate multiple siloed funding streams around specific community needs.32 In 2022, the UK government published a blueprint for creating more regional mayors across England, with the expectation that they will be able to allocate funds and administer programs more effectively.33 Driven by the United Kingdom’s central government, the move aims to stimulate a more equitable spread of economic opportunity around the country–an agenda dubbed “levelling up.”34
Pia Andrews, “Breaking government silos through holistic service integration,” Apolitical, March 23, 2022; originally in William D. Eggers et al., Linked-up government: Building connections for greater impact, Deloitte Insights, March 24, 2022.
View in ArticleSee: William D. Eggers et al., How government can deliver streamlined life event experiences, Deloitte Insights, July 12, 2022.
View in ArticleMaximilian Freier et al., “Next Generation EU: A euro area perspective,” European Central Bank, January 2022.
View in ArticleItaly, for example, has supplemented its NGEU funds with a €30.6 billion “complementary fund;” see Andrea Poggi, Next Generation EU funding and the future of Europe, Deloitte, October 28, 2021.
View in ArticleGovTech Singapore, “Whole of government (WOG) platforms and tools,” accessed January 2, 2023; Kharina Zainal, “Reviewing whole-of-government collaboration in the Singapore public service,” Civil Service College Singapore, January 6, 2011.
View in ArticleYasmine Yahya, “Public service to go from ‘whole-of-government’ to ‘whole-of-nation,’” Straits Times, May 9, 2018; SG101, “A whole of nation approach,” December 10, 2022.
View in ArticleKatharine Murphy and Adam Morton, “‘Rewiring the nation:’ Albanese and Andrews governments to jointly fund renewable energy zones,” The Guardian, October 19, 2022; Aneeq Sarwar and Jeffrey Wilson, “The National Reconstruction Fund—Australia’s newest vehicle for advancing industrial development,” Ai Group, November 23, 2022.
View in ArticleAustralian Government, DCCEEW, “Rewiring the Nation supports its first two transmission projects,” October 19, 2022.
View in ArticleAustralian Government, Department of Climate change, Energy and Environment and Water, “Rewiring the Nation deal to fast-track clean energy jobs and security in NSW,” December 22, 2022.
View in ArticleAtirikta Kumar, “Houston’s fight to decriminalize mental illness and homelessness,” Real News, July 15, 2022; Michael Murney, “Houston City Council approves $7.1 million in COVID funding to clear homeless encampments,” Chron, July 29, 2022; Sofia Gonzalez, “Bezos Day 1 Families Fund gives $5M to Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County,” Houston Business Journal, November 22, 2022.
View in ArticleLucio Vasquez, “Houston receives $45 million in federal funds to combat homelessness,” Houston Public Media, March 15, 2022.
View in ArticleCatherine Villarreal, “City of Houston and Harris County announce unprecedented investment to house the homeless,” Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County, January 26, 2022.
View in ArticleMichael Kimmelman, “How Houston moved 25,000 people from the streets into homes of their own,” New York Times, June 14, 2022.
View in ArticleFamily League of Baltimore, “About us,” accessed January 2, 2023; Jitinder Kohli and Anne De Biasi, Supporting healthy communities, Deloitte Insights, August 2, 2017.
View in ArticleUS General Services Administration, “New Technology Modernization Fund investments to boost network security for critical services,” June 21, 2022; Technology Modernization Fund, “Investments,” accessed January 2, 2023; US General Services Administration, “Technology Modernization Fund is making it easier and more secure for veterans to access benefits and services,” April 19, 2022; US General Services Administration, “TMF invests in improving public-facing services, bolstering cybersecurity,” August 3, 2022; US General Services Administration, “The Technology Modernization Fund announces $9 million for transformative projects to protect personal data, modernize key systems at two agencies,” March 7, 2022.
View in ArticleUS General Services Administration, “GSA highlights progress on citizen-facing digital services, cybersecurity in first year of American Rescue Plan,” March 10, 2022.
View in ArticleUS General Services Administration, “Technology Modernization Fund is making it easier and more secure for veterans to access benefits and services,” April 19, 2022; US General Services Administration, “TMF invests in improving public-facing services, bolstering cybersecurity,” August 3, 2022; US General Services Administration, “The Technology Modernization Fund announces $9 million for transformative projects to protect personal data, modernize key systems at two agencies,” March 7, 2022.
View in ArticleNSW Government, “Is my project eligible?,” accessed January 2, 2023; Alita Sharon, “Digital Restart Fund supports more projects in New South Wales,” OpenGov Asia, August 18, 2022.
View in ArticleUrbis, “Evaluation of the Digital Restart Fund,” NSW Department of Customer Service, March 23, 2022; NSW Government, “2021–2022 in review,” 2022.
View in ArticleCalifornia Labor and Workforce Development Agency, Governor’s Office of Planning and Research, and Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development, “Community Economic Resilience Fund Program (CERF),” April 2022.
View in ArticleHM Treasury, George Osborne, and Philip Hammond, “Devolution to the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and transition to a directly elected mayor,” Gov.uk, November 22, 2017; Local Government Association, “Experiences of employment and skills devolution: Greater Manchester Combined Authority,” September 10, 2020.
View in ArticleUniversity of Manchester, “Study links devolution in Greater Manchester to modest improvement in life expectancy,” September 29, 2022.
View in ArticleHugh Alderwick, “Understanding the impact of devolution in Greater Manchester on health,” Health Foundation, September 29, 2022.
View in ArticleWest Midlands Combined Authority, “Plans to give greater powers to the West Midlands welcomed as Levelling Up strategy is published,” February 2, 2022.
View in ArticleDaniel Harari and Matthew Ward, “Levelling up: What are the Government’s proposals?,” House of Commons Library, February 18, 2022.
View in ArticleThe authors would like to thank Glynis Rodrigues and Thirumalai Kannan from the Deloitte Center for Government Insights for driving the research and development of this trend. They also thank Chew Chiat Lee, Steve Hamilton, Wade Horn, Cecelia Hill, Carsten Joergensen, Enrique Egea, and William D. Eggers for their insights and thoughtful feedback.
Cover image by: Natalie Pfaff
