Ami Carpenter "Rendering Idea into Practice: Development Assistance and Conflict Prevention in Guatemala"

This dissertation describes the emergence of conflict prevention as a new norm in development policy and practice, and the commensurate use of conflict assessments to mainstream a preventive lens (conflict analysis) in the design and implementation of development programs at United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Guatemala. Field research, review of internal documents and a literature review were conducted over two years at USAID and UNDP headquarters in Washington DC and New York respectively, and at mission offices in Guatemala, to trace the impact of a conflict assessment conducted at respective mission offices three months apart in 2002. This research finds that that not only implementation, but the recommended changes themselves are based on the stewardship of norm advocates (actors) and the degree to which conflict prevention fits with pre-existing ideas (structure). Ultimately, implemented preventive practices fit with the pre-existing priorities, agendas, and interests of each organization rather than transforming them.