Inclusive rural development for peace building in Colombia

In March 2024, ForumCiv and five other Swedish CSOs succesfully ended the implementation of the project titled "Comprehensive rural development for the promotion of sustainable peace in Colombia" in 60 municipalities in 10 departments of Colombia: Caquetá, Guaviare, Cauca, Arauca, Huila and Tolima.
Farmers from the Guaviare region in Colombia
Farmers and environmental promoters of the Ascatrui association, which is made up of around 100 families who, through the Aremos Paz project, received training related to livestock reconversion, with the aim of reducing the negative effects of livestock farming in the territory. The training focused on the management of pastures, forage banks, improving stables, making silage and agroecological management of crops, in addition to support for the processes of adapting stalls and dividing pastures.

Project overview

The project 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.  

The 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 made it possible to diversify the project's action approaches and enabled a greater impact on social organizations, achieving as well high levels of trust and transparency between local organizations and donors.

The project focused 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 – March 2024

Project goal: The project of the Group of Swedish Civil Society Organisations in Colombia aimed 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