PROGRAMA CIMIENTOS – BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA – QUARTERLY REPORT JANUARY – MARCH 2008 APRIL 30, 2008 This publication was produced for review by the United States Agency for International Development. It was prepared by Management Systems International. PROGRAMA CIMIENTOS – BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA – QUARTERLY REPORT JANUARY – MARCH 2008 Contracted under Task Order Contract: DFD-I-03-05-00221-00 Colombia Regional Governance & Consolidation Program CIMIENTOS DISCLAIMER The author’s views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Agency for International Development or the United States Government. CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 1 II. ACTIVITIES BY COMPONENT AT THE NATIONAL LEVEL .............................. 1 A. Component 1. Improving Citizen Security and Effective State Presence in Health and Education ................................................................................................. 1 B. Component 2: Building governance capacity in targeted regions ............................. 6 C. Cross-cutting component: Civil Society ................................................................. 11 III. ACTIVITIES AND CONTEXT AT THE REGIONAL LEVEL ............................... 14 A. National Level .......................................................................................................... 14 B. Bajo and Medio Atrato ............................................................................................. 15 C. Catatumbo ................................................................................................................ 22 D. Sierra Nevada ........................................................................................................... 24 IV. INDICATORS MATRIX ............................................................................................... 29 V. CASE STUDY ................................................................................................................. 30 ANNEX 1: RAPID RESPONSE FUND WINDOWS TABLE ............................................... 32 BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA – QUATERLY REPORT i JANUARY – MARCH 2008 I. INTRODUCTION During the fourth program quarter (January to March 2008), MSI focused on supporting the departmental and municipal planning process to ensure that plans are developed in a participatory manner and include community priorities and that the topics required by law, measurable indicators and legal procedures and deadlines are respected. MSI also focused on strengthening the plans’ security, education and health sections. A total of four departments and 24 municipalities received direct technical assistance on this critical topic. In addition, MSI promoted cooperating between communities and municipal administrations through the facilitation of 11 community assemblies (mesas de concertacion) to agree upon the selection of small infrastructure projects, together with the local administration to become a Bases project. In total, 2,517 citizens and government officials (882 women, 1010 afro-colombians, 116 indigenous, 70 IDPs, 96 youths) benefitted from program support during the quarter. This report is divided into six sections, including the introduction. The second section describes the activities under the program components. The third section details activities undertaken at the national level and in each of the three CIMIENTOS regions. The fourth section shows program progress, according to the USAID, Acción Social and contract indicators. The fifth section is a success story on MSI technical assistance to the preparation of the municipal development plan in Riosucio. The sixth section is a table of expenditures for the reporting period. Annex 1 includes a list of projects under the rapid response fund, including grants. II. ACTIVITIES BY COMPONENT AT THE NATIONAL LEVEL A. Component 1. Improving Citizen Security and Effective State Presence in Health and Education Subcomponent 1.1: Citizen Security/Prevention and Coexistence During the quarter, MSI created a simple guide to help orient municipal government officials on the legal requirements for security action plans and sections on citizen security in municipal and departmental development plans. MSI also began promoting the creation of Security Councils at the municipal and departmental level to assist in the development of preventative security measures as well as help provide recommendations to mayor and governor’s offices to define priority topics to include in the security action plans, in accordance with Colombian law. To date, the councils have not been fulfilling their role in assisting mayors and governors to formulate the security action plans. Also, the councils have been meeting only in reaction to severe security issues, rather than meeting on a regular basis to discuss prevention measures. To help Security Councils comply with their legal responsibilities, MSI created a guide on how the Security Councils are required to operate and the councils’ role in providing input into the security section of the Development Plans and the formulation of the Security Plans. During the reporting period, MSI, together with the Safe Departments and Municipalities (Departamentos y Municipios Seguros – DMS) program, hosted a Security Council meeting in Valledupar after receiving a request from the mayor on January 9. Participants in the council meeting included the mayor, 1 citizen, 3 municipal public officials, 1 departmental public official and 10 national government public officials. Colonel Henao, former DMS director, presented the objective of the Security Councils and the role Security Councils play in helping administrations create security action plans. Due to MSI’s discussions with the mayor of Valledupar, the Security Council participants not only included the police and army BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA – QUATERLY REPORT 1 JANUARY – MARCH 2008 (which is typically the case), but also the public control entities (Prosecutor General’s Office, Inspector General’s Office, Controller General’s Office). Additionally, the Valledupar mayor assigned the responsibility of creating the security action plan to the Secretary of Planning instead of the police (the entity which typically creates the plan, despite the mayor’s office’s requirement by law to do so). This demonstrates the mayor’s understanding that security is first, the mayor’s responsibility. Also, it demonstrates his willingness to have the public administration play an active role in the topic instead of having the police manage security in isolation. Colombian National Police (CNP) In late January, the program’s principal counterpart in the CNP, the DMS program, changed directors. USAID advised MSI to halt all activities with the CNP, not only the DMS program, until the new director Coronel Londoño presented an action plan for DMS, which would reorient the priorities of the program, and a coordination meeting could be set up. Meetings with Coronel Londoño have been scheduled for April. Ministry of Interior and Justice (MIJ) On March 12, MSI met with the MIJ program counterparts to present the CIMIENTOS activities planned for 2008. The director of the Public Order Department (Dirección de Orden Público) attended the meeting, after multiple MSI attempts to coordinate with this department over the last year. The director agreed to continue to coordinate with MSI on security activities identified with the CNP’s DMS program. Activities planned for April – June 2008 April 23: Meeting with Colonel Londoño of DMS to identify joint program activities. April 24: Meeting with the Vice-minister of MIJ to identify initiatives to improve the municipal security budgets. Begin activities for the creation of Prevention and Co-existence Observatories in the Norte de Santander and Cesar departments. Subcomponent 1.2: Health During the quarter, MSI focused on providing technical assistance on the formulation of the health sections of development plans to 4 departments and 24 municipalities. MSI provided a guide to all CIMIENTOS departments and municipalities explaining the health topics the municipal administrations are required to include in their development plans. Additionally, MSI concentrated efforts on disseminating to local health officials the Ministry of Social Protection’s (Ministerio de Protección Social – MPS) new health resolution # 425 passed on February 11, 2008. The resolution establishes the methodology and requirements for the development of Territorial Health Plans by mayor’s offices. Similar to municipal development plans, the health plans include goals, activities, and responsibilities in this sector during the next four years of the municipal administration. Because the MPS passed the resolution quite late in the planning process, local officials expressed concern regarding their lack of understanding of the resolution and its short timeline for compliance. As a result, MSI held 17 participatory working sessions in 12 municipalities and one department on the identification of municipal health priorities according to the resolution’s new thematic priorities and in relation to the Municipal and Departmental Development Plans. A total of 128 participants (53 women, 41 afro-colombians, 11 indigenous, 1 IDP and 2 youths), including mayors, presidents of the municipal councils, representatives of health service providers, personeros, directors of local hospitals, municipal managers of SISBEN (survey