Inclusive rural development for peace building in Colombia

Project overview

The project has benefitted more than 2,000 families within 60 civil society organizations of diverse nature, such as environmental, rural, indigenous, and women-led organizations, as well as cooperatives and associations of reincorporated people from FARC.  

This project is an initiative developed by the Embassy of Sweden and six Swedish organizations that are present in Colombia: ForumCiv, Diakonia, the Church of Sweden, the Lutheran World Federation, SweFOR and We Effect. The coordination and articulation of the six Swedish organizations have made it possible to diversify the project's action approaches and have a greater impact on social organizations, achieving as well high levels of trust and transparency between local organizations and donors.

The project focuses on two main areas of action:

1. Design and implementation of productive processes and initiatives for local rural development, with an emphasis on production for food security, value-added chains and creating sustainable livelihoods with a particular focus on women and youth; and
2. Strengthening of belonging, entrenchment and sustainability for territorial peace, by reconstructing social fabric and relationships based on mutual trust, promoting resilience and reconciliation through enhancing protection and self-protection and the care economy. The project will involve the creation of synergies and partnerships between civil society and the private sector to achieve a stable territorial peace that includes environmental sustainability and will target rural areas.

Period/duration: September 2019 – September 2023

Project goal: The project of the Group of Swedish Civil Society Organisations in Colombia aims to help rural communities and the reincorporated population in rural areas affected by the conflict to improve their living conditions after the signing of the Peace Agreement.

Objectives: 

1. Design and implementation of productive initiatives for local rural development with an emphasis on agro-ecological production for food sovereignty, the promotion of agri-food value chains and the creation of alliances between civil society and the private sector in order to generate sustainable livelihoods under a territorial approach.
2. The reconstruction of the social fabric and relationships of mutual trust through support for community resilience and reconciliation, the promotion of (self-) protection strategies and the promotion of care economy initiatives to generate a sense of belonging and roots in rural areas and guarantee stable peace.

Funded by: EU (Trust Fund for Peace) and Sida