Colombia: Expertise France aligned with European programming and the Colombian Government’s development policy

In Colombia, Expertise France’s activity is based on targeted bilateral support and the agency’s participation in large-scale regional cooperation programmes, with funds from the European Union and Agence Française de Développement (AFD).

Expertise France’s action is aligned with the two priorities defined by European programming: Peace, including the reduction of inequalities as root causes of violence and poverty, and the Environment, with the protection of biodiversity and promotion of green growth. This is reflected in existing regional projects through a Team Europe approach, as well as in the arrival, with new phases, of the EUROsociAL+ and El PAcCTO projects by 2024. These two priorities of EU programming are also consistent with the main lines of the development policy of Colombia’s new Government. Expertise France’s action in Colombia is based on three main areas: the fight against organised crime, the fight against climate change and the protection of biodiversity, and social protection.

Supporting the fight against organised crime with the European “EL PAcCTO” project

The support provided to Colombia by the EL PAcCTO project has produced both strategic and operational results. Firstly, Colombia has joined the initiative of the Latin American Committee on Internal Security (CLASI), created under the French Presidency of the Council of the EU, which brings together Latin American Ministers of the Interior and Security with their European counterparts to define strategies and public policies to fight against transnational organised crime. In addition, Colombia’s national police force and public prosecution office have conducted several major investigations and operations to fight environmental crime with support from the programme. For example, operation “Ornamental Fish”, coordinated with Brazil and Peru, has saved more than 20,000 Amazon fishes, with a value of $10 million. Secondly, the programme has supported the creation of an inter-institutional technical committee on alternative measures to imprisonment in the context of the country’s Council for Criminal Policy.

Supporting the green transition and combating climate change

The EU and its Member States are longstanding partners of Colombia and share common interests. They include efforts towards climate change adaptation and mitigation, protecting the environment, and promoting green growth. Through three ongoing regional projects, the agency is working on biodiversity issues and is supporting efforts related to climate change adaptation. Another regional project aims to assist countries of the Amazon basin with their green transition. A focus on two of these projects.

“Euroclima”, the EU’s flagship regional programme on climate action, was extended to the Caribbean in 2023 and is now implemented in 33 Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries, thereby contributing to the green and just transition in the region. It aims to reduce the impact of climate change