<![CDATA[Rural poverty governance can remain fragmented even where formal mandates, coordination forums, and community institutions coexist. This study explains how collaborative governance operates in rural poverty alleviation in North Aceh, Indonesia, and how religion-based social capital interacts with formal authority. A qualitative single-case design with six embedded gampong combined 20 semi-structured interviews, three focus group discussions, participant observation, and document analysis involving 32 participants. The findings identify four mutually reinforcing barriers: institutional fragmentation, competing data authorities, vertical capacity deficits, and ritualistic collaboration. Government institutions control mandates, administrative data, and public resources, whereas Baitul Mal, meunasah-based deliberation, and community networks provide locally validated knowledge, relational trust, and moral legitimacy but remain weakly connected to planning and decision-making. Integrating collaborative governance with bonding, bridging, and linking social capital shows that the principal constraint is missing linking capital rather than insufficient community trust. The study develops an Integrated Sharia-Responsive Collaborative Governance Model centered on data-validation protocols, recognized deliberative inputs, and consequential decision rights. Effective poverty collaboration therefore depends on creating accountable institutional pathways that connect socially embedded knowledge to public authority without displacing state responsibility.]]>
