Colombia's "Consolidation" Plan: How is it going?

featuring

    Yamile Salinas Abdala Consultant, Instituto de Estudios para el Desarrollo y la Paz (INDEPAZ), Bogotá, Colombia

    Nancy Sánchez Méndez, Asociación MINGA, Bogotá, Colombia

with moderation and commentary by

    Adam Isacson, Senior Associate for Regional Security Policy, WOLA

Please RSVP by Friday, October 14 to Anthony Dest at adest@wola.org or (202) 797-2171

We are pleased to host a visit from two Colombian counterparts on an ongoing joint project (together with the Center for International Policy) to monitor and evaluate the Colombian government’s U.S-supported National Consolidation Plan.

A principal destination of post-Plan Colombia U.S. funding, “Consolidation” is a military-civilian effort that aims to secure a traditionally ungoverned zone, then to coordinate the arrival of absent government institutions and the services they provide. It is active in about half a dozen conflictive zones, most notably the La Macarena region in southern Colombia.

Consolidation has received hundreds of millions of dollars in support from U.S. government agencies, including the Defense Department. USAID has contracted (or is contracting) hundreds of millions more since 2010.

While the program’s design is an improvement over the 2000-2006 Plan Colombia, the reality of Consolidation is more complicated. Yamile Salinas and Nancy Sánchez have joined WOLA and CIP staff on visits to three Consolidation zones since 2009, and are in the midst of a projec that will take them back to the region next month.

Please join us for an update about Consolidation and our joint research effort.

Yamile Salinas Abdala, INDEPAZ: Ms. Salinas has worked for the Colombian government’s Inspector-General’s Office (Procuraduría General), Ombudsman’s Office (Defensoría del Pueblo), and Ministry of the Environment. She is a much-published writer and consultant with strong expertise in land tenure and rural development.

Nancy Sánchez Méndez, MINGA: Ms. Sánchez covers human rights, economic development and women’s rights in Colombia’s far south for MINGA, one of the country’s most recognized organizations for human rights advocacy and defense. She is the 2003 recipient of the Institute for Policy Studies’ Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award and the 2008 recipient of the Oak Human Rights Fellowship at Colby College.