The States Peace Makes: Organizational Effectiveness in Colombian Peace-Building Agencies

• In Event: 30455 - Complexities of Conflict: Dynamics, Responses, and Ethical Dimensions

Abstract

This paper investigates how peace processes contribute to state-building by examining organizational effectiveness among Colombia’s seven major peace-building agencies. While governance in post-conflict settings often under-delivers, this study explores the extent to which pockets of effectiveness can emerge within post-conflict transitional governance structures. Drawing on an original dataset of over 63,658 public sector employees across the seven major Colombian peace-building agencies operating since 2011, over 50 interviews with agency leaders, and an extensive analysis of official documents, this paper identifies the conditions under which peace-building state agencies recruit competent personnel, achieve autonomy from political pressures, foster an organizational culture oriented toward the pursuit of impersonal public administration, and nourish productive partnerships across the state and with non-state actors. The paper contributes to the peace-building, development, and public administration literatures by offering a nuanced understanding of the organizational processes that underpin the implementation of peace agreements, and how these, in turn, strengthen state capacity.

Author

• Sebastián Rojas Cabal, Princeton University