USAID CBJ FY 2002: Colombia

Summary: USAID has been tasked with implementing the bulk of the U.S. Government's ambitious development assistance in support to Plan Colombia. Under the new strategy, justice and human rights activities implemented as part of the former justice sector objective (514-001) are broadened and the objective expanded to include activities to strengthen local governance, reduce corruption, increase citizen participation in political decision-making and to support the peace process. The ultimate beneficiaries of this program are all Colombian citizens who will be able to rely on a more accessible and effective judicial system, and benefit from stronger, more transparent government (at the local and national level) that can more effectively respond to their needs, reduce corruption and ensure greater respect for human rights.

USAID will continue to strengthen the criminal justice system by helping to enhance the capacity of the criminal justice sector to plan and establish effective policies. This will be done by strengthening national and local-level justice sector institutions and by promoting the use of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms under initiatives such as the Justice Houses program. To achieve these goals, USAID will work in close collaboration with the Ministry of Justice, the Superior Judicial Council and the National Ombudsman's Office. In cooperation with the U.S. Department of Justice, USAID will continue working with the Public Defender's Office, the Prosecutor General's Office, and the Attorney General's Office in supporting the transition from an inquisitorial criminal justice system to a more efficient and transparent oral system. USAID will also work with NGOs, universities, and other civil society actors to identify bottlenecks to progress, to increase coalition building, and to support needed reforms in the criminal justice system.

USAID's program will address Colombia's human rights crisis and provide state and civil society organizations with the technical assistance and equipment needed to address it. The program's general objective is straightforward: to enhance and broaden respect for human rights in Colombia. The focus is primarily on the first generation of human rights, including civil and political rights (e.g., freedom from torture, coercion, forced disappearance and arbitrary acts of war). Second generation rights -- including economic, social and cultural rights - will also be addressed. The program focuses on the prevention of human rights abuses through activities such as the establishment of an early warning system to prevent massacres and forced displacement and through activities to support the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. It also aims to protect human rights workers by providing security equipment to those individuals, groups and organizations whose claims have been reviewed, validated and approved under the protection program. Moreover, this program will significantly strengthen the ability of the Office of the Vice President to monitor and track abuses nationwide.

USAID will work to ensure that municipal governments will be able to respond to citizen priorities through a collaborative planning process and increased management capacity. In implementing a strategy to increase the responsiveness, effectiveness and, thus, the legitimacy of local governments in the eyes of citizens, USAID is taking an approach centered around the planning and implementation of small, locally-based projects that result from community participation, improve the municipalities' capacity to implement and manage projects, and promote transparency in financial management and decision-making. At least one small project per targeted municipality will be funded in the first year and two small and one large project in each successive year in approximately 100 communities in eight departments. Programs implemented at the local level will complement internally displaced persons activities and ongoing alternative development activities.

In anti-corruption, USAID will work with each Government of Colombia (GOC) ministry and department to: 1) put an internal control system in place regularly monitored by the Controller General's Office; and 2) train municipalities in all 32 Departments in financial management/internal controls and mechanisms to release municipal budget information to citizens. Concurrently, working with a coalition of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), a national public awareness campaign will educate at least 50% of citizens on their rights and responsibilities in fighting corruption. Additionally, $1.2 million in small-grants will be provided to individual NGOs as well as citizen's groups to identify and combat corruption.

For the peace process, USAID will support initiatives that educate and foster further commitment to the establishment of peace in Colombia. In support of these initiatives, grants will be provided to a variety of U.S. and Colombian institutions, including universities, NGOs and other civil society organizations, to undertake local research, workshops, conferences, training, operational projects and internships. A contract may also be signed to provide institutional support to the GOC's Office of the High Commissioner for Peace.

New activities designed to broadened citizen participation in political decision-making will be developed later in FY 2001.

Key Results: Results of the justice and human rights activities are described in Strategic Objective 514-001. Local governance, anti-corruption and peace process activities are being initiated in FY 2001 and thus no significant results can be reported at this time. Contractors have been selected for the local governance and anti-corruption programs and implementation recently began. In addition, a USAID review committee is analyzing various proposals from local and international NGOs and universities dedicated to undertaking research, conducting training and implementing peace-related projects in Colombia.

Performance and Prospects: USAID anticipates that by the end of FY 2002, a total of 40 Justice Houses will be created and in operation throughout the country. As a result, nearly 300,00 people per year will benefit from the services provided by the Justice Houses, thus significantly expanding access to justice to thousands of impoverished and marginalized Colombians. To help transform the current inquisitorial judicial system to a modern, accusatory system of justice, 12 oral trial courtrooms will be established and functioning by FY 2002. In conjunction with this effort, by the end of FY 2002, 50% of Colombian judicial officials will have received the training necessary to conduct oral trial procedures significantly increasing the number of criminal cases resolved per year through the formal court system. Moreover, it is projected that by 2002, the necessary modifications of the Colombian criminal procedures codes will be implemented in virtually all circuit courts.

