Construction of the discourse Local Ownership in World Development Reports between 1978 to 2011

In the transforming world of peace building, the framework that formulates how peace best could be achieved is shaped by various theories and discourses. During the recent years, the discourse of local ownership has gained ground and peace theories supporting increased local participation and ownership has become more widely acknowledged. The World Development Report, published annually by the World Bank, has in the past primarily been formulated in line with the liberal peace building tradition but has, over time, come to adopt a more hybrid peace building approach where local ownership has a more prominent role. However, there is still a discrepancy between major factors in the discourse of local ownership in the report and the hybrid peace theory indicating that the incorporation of local ownership discourse in the World Development Reports not is as substantial as it is portrayed. The dominance of the liberal peace building theory still very much underlies the values that are presented in the report and in order to break such discursive dominance, a clearer definition of the local ownership concept is key