Donor Aid in Supporting Local Governance in the Context of Conflict in Colombia: Plan Colombia and Peace Laboratories

This paper examines the process of design and implementation of aid programs supported by the US and the EU for governance improvement in Colombia. The paper focuses on the understanding of the logic behind their divergent perspectives and the way such perspectives have been reflected at the national and local level through the implementation of Plan Colombia and Peace Laboratories, the main assistance programs supported by the US and the EU respectively. The hypothesis is that given the tensions and contradictions within and between the US and EU approaches, both have experienced limitations to contribute in addressing governance issues at the local level. By analysing the Department of Nariño case, this paper suggests that the failures of articulation of objectives and instruments supported by these donors, as well as the lack of coherence between the stated goals for governance improvement and the processes of program implementation, have limited the scope of the contributions of Plan Colombia and Peace Laboratories in terms of legitimacy, accountability and effectiveness. -- Relevance to Development Studies -- Since the 1990s, the notions of good governance and aid effectiveness have been of increasing importance in the development agenda. These issues have shaped the policy design and implementation of international aid programs. „Legitimacy, accountability, effectiveness and ownership‟, among others, have constituted a common place in the rhetoric of development assistance. However, as the present research shows, the way in which such discourses are materialized through policies and programs and their translation into the local realities, depend on divergent understandings and interpretations of the notion of governance in itself. Moreover, the contradictions between discourse and the process of program implementation limit the scope of international aid for local governance improvement. Context also matters: the success of policies and instruments supported by donors are challenged by local socio-political specificities as the case of the Colombian conflict shows.