Bridging the Authorizing-Operating Gap in Coastal Governance: Thematic Bureaucratic Reform and Local Poverty Alleviation

This study examines whether Thematic Bureaucratic Reform (TBR) enhances the organizational capacity of the Polewali Mandar Regency Government for poverty alleviation in a coastal setting.The research uses a qualitative single-case design with five embedded implementing departments.Organizational capacity was assessed using CaLP's Organizational Capacity Assessment Tool (OCAT), which profiles six categories on a 1-4 scale, complemented by indepth interviews and document review.The numeric profiles are used descriptively to support a thematic reading of routines, coordination, and boundary work rather than for statistical inference.The results show a mid-level capacity profile: governance and leadership 3.33; organizational management 3.00; financial management 2.87; human resource management 2.67; program and project management 2.33; and external relations 1.80.Implementation in 2024 recorded high output realisation of 99.64 percent with budget absorption of 86.97 percent together with improvements in the Bureaucratic Reform Index and its thematic component.The 2024 poverty rate reached 15.66 percent (on target), yet poverty depth and severity indices increased, indicating that reform effects did not transmit evenly to frontline services.TBR sharpened policy direction, coordinated planning, and orderly implementation, but conversion into service outcomes was constrained by weak project discipline, unclear cross-departmental roles, and thin external partnerships.The paper proposes practical mechanisms to bridge the authorizing-operating gap in coastal governance.