Multilevel Governance ‘from Above’: Analysing Colombia’s System of Co-Responsibility for Responding to Internal Displacement

Abstract

Abstract States bear the responsibility for the protection of people displaced internally by conflict and other causes. Though widely recognized, there is little research on how the state shares that responsibility between different levels of government. Colombia serves as a useful case for examining the evolving coordination between national and local governments. I conduct a thematic analysis of its 2015 Strategy of Co-responsibility regulating emergency humanitarian assistance. I argue that the Strategy represents a delicate compromise between enforcing minimum standards and respecting local autonomy. This means the System largely reaffirms existing vertical power relations, while also creating incentives for horizontal multilevel governance. The article explores the Strategy’s use of the language of ‘co-responsibility’, a technocratic action-planning process, and capacity-building initiatives. I propose frameworks from the literature on the multilevel governance of migration to identify the conditions for coordination between levels to emerge, bridging multilevel governance literature with forced migration literature.