Seventh Quarterly Status Report: Victims Institutional Strengthening Program

The program is implemented by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Colombia, in partnership with the Victims Assistance and Reparations Unit, National Historical Memory Center, and Ministry of Health. During the first quarter of 2014, VISP made significant progress in each of its four intermediate results (IRs). IR 1 advances included the completion of the Temporary Victims Single Registry (RUV) component and its transfer to the Victims Unit, as well as support for renovating and improving Regional Attention Centers for Victims in seven municipalities. IR 2 advances included training for 130 psychosocial promoters and 48 psychosocial professionals, as well as an encounter with the Ministry of Health, Presidential Program for Action against Landmines, and Victims Unit on landmines, physical rehabilitation, and community interventions. IR 3 advances during this period included providing support to the Victims Unit to implement the collective reparations route with five collective subjects and initial steps for six historical memory projects. IR 4 advances included work with two Afro-Descendent organizations in Chocó to support historical memory processes with diversity mainstreaming, as well as support to ethnic authorities to improve their capacity to carry out implementation, monitoring, and evaluation roles. The program faced challenges during this period, including the need to rapidly carry out actions at the local level and find solutions to gaps and obstacles encountered in the assistance, attention, and reparation routes. To address these challenges, VISP will prioritize the completion of the development of the ten information system modules and their transfer to the Victims Unit, including the migration of information, work to train civil servants, and resistance strategies for changes and appropriation of new tools. The Colombian political and social context directly or indirectly affected the work carried out by the Program during the first quarter of 2014. Calls to accelerate the implementation of the Victims Law and land restitution processes increased in response to the electoral period, and the recent rulings of the Constitutional Court regarding reparation measures demanded the support of the program in identifying bottlenecks and actions contributing to comprehensive reparation at the local level. The end of the unilateral ceasefire announced by FARC-EP led to an increase in displacements and attacks against the civil population, particularly affecting visibility of violence against women, children, adolescents, and youth, and ethnic groups. In response, the Program increased its participation in alliances with the Government of Colombia (GoC) and other civil society actors, promoting participatory spaces and participation strategies for victims, as well as increased societal consciousness and visibility of the current challenges presented by landmines, sexual violence against women, and the situation of children, adolescents, and youth in post-conflict settings. The program's participation in alliances with the Government of Colombia (GoC) and other civil society actors has largely focused on promoting participatory spaces and participation strategies for victims, as well as increased societal consciousness and visibility of the current challenges presented by landmines, sexual violence against women, and the situation of children, adolescents, and youth in post-conflict settings. In the upcoming period, April – June 2014, VISP will prioritize the completion of the development of the ten information system modules and their transfer to the Victims Unit, including the migration of information, work to train civil servants, and resistance strategies for changes and appropriation of new tools. The program will also encourage adjustments to the National Victims Assistance and Reparation System (SNARIV) at the local level to more effectively manage national offer at the local level, as well as developments in the area of diversity mainstreaming.