USAID/OTI Colombia Quarterly Report January - March 2010

The program's objectives are to strengthen the credibility and legitimacy of the Government of Colombia (GOC) in post-conflict areas, increase community willingness and capacity to cooperate with the GOC, and expand the GOC's capacity to exercise timely, credible, and responsive civil functions. IGRP's model of rapid responses to community-identified needs, implemented in the name of the GOC, creates confidence in the GOC and leads to further investment by the GOC as part of the process of consolidation of State presence. The program is supporting this consolidation process in four parts of the country through various activities, including Small Community Activities and Productive Activities. Small Community Activities involve providing support to the GOC for small, quick-impact, community-prioritized social infrastructure projects. These projects address needs for community centers, street lighting, road and drainage systems, and school kitchens. Productive Activities support the GOC's small, quick-impact economic opportunities for groups making the transition from the coca-based economy to the legal economy. The program is also providing technical assistance to the GOC's consolidation teams and local mayors' offices, including a communication strategy promoting consolidation, the National Park Service's efforts to resettle families living illegally in national parks, and a strategy to prevent youth recruitment into illegally armed groups. In the coming quarter, Colombians will go to the polls to elect a successor to President Uribe. The National Consolidation Plan is an Uribe administration program, and the GOC is attempting to make significant progress in consolidation zones before the president leaves office. The current administration is also working to document the advances made under the plan to convince the new administration to continue with consolidation efforts. The program has initiated activities with the GOC's Regional Coordination Center (RCC) in Sur de Tolima to support the National Consolidation Plan in four priority municipalities in the southern part of the department. The RCC staff is finalizing the operational plan for consolidation efforts in Tolima, and OTI's activities will help jump-start their initial efforts by complementing municipal, departmental, and national government activities. OTI has also supported a series of events premiering a new documentary on consolidation in Meta, as part of the strategic communications component of the Integrated Consolidation Plan for La Macarena (PCIM). The events were held in the six municipalities targeted by the PCIM, and residents participated actively and enthusiastically in all the municipalities. In addition, OTI has begun implementation of $1 million in repairs to 93 kilometers of key tertiary roads in the PCIM's area of operation. The roads are nearly impassable during the rainy season and many communities in the region are severely isolated until the rains subside. Repairs to these roads will also facilitate the reach of government services to these La Macarena residents. The program has helped the PCIM to rapidly implement post-eradication transition projects, which have reached almost 800 families that are making the transition from the coca economy to the legal economy. The projects have supplied families with a mix of immediate post-eradication emergency food rations, provided inputs for small family gardens, and launched rapid-impact income generation projects. By the end of next quarter, OTI will have helped the PCIM reach almost 1,200 families in transition zones. The rapid-impact income generation projects are developed with groups of families that are often working together for the first time. These income-generating projects can be tenuous because of economic constraints; however, the program seeks to link the nascent groups to the region's existing cacao, coffee, dairy, and cattle production value chains. OTI is also providing technical assistance to these informal groups, seeking to provide them with the capacity to organize as formal producer associations and establish rotating funds that will allow them to invest in improvements and strengthen their long-term competitiveness and viability. The GOC's pilot project to provide seeds for family gardens as part of the consolidation plan has been implemented, and the program is providing technical assistance to the GOC's consolidation teams and local mayors' offices to support the consolidation process.