Jurnal Sosial Humaniora (JSH) 2021, Volume 14, Ed.2 ISSN Online: 2443-3527 ISSN Print: 1979-5521 99 - JSH Dysfunction of Collaborative Governance in the Handling Policy of Covid-19 at Jambi Province Muhammad Ichsan Kabullah 1 , Sudarmoko 2 , Hendri Koeswara 3 , Fajri Rahman 4 , Azwar 5 1 Jurusan Administrasi Publik, FISIP Universitas Andalas: muhammadichsankabullah@soc.unand.ac.id 2 Jurusan Sastra Indonesia, FIB Universitas Andalas 3 Jurusan Administrasi Publik, FISIP Universitas Andalas 4 Jurusan Antropologi, FISIP Universitas Andalas 5 Jurusan Sosiologi, FISIP Universitas Andalas Introduction Enthusiasm among experts regarding collaborative governance models has been increasing recently. The need for cooperation between government, a private and public actor is considered the best way to overcome contemporary problems such as the crisis caused by Covid-19. This is not an exaggeration considering that the Covid-19 pandemic has led to a multi-dimensional crisis that has triggered significant changes. It is just that the awareness to collaborate in dealing with the Covid-19 outbreak has not been fully present at the level of daily practice. In Indonesia, the policy for handling Covid-19 appears to be more dominated by the government. The government issued a series of procedures such as Presidential Decree (Keppres) Number 7 of 2020 concerning the establishment of the Task Force for the Acceleration of Handling the Corona Virus and the determination of Covid-19 as a non-natural national disaster (Putsanra, 2020). President Joko Widodo also issued a policy of implementing Large-Scale Social Restrictions to prevent the broader spread of Covid-19 (Ihsanuddin, 2020). Although various procedures for handling Covid-19 have been made by the government, Received: 15/01/2021 Reviewed: 28/03/2021 Published: 31/07/2021 Copyright©2021 oleh authors (et al) and Jurnal Sosial Humaniora (JSH) *This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Subject Area: Public Policy Abstract Current research on public administration has generally concluded that collaborative governance is a critical factor in solving the contemporary crisis. Collaborative governance has been suggested as a mechanism that brings state and private stakeholders together in policymaking. Through a case study in the Jambi Province, we find that the collaboration between local governments and society has been effective to solve the crisis because they may share understanding to prioritise the Covid-19 pandemic as a common problem. At the same time, the religious tension also had a positive impact on the collaboration. However, the collaboration performance has followed several challenges such as incompatible procedures, inequality for the same access between individuals, and intervention by local elites. Keywords: Collaborative Governance; Crisis; Covid-19; Local Governments; Jambi.