Capacity in collaborative efforts: key to sustaining collaborations?

This paper examines how policy capacity shapes collaborative governance in mobility transitions through a qualitative case study of Delhi’s 2020 Electric Vehicle (EV) Policy. It addresses the policy problem of why collaborations around ambitious, high-visibility transition policies are difficult to sustain over time, despite strong early leadership and political support. This is important because governments increasingly rely on multi-actor arrangements to deliver low-carbon mobility, yet often overlook the underlying capacities required to maintain them. The study finds that collaboration in Delhi’s EV policy was initially enabled by strong analytical and political capacities concentrated in a small group of senior bureaucrats and an atypical state think tank, working closely with non-state knowledge organizations. These actors designed structured forums, attracted capable partners, and established early interest. Over time, however, limited operational capacity in line departments, fragmented and weakly organized industry representation, and missing systemic analytical capacities in road transport sector, eroded the collaborative momentum. The paper concludes that sustaining collaboration in emerging policy domains requires more than early champions and external expertise. It argues for deliberate investments in mid-level public managers within core agencies, stronger organization and analytical roles for industry and civil society, and the development of systemic data and research infrastructures. These recommendations speak directly to policymakers seeking to govern mobility transitions through durable, capacity-aware collaborative arrangements.