OTI - Colombia Transforma

OVERVIEW

USAID/OTI’s Colombia Transforma Activity works with the Colombian Government to foster sustainable and inclusive peace in the country.  The activity helps implement the 2016 Peace Accord between the Colombian Government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), including rural development, transitional justice, peacebuilding, and reconciliation. Colombia Transforma helps implement the Peace Accord by increasing the Colombian Government’s financial contribution to peacebuilding initiatives, and by encouraging communities’ ownership and leadership of Peace Accord implementation at the local level. Colombia Transforma launched in 2015, a year before the Peace Accord was signed, and is now in its third phase of implementation.

COLOMBIA TRANSFORMA PHASES

PHASE 1: LAUCHING RAPID RESPONSE (2015-2019)

Colombia Transforma 1 increased the Colombian Government’s ability to plan and execute rapid-response aspects of the Peace Accord.  During this phase, the activity worked in Arauca, Norte de Santander, Putumayo, and at the national level, and it helped civil society and governmental actors work together to implement the Peace Accord in conflict regions.  

PHASE 2: PROMOTING IRREVERSIBILITY (2019-2022)

Colombia Transforma 2 worked in Antioquia, Nariño, and Norte de Santander. During this phase, the activity helped quickly and effectively implement the Peace Accord through actions like fostering coordination between community and government actors to develop school and road infrastructure projects. The activity also provided technical assistance to local governments and community organizations to increase their capacity and leadership for Peace Accord implementation.  

PHASE 3: ACHIEVING CRITICAL MASS (2022-2025)

Colombia Transforma 3 is working to permanently embed and maximize Peace Accord implementation efforts in Antioquia, Nariño, and Norte de Santander.  The activity is also addressing destabilizing factors that threaten to undermine or reverse Peace Accord implementation, and is supporting joint U.S. and Colombian priorities to promote licit, local, and integrated economic development and regional security.

RESULTS 

• Implemented over 1,000 information dissemination and small-scale infrastructure projects in support of Peace Accord implementation;
• Invested nearly USD $2 million to help with Colombia’s COVID-19 response, ensuring that Colombian Government entities continued to demonstrate state presence during the pandemic;
• Provided technical assistance to Colombian Government entities, community action boards, and civil society organizations so they could understand their roles in Peace Accord implementation;
• Responded quickly to COVID-19 by organizing the donation of ventilators to hospitals in Cúcuta, Ocaña, and Tumaco, and by procuring cold storage for Ministry of Health to transport vaccines to rural areas;
• Established State presence in over 800 rural villages and community councils by helping Colombian Government entities, like the Agency for Territorial Renewal (ART), build relationships with long-neglected communities;
• Leveraged over USD $2.5 million from municipal governments and nearly USD $3 million in in-kind support from local communities for initiatives that generated local ownership and co-responsibility for Peace Accord implementation; and
• Supported reconciliation dialogues between conflict victims and the Commission for the Clarification of Truth, Coexistence and Non-Repetition (CEV) to build trust and ensure that victims’ testimonies were collected for the CEV’s final report on the conflict.