A decade of social policy formulation in Valle del Cauca, Colombia: 1998 -2008

ABSTRACT

Colombian legal and institutional context defines public social policy domain by means of a set of documents such us development plans, strategies, programs and projects. These are designed under the responsibility and supervision of State at national and sub-national levels. Addressed to improve individual and collective quality of live, their goals are to serve as a guide for action, and provide the framework for budget allocation in what is called social expenditure.

It was during the second half of the twentieth century that Colombian State, highly centralized at that time, formalized public social policy.  Three concomitant processes intervened: first, the progressive promulgation and development of general principles about well-being for individuals and society; second, the institutional and organizational arrangements within the structure of the State in order to implement those principles; and third,   the changing approaches in regard to what should  be  the   role of the State in  the social policy domain.  Since 1989, these processes have had as a background state reforms and decentralization. They have entailed at sub-national level  new administrative, fiscal and management responsibilities.  

A literature review on social policy research in Colombia shows as main fields of study the following: historical analysis focused on early social assistance; studies on traditional sectorial topics such as education, health, labor, and housing; analysis on social protection as an emergent topic since 1990’s; under the umbrella of millennium development goals (MDG) since 2000’s, childhood and first infancy, youth, elderly population, gender equity, ethnic minorities, and disabled populations.  Due to the visibility and intensity of violence and conflict, studies on forced displacement, reinsertion, and victims’ reparation. Most of this research has brought about the official lines for national policy design and implementation, and social expenditure policies.

Thought of, and conceived as general perspectives from the administrative centers of power, and referred mainly to the national level, this wide array of topics is indicative of the fragmentation characterizing the social policy domain in Colombia. This fragmentation is not only conceptual but administrative. Therefore, the current reflection and research on social policy should be found in the sum of the sectorial studies.

While emphasizing social policy design and implementation, encompassing actors, institutional arrangements, and budgets allocations at national and subnational levels, existing studies address very little it’s conceptual and theoretical contents. There is not an overarching social policy conceptual framework providing common grounds for sectorial and fragmented approaches. Furthermore, in the framework of State decentralization there are not studies aimed to describe and analyze, what have been the conceptual and theoretical orientations of social policy to respond the challenges departments and municipalities confront in specific social, economic, cultural, politic, and administrative contexts. To fill this gap is relevant under the generalized acceptance that social policy’s guidelines should permeate the whole structure of the State from national to sub national levels in search of coherence and harmonization in the overall development process.

This chapter seeks to identify and analyze how far, the main lines of general approaches of Colombian social policy from 1998-2008,  have conceptually transcended from national to sub national level. Valle del Cauca, a Colombian department, and   5 selected municipalities within (Buenaventura, Cali, Cartago, Florida, and Tuluá) are the focus of this research.  Content and discourse analysis of development plan (DP) documents, at national and subnational level, from 1998 to 2008 are main data sources.

This chapter analyzes the main characteristics of social policy in Colombia, Valle del Cauca and 5 selected municipalities from 1998 to 2008.    After reviewing the legislative framework that points to Development Plan (DP) as the core text in which general guidelines for social policies are established, I turn to examine National Development Plan (NDP), Department Development Plan (DDP) and Municipality development Plan  (MDP) corresponding to presidential, governor and major’s terms in office.  This analyis deciphers to whom social policy is addressed, considers the ways in which targeting and universalism, dominant approaches in social policy are included, and identifies main social sectors for social policy. The analysis of DDPs and MDPs for Valle del Cauca and 5 selected municipalities, discusses approaches, ideas, obstacles and challenges.

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Roy Huijsmans or Karem Sanchez de Roldan