By Jack OāConnor, AnjaliĀ Parikh

In June 2025, the Public Sector Capabilities Index team at the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP), travelled to Finland to learn more about Finnish city government capability building. In this blog, we explore some of the ways in which these city governments build coalitions with external actors and offer some key lessons for other cities to build and sustain these partnerships.
Challenges facingĀ cities
The multiplicity of challenges facing urban areas in Finland are no different than those in other parts of the world: climate pressures, housing affordability, inequality. With the prevalence of these challenges increasing, so too is the importance placed on city governments to effectively address them. Finnish city governments are proactively building coalitions and partnerships to tackleĀ them.