OxPeace 2017: Devolving Power to Citizens: A Path to Positive Peace in Colombia?

After fifty years of war, Colombia is about to start the implementation of an ambitious peace deal between the Government and the FARC-EP guerrilla. Participation is one of the most used words in the agreement between the parties, and peacebuilding in the local areas will depend on the active participation of citizens in more than forty participatory spaces featured in the final accord. One of them is participatory budgeting, which is a process that allows citizens of a locality to directly decide how to spend part of the local budget. Based on qualitative research, the presentation will discuss whether offline and online participatory budgeting processes could foster positive peace in Colombia and, if so, under what circumstances.