Many of these achievements have been supported by the unique arrangements possible under the IEB model. The Board has been functioning well, providing advice to Ministers, making decisions across multiple portfolios, and meeting the legislative purposes of the model to enable flexibility and cross-agency collaboration. They progressed longer-term activity where possible while maintaining momentum on the most critical work.
Members of the Board have a strong sense of collective ownership of their established aims. Having a common purpose enables them to work through challenges by regularly evaluating priorities and the distribution of resources, adjusting these as necessary. This is especially important as all border activities carry different emphasis across agencies, requiring clarity about agencies’ contribution to the joint border functions as compared to their non-border work. Building awareness and alignment of policy, funding and processes across border agencies is a key aspect of the Board’s work, as is the ability to commission cross-agency work from the chief executive level.
The formalised accountability provided the impetus for regular meetings that might otherwise have been hard to get buy in for. The meetings included check-ins to ensure work was progressing and to ease any challenges or barriers, including by connecting up the right people. As well as enabling close to real time problem-solving, the frequency and regularity of board meetings strengthened chief executive relationships, building a sense of collegiality. The culture built through the chief executives’ collegiality and support for each other also facilitated greater collaboration outside board meetings, including in times of non-urgency. The members are committed to attending meetings, taking their leadership role seriously and sharing their views freely.
The size of the governance board is considered effective for developing relationships, and creating the space for robust, free and frank discussions. Rather than widening the membership, other agencies and organisations are invited to join meetings for relevant items. This is the approach for accommodating varying levels of involvement, including of Crown entities that may have delivery responsibilities relevant to the Board’s work, but that do not hold the accountability of a board member (e.g. Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand is the delivery arm for border-related health activity and would therefore attend Border Executive Board meetings for relevant agenda items). Agencies outside the border remit are also able to attend DCE groups and senior officials’ meetings for discussion on relevant items. Member agencies make the effort to keep them updated and the secretariat acts as an important communication link between the Board and member agencies.
The boards are an opportunity to collectively play to agencies’ different areas of strength and expertise (e.g. policy, operations, etc.). This may result in agencies within the board’s remit having different levels of importance, impact, engagement and capacity to contribute, depending on the current focus of the Board’s work programme. The network of collaborative relationships is further strengthened by the presence of all member agencies at Board meetings even when agenda items do not directly impact their agency’s delivery priorities. For example, the attendance of the Director-General of Primary Industries through the peak of COVID-19 provided important diversity of thought and other specialist expertise as the government lead on health and safety. This sets the scene for the ability to use the Board for wider sector issues, like foot and mouth disease, which may not directly impact all agencies but would likely benefit from their insights.
For stakeholder engagement, the Board makes use of existing relationships held by member agencies, using those channels rather than duplicating effort. The lead agencies on relevant Board work take responsibility for managing those engagements. Working in partnership with public and private sector organisations will be an important part of the Board’s ongoing contribution to driving border improvements.
The Board has provided co-ordinated leadership for border settings and decisions about the COVID response. Specifically, the Board Chair operated as a single point of contact for the border system, acting as a conduit for a united border voice to ministers. The Chair attended ministerial meetings with the COVID-19 Minister, as well as being a contact point for other ministers with interests in the border. Similarly, the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet attended the DCE COVID meetings to keep information sharing open. The Board’s secretariat team is the contact point for the minister’s office. At the more operational level, the Chair of the Board signed off on border vaccination exemptions, giving assurance that a border system view was provided.
The secretariat plays an important role in each of these strengths, supporting the Board with consistent coordination and enabling border agencies to connect up on their delivery of the work programme. Having a funded and capable secretariat that includes governance expertise and other skills relevant to the functions of the board such as programme management or policy skills, and relationship skills across levels of government have been key to the board’s success. Along with Customs as the servicing department and employer of the secretariat team, and the terms of reference and operating protocols applied to Board members, these working arrangements provide a pragmatic and efficient foundation for the Board.