Responding to climate change: policy translation from the Netherlands to Colombia, Jarillon Plan Cali

In the last decades, climate change has been affecting human lives, and ways of relating and organizing in society. Major climate phenomena have pushed governments to respond to the need to adapt to the new climate conditions. In Colombia, in 2010-2011 La Niña phenomenon caused heavy rains affecting 9% of the population, remaining in areas at risk of flooding. In response, the Colombian government looked to have an agreement with the Netherlands Enterprise Agency to implement a project for Risk Reduction and Climate Adaptation. As a result, Plan Jarillon was led by Royal HaskoningDHV and OSSO Corporation in Cali, Colombia. Regarding the recommendations handed to the Cali Municipality, 8.775 families were forced to resettle in the city to allow the dike reinforcement. Nowadays, these families tell stories of dispossession and right violations and the exacerbation of conditions marked by violence and poverty. I investigated the mechanism for policy translation during the policy negotiation, design, and initial implementation with a broader overlook of challenges related to the translation of ideas. This research wonders how the policy was translated from the Netherlands to Cali describing the main components acknowledged by the literature (the translation processes the actors, level of translation, context, and lessons that facilitate or make it more difficult the implementation). The analysis pays careful attention to the understanding of vulnerability during the policy translation process to finally reflect on how vulnerability can be addressed and enhanced in the same process. Primary data was collected through semi-structured interviews with policy participants in the Netherlands and Colombia and secondary data through document analysis, which was processed using a framework analysis approach. We conclude that human relations played a key role during the negotiation process increasing the probability for cooperation. Additionally, challenges such as technical and meanings during transfer in the Jarillon project. I aim for a more integral perspective during the phase of project design and translation for the replication of policies in developing countries where the policy ideas can be adapted to the context, through innovative strategies for policy adaptation to avoid enforcing new expressions of vulnerability.