Supply-Driven Policy Transfer from International Organizations to Single States: The Case of Policy Transfer of Marine Spatial Planning to Colombia

Author: Pavlina Miteva

Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Helmut Breitmeier

This study analyzes supply-driven transfer of policy instruments from international organizations (IOs) to single states. It draws on the theories of policy transfer and diffusion to make causal assumptions about the Why and How behind the transfer process of policy instruments from international to state level. The research questions this study answers are: Under what circumstances (How) and for what reasons (Why) does a supply-driven voluntary policy transfer occur, having an international organization on the supply side and a single state as the adopter? The study unpacks the process behind supply-driven transfer of policy instruments. It analyzes its trigger, the mechanisms of interaction between the relevant actors and, finally, its outcome, which is the adoption of the policy instrument by the state. The study looks into the reasons behind these interactions and their productive continuum from the cause (trigger) to the outcome. The added value of the study lies in the emphasis of the proactive role of the IO in promoting and co-producing the instrument and on the relevance of the domestic institutional context. When unpacking the causal mechanism, the study considers elements of learning, emulation and competition, as possible explanations for the outcome. The study applies a case-study approach, it takes the IOC-UNESCO and its intensive promotion of Marine Spatial Planning as a policy instrument. The country of study is Colombia, where the presence of the IOC-UNESCO is especially strong, the adoption has taken place very recently and under peculiar institutional tensions which, counter-intuitively, have actually advanced the policy transfer.