Under the human rights program, by the end of FY 2002, the early warning system will have been established in at least five departments in Colombia including, Putumayo and Caquetá. This will help guarantee the ability of the Colombian state to effectively prevent massacres and forced displacement. Moreover, by the end of FY 2002, the protection strategy within the human rights program will have been developed and an effective monitoring and management system will be used to help guarantee the safety of numerous journalists, union leaders, members of NGOs, and other groups and individuals under threat. Finally, USAID's support will permit the Vice-Presidency to implement its human rights action plan, thereby significantly increasing the protection of the fundamental rights of children, women, Afro-Colombians, indigenous groups, and other vulnerable groups.

As of January 2001, the local governance and anti-corruption programs began preliminary implementation activities and contractors under each program are in place. With respect to local governance, USAID anticipates that by the end of 2002, over 40 targeted local governments throughout eight departments will have greater administrative and operational capacity to implement citizen priorities. In conjunction with this goal, targeted municipal governments will have strengthened various participatory decision-making mechanisms to assure that resources and projects are directed at solving the priority concerns of participatory communities in a transparent manner. By the end of FY 2002, at least 50 small infrastructure projects will have been implemented in these 40 municipalities.

In its effort to strengthen GOC internal control systems, by the end of FY2002, the anti-corruption program will have implemented systems of internal control in at least 8 ministries with fully staffed and trained internal control units. Working with the Comptroller General of the Republic, approximately 75% of departmental assemblies and municipal councils will be trained in fiscal control, financial management, and internal audit systems. Additionally, audit systems will be in place for all government entities and standardized through national legislation. Under the citizen participation component of this program, at least 50% of the adult population will have basic knowledge about their rights and duties in exercising citizen oversight and control, through the National Awareness Campaign. Also, by the end of FY 2002, approximately $500,000 in small grants will have been distributed to Colombian NGO's for small projects promoting transparency and citizen oversight.

It is estimated that by FY 2002, USAID's peace grants will have been executed for a total amount of roughly 1.5 million dollars. These grants will have significantly contributed to the inclusion of women's empowerment and gender issues into the peace process and related dialogue, will have served to create sustainable food security mechanisms for populations of impoverished regions, and will have assisted in the training of journalists in improving the quality of coverage performed in support of the peace process. By the end of FY 2002, USAID will have also provided assistance to the Colombian High Commissioner for Peace in order to conduct activities in support of the peace process.

Possible Adjustments to Plans: All of the democracy programs will require political will at the national and local levels to follow through on the technical assistance and training provided through our contractors. A continuing favorable policy environment is expected during the Pastrana administration. Assistance to local governments is based on the assumption that the contractor will have access to the program's target municipalities. The security situation will determine the pace of activity implementation and where the activities may have to be reoriented and georaphic location adjusted.

Other Donor Programs: There is considerable synergy between the work of the USAID program and projects being planned by other donors. The World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) have arranged a $750 million loan for the social safety net, a major source of funds for USAID target municipalities. The United Nations High Commission for Human Rights maintains a very active office in Colombia and the GOC has secured a loan from the IDB to upgrade the Controller General's infrastructure.

Principal Contractors, Grantees, or Agencies: U.S. contractors include: Associates for Rural Development (local governance) and Casals & Associates (anti-corruption). Contracts to implement the justice and human rights programs will be awarded in April 2001.

Colombia 514-007

U.S. Financing

(In thousands of dollars)

	Obligations		Expenditures		Unliquidated
Through September 30, 1999	0	DA	0	DA	0	DA
	0	CSD	0	CSD	0	CSD
	0	INC (P.C.)	0	INC (P.C.)	0	INC (P.C.)
	0	INC	0	INC	0	INC
	0	ESF	0	ESF	0	ESF
	0	DFA	0	DFA	0	DFA
Fiscal Year 2000	0	DA	0	DA
	0	CSD	0	CSD
	47,000	INC (P.C.)*	0	INC (P.C.)
	0	INC	0	INC
	0	ESF	0	ESF
	0	DFA	0	DFA
Through September 30, 2000	0	DA	0	DA	0	DA
	0	CSD	0	CSD	0	CSD
	47,000	INC (P.C.)*	0	INC (P.C.)	47,000	INC (P.C.)
	0	INC	0	INC	0	INC
	0	ESF	0	ESF	0	ESF
	0	DFA	0	DFA	0	DFA
Prior Year Unobligated Funds	0	DA
	0	CSD
	0	INC (P.C.)
	0	INC
	0	ESF
	0	DFA
Planned Fiscal Year 2001 NOA	0	DA
	0	CSD
	0	INC (P.C.)
	0	INC
	0	ESF
	0	DFA
Total Planned Fiscal Year 2001	0	DA
	0	CSD
	0	INC (P.C.)
	0	INC
	0	ESF
	0	DFA
			Future Obligations		Est. Total Cost
Proposed Fiscal Year 2002 NOA	0	DA	0	DA	0	DA
	0	CSD	0	CSD	0	CSD
	0	INC (P.C.)	0	INC (P.C.)	47,000	INC (P.C.)
	20,000	INC	59,000	INC	79,000	INC
	0	ESF	0	ESF	0	ESF
	0	DFA	0	DFA	0	DFA

Colombia

Activity Data Sheet

Colombia 514-007

U.S. Financing