Peace through state-building? Colombian bureaucrats on peace implementation

Implementing a peace agreement is, at its core, a matter of public policy execution. Ambitious agreements depend on state institutions’ capacity to translate commitments into concrete actions. Nearly a decade after Colombia’s 2016 Peace Agreement (PA) between the FARC-EP and the government, implementation has advanced but remains uneven. Much attention has focused on the PA’s content and political obstacles. Less attention has been paid to the everyday challenges faced by public officials responsible for translating commitments into practice. Their experiences reveal how longstanding governance weaknesses, alongside the challenges of working in conflict-affected and historically marginalized territories, shape peace implementation.