IN-PERSON Lisbon Livable Cities. Section A

Abstract

This work examines transport infrastructure challenges in Colombia, with a focus on the Caribbean region. Despite notable economic growth, the country’s transport systems remain underdeveloped, undermining competitiveness and leading to poor road connectivity, transport accessibility and road safety. These issues are attributed to institutional weakness, centralisation, and ineffective policymaking and decision-making processes. Although investment in infrastructure has increased, its effectiveness is hampered by bottlenecks, particularly at the sub-national level. Decentralisation policies implemented in the 1980s transferred responsibilities to local governments without adequate resources, leaving smaller municipalities reliant on external funding. This has severely constrained infrastructure development in isolated regions, including the Caribbean coast. Additionally, a lack of policy coherence and misalignment between objectives, instruments, and local needs perpetuates the infrastructure deficit. The study employs the Network Governance and Multiple Streams Framework (MSF) to investigate how power dynamics, stakeholder relationships, and the politicisation of transport issues affect policy effectiveness. Through semi-structured interviews with policymakers, it explores barriers such as funding constraints, poor coordination, and weak project execution. Findings reveal that centralisation, governance shortcomings, and financial limitations are critical obstacles to effective transport infrastructure delivery. National-level decision-making, combined with weak local governance and limited technical capacity, prevents tailored solutions for regional needs. The politicisation of transport policies exacerbates disparities, leaving mid-size and small municipalities in the Caribbean significantly lagging behind. The research advocates for enhanced multilevel governance and flexible policies, alongside further studies on governance and transport policy outcomes.