A fund provides up to EUR 100,000 in funding for individual measures initiated by state, civil society and private sector actors nationwide. Eligible applications are selected approximately every nine months by a panel consisting of representatives of the German Embassy, the Colombian Presidential Agency of International Cooperation and GIZ. The selected initiatives receive technical and commercial advice. Special consideration is given to regional and local initiatives which can be replicated in other parts of the country, measures with a direct bearing on the current peace process, proposals which consider the needs of severely affected population groups such as women and indigenous people, and ideas which serve to strengthen participating institutions such as state authorities, non-governmental organisations and victims’ associations.
The project goal is to support the implementation of innovative pilot projects which foster peacebuilding and crisis prevention in Colombia.
Until November 2016, 29 measures have been supported, 25 of which have already been successfully completed. A total of 14 measures can be used as models for other parts of the country. For example, the ‘House of Remembrance’ in Tumaco in Nariño Department serves as a reminder of the conflict. Employees also offer victims training in how to assert their rights.
Twenty-four of the measures have been implemented at the local level in regions severely affected by the conflict. For example, a group of internally displaced persons in Florencia in Caquetá Department are currently learning how to cultivate and sell herbs. This provides an economic alternative for 37 families who previously earned a living from illegal coca production.
Nineteen of the initiatives supported by the project strengthen population groups particularly affected by the conflict. In Quindío Department, 80 families from the Embera Chami indigenous group have learned to assert their rights in accordance with the country’s law on victim protection. The non-governmental organisation Benposta, based in Bogotá, protected 145 children from forced recruitment by armed groups and found safe places for them to stay.