CIDA'S Americas branch: Context, decision‐making process and complexity issues
The article examines the internal decision‐making process of the Canadian International Development Agency's Americas Branch over the last thirty years: it became more complex and broader in scope, shifting from an initially bottom‐up and project‐driven approach, to a top‐down and policy‐driven one. This evolution may seem contradictory in view of the increasingly difficult and uncertain context framing CIDA's action since the 1980s — a context marked by widespread government restructuring and intense debating of CIDA's mandate and role. However, these elements are not necessarily at odds, but may in fact be seen as functional. Indeed, such an evolution of the decision‐making process allowed the Branch to (1) strengthen its policy‐driven capacity, thus, respond to restructuring pressures by gaining efficiency and reducing costs internally; (2) increase its bargaining power as a result of this, as well as by the multiplication of direct links with varied organizations and groups; and (3) reduce its overall transparency, so, becoming potentially more effective in diverting tensions among the numerous actors involved in the many stages of the decision‐making process.