RGA PHOTO COLOMBIA REGIONAL GOVERNANCE ACTIVITY QUARTERLY REPORT: OCTOBER – DECEMBER 2019 JANUARY 31, 2020 This publication was produced for review by the United States Agency for International Development. It was prepared by Management Systems International (MSI), A Tetra Tech Company. COLOMBIA REGIONAL GOVERNANCE ACTIVITY QUARTERLY REPORT: OCTOBER – DECEMBER 2019 Management Systems International Corporate Offices 200 12th Street, South Arlington, VA 22202 USA Tel: + 1 703 979 7100 Contracted under AID-OAA-1-13-00042, Programming Effectively Against Conflict and Extremism (PEACE) IQC, Task Order No. AID-514-TO-15-00015 Colombia Regional Governance Activity DISCLAIMER The authors’ views expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Agency for International Development or the United States Government. CONTENTS ACRONYMS ............................................................................................................ II EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ........................................................................................ 4 NATIONAL CONTEXT ......................................................................................... 6 KEY ACTIVITIES AND RESULTS ........................................................................ 7 COMPONENT 6 ...................................................................................................................................................... 7 PROGRESS ASSESSMENT .................................................................................. 18 COORDINATION WITH OTHER USAID IMPLEMENTING PARTNERS ... 19 ACTIVITIES FOR NEXT QUARTER .................................................................. 19 TRANSFORMING LIVES ...................................................................................... 21 PLAYING SAFE ....................................................................................................................................................... 21 UNDERSTANDING THE REALITIES OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS .................................................................. 22 STRENGTHENING SCHOOL COMMUNITIES ............................................................................................ 24 IMPROVING COORDINATION WITH PUBLIC ENTITIES ...................................................................... 25 THE PATH AHEAD ............................................................................................................................................... 25 ANNEXES ............................................................................................................... 27 ANNEX 1: NATIONAL CONTEXT ANALYSIS ........................................................................................... 27 ANNEX 2: RGA-SUPPORTED PROJECTS THIS QUARTER ..................................................................... 29 ANNEX 3: DEPARTMENTAL HEALTH CARE ACCESS ROUTES .......................................................... 30 ANNEX 4: RGA GRANTS TO CSOS IN ARAUCA, LA GUAJIRA, AND NORTE DE SANTANDER IN THE FIRST QUARTER OF 2020 ...................................................................................... 33 ANNEX 5: CITIZEN OVERSIGHT GROUPS ................................................................................................. 34 ANNEX 6: PROGRESS ASSESSMENT .............................................................................................................. 35 ANNEX 7: COORDINATION WITH IMPLEMENTING PARTNERS AND OTHER INTERNATIONAL AID PROGRAMS ............................................................................................................... 36 USAID.GOV QUARTERLY REPORT: OCTOBER – DECEMBER 2019 | i ACRONYMS CBO Community-Based Organization COMPOS Consejo Municipal de Política Social (Municipal Council for Social Policy) CSO Civil Society Organization ELN Ejército de Liberación Nacional (National Liberation Army) FARC-EP Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – Ejército del Pueblo (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) FONPET Fondo de Ahorro Pensional Territorial (Territorial Pension Savings Fund) GBV Gender-Based Violence GIFMM Grupo Interagencial sobre Flujos Migratorios Mixtos (Interagency Group for Mixed Migration Flows) GOC Government of Colombia HCC Hagamos Control Ciudadano (Let’s Exercise Citizen Control) ICBF Instituto Colombiano de Bienestar Familiar (Colombian Family Welfare Institute) IOM International Organization for Migration LOP Life of Project MEN Ministerio de Educación Nacional (Ministry of Education) MOF Ministerio de Hacienda y Crédito Público (Ministry of Finance) NRC Norwegian Refugee Council OTI Office of Transition Initiatives PADF Pan American Development Foundation PAHO Pan American Health Organization PDM Plan de Desarrollo Municipal (Municipal Development Plan) PEGR Planes Escolares para la Gestión del Riesgo (School Risk Management Plans) PIC Plan de Intervenciones Colectivas (Collective Interventions Plan) PMP Performance Management Plan RGA Regional Governance Activity RNEC Registraduría Nacional del Estado Civil (National Civil Registry) ii | QUARTERLY REPORT: OCTOBER – DECEMBER 2019 USAID.GOV SENA Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje (National Institute for Learning) SIMAT Sistema Integrado de Matrícula (National Admissions Information System) SNG Sub-National Government SOW Statement of Work UAES Unidad Administrativa Especial de Salud (Special Administrative Health Unit) UNFPA United Nations Fund for Population Activities UNICEF United Nations Children's Fund UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees USAID United States Agency for International Development USAID.GOV QUARTERLY REPORT: OCTOBER – DECEMBER 2019 | iii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Regional Governance Activity (RGA) began on June 22, 2015, under Task Order No. AID-514-TO-15-00015, to be implemented over four and a half years. Its initial aim was to improve governance in 40 Colombian municipalities affected by the nation’s armed conflict through five program components: decentralization, public financial management, tertiary roads, citizen participation, and electoral reform. On April 23, 2019, RGA was awarded a six- month extension to June 21, 2020, to expand its work through a sixth component. Now RGA works with 10 sub-national governments (SNGs)1 in three border departments—Arauca, La Guajira, and Norte de Santander—to help them better cope with the challenges created by the influx of Venezuelan migrants and Colombian returnees in host communities. This quarterly report covers RGA activities between October and December 2019, corresponding to the first quarter of the 2020 fiscal year. The document provides an overview of the national context; information about RGA progress, accomplishments, and impacts; a summary of RGA coordination with USAID implementing partners and international donors; progress on program indicators; and a summary of activities scheduled to take place between January and March 2020. The quarterly report also includes a success story, entitled “Playing Safe,” and seven annexes that provide detailed information on selected program elements. Highlights this quarter include: • Support to SNGs to improve health service provision: RGA provided technical assistance to departmental and municipal health secretariats to develop public officials’ skills in registering migrants and returnees within the subsidized health care system. It did so by promoting the creation of census lists 2 and training officials in database maintenance in its three target departments. These efforts resulted in the registration of more than 1,200 migrant minors and returnees within census lists, which is needed for their registration within the subsidized health care regime.3 In addition, RGA worked with municipal health secretariats to conduct health care information sessions in Maicao and Uribia (La Guajira) to help migrants and returnees better understand requirements and documentation needed to be registered within the health care system. As a result of RGA’s support, more than 300 people have been directly registered within the health care system. • Support to SNGs to improve education service provision: RGA assisted 16 public schools in its 10 target municipalities to draft school risk management plans (PEGRs)4 and helped 13 of these schools reactivate their risk management school committees,5 with the remaining 3 under way. RGA support to PEGRs helped schools identify the risks their students face, such as 1 Arauca, Arauquita (Arauca); Maicao, Riohacha, Uribia (La Guajira); and Cúcuta, Los Patios, Puerto Santander, Tibú, Villa del Rosario (Norte de Santander). In the first four years of the program, RGA carried out activities in Arauquita (Arauca) and Tibú (Norte de Santander). The program had not worked with 8 out of these 10 municipalities: Arauca, (Arauca); Maicao, Riohacha, Uribia (La Guajira); and Cúcuta, Los Patios, Puerto Santander, Villa del Rosario (Norte de Santander). 2 Census lists are the legal instrument in Colombia to affiliate migrant minors and Colombians to the subsidized health care regime. 3 In Colombia, health care is a two-tiered system: one tier, the paid regime, covers citizens with the ability to pay for care, and the other, the subsidized regime, offers subsidized care for those unable to pay. 4 PEGRs are mandatory plans that public schools in Colombia must draft to identify risks and outline strategies that prevent or mitigate these. 5 A risk management school committee