Colombia

The Mobilization of Civil Society

As a member of the rather amorphous Colombian civil society, I sometimes ask myself what it is that has moved those of us who belong to private companies, universities, churches, chambers of commerce and other organizations to advocate on behalf of the communities in our region that are being plagued by violence or by poverty. I must turn to the brutal facts such as the Pertinentes publication that Father Francisco de Roux, director of the Peace and Development Consortium of Magdalena Medio, sends to us: Monica Paola Pulido Jerez- This is the name of the little one of only eight years, victim of a landmine found in the fields of Taraje, in the border between San Pablo and Yonda. Territory belonging to the Peace Laboratory. Monica has lost an arm, she can end up blind, and to this day, February 24th, she is fighting for her life in a hospital. It is the horrible reality of the Colombian farmers? land being used as a battlefield by groups that create a war in which 99 percent of us Colombians do not want."

Experiences like this, added to the fact that the State is incapable of preventing these painful everyday circumstances for Colombians or responding to necessities in many regions, provide a strong motivation for civil society action,That's why so many of us pushed for the creation of the so-called ?Programs of Integral Development and Peace? in these regions.

As we progressively became aware that the circumstances were too much for our capacity, we have gone beyond this, creating a network between 15 of such programs: REDPRODPAZ (The National Network of Development and Peace Programs). By sharing various programs? goals, principles, and criteria for taking action, we can work together towards strengthening each other in order to create conditions that will make Colombia a country in which human, integral, sustainable, equal, and unifying development of its population is possible.

These programs, with various routes and action mechanisms, operate in zones that have been highly affected by the armed conflict, which in turn demand significant investment of all kinds of resources. Some of these programs have been able to consolidate important human groups and logistical support that allows them to effectively reach their main objectives. Others, however, that are beginning to take action, have serious operational hindrances and the important task that they are trying to achieve is being threatened by the impossibility of ensuring the availability of a necessary amount of resources. The need to strengthen them and to ensure the sustainability of their actions is what primarily guides our work in REDPRODEPAZ.

Also, we are united by the goal of constructing a different model of development in Colombia from the local and regional level, adequately interpreting the different logics that are found in each of them. In this necessary measure we take a chance by working together with the national government and by seeking the help of international cooperation, extending to them an invitation to change the traditional way of intervention where models that are in conflict with their own dynamic of development in the regional communities are imposed.

This challenge involves the possibility of formalizing an alliance with Harvard University through the David Rockefeller Center of Latin American Studies in order to strengthen ourselves through various experiences that have been developed in other parts of the world and that have been used by this institution.

Before I began to coordinate the REDPRODEPAZ, I was in the process of organizing, operating, and directing one of the smaller programs, Peace and Competitiveness in the Center of Coffee-Production. This program is unique because it is operated by a regional university, the Autonomous University of Manizales. Its purpose lies not only in the advancement of developmental projects that benefit the vulnerable communities at the center of coffee-production, which face the additional difficulty of not being a top priority for governments or cooperating organizations because they are considered to be located in ?not-so vulnerable? zones. Instead, its objective lies in the formation of another category of professionals in Colombia, professionals who are sensitive to our reality, committed to it, and with an ability to positively and creatively transform it.

This program brings together interdisciplinary groups of senior students?combining professions like mechanical engineers with industrial design and physiotherapy in projects)?working together in teams, always guided by a researcher from the faculty and supported on a permanent basis by specialized consultants in each area. The activities that result from the program are not left behind after just one academic semester. Rather, they are articulated every semester, generating long-term processes that create continuity and make the supported projects more viable.

From my point of view, this is a prioritized labor and it is where an important transformation could be generated. Colombia is hurt and destroyed by the incompetence of its leaders in orienting and governing it in an adequate way. The corruption and, in some cases, the incompetence of its government workers and functionaries are evils that are as threatening as the existence of armed groups within the margin of the law.

However, beyond the rhetoric and the altruistic labor of professionals that I have described is the reality of this program as a product of a similar experience, which was much less structured and supported by the university.

In 1989, when I was a senior in my last semester of Industrial Engineering in the Universidad de los Andes, when corporate practices where being created for the Faculty of Engineering, the mayor of a small municipality in the department of Cundinamarca challenged the University? asserting that not one of the professionals that it was educating with the best techniques in the country, guided by the North American models, had the abilities to confront the problem that he faced on a daily basis in the small municipality of Tabio.

In this way,I got to work in Tabio and joined the Municipal Public Services Company. The skills I obtained at the university meant Tabio had the possibility of improving its quality of service and of generating resources for investment in this and other prioritized necessities, strengthening the already deteriorated income provided by federal government transfers.

This was an important accomplishment, but what was really significant for me was how it changed my conception of my own life. I went from being a professional worried about landing an important position in a national or family-owned company to actually starting serious work on my own in order to change the conditions within various regions of Colombia. During the remainder of my time at the university, I educated myself on certain topics that would allow me to know Colombia better. From my university base, I worked at the tables of the Constituency (considered in 1990 and 1991 as a base for the constitutional reform of 1991).

As a result of this experience an important initiative for this country was created: ?Option Colombia,? (see ReVista, Giving and Volunteering, Spring 2002) in which students from various universities work together to support many developmental projects in the most remote and vulnerable municipalities of the different regions of Colombia. My professional work has been dedicated to transforming Colombia's conditions in many ways work in governmental entities, international cooperation organizations, and in the last couple of years, the creation and support of regional programs for peace and development.

Juliet Rincon is an industrial engineer from the Universidad de Los Andes with post-graduate studies in Economics, 12 years of professional experience in the areas of planning institutional development and strengthening, and in national entities. Coordinator for the National Network of Development and Peace Programs, REDPRODEZPAZ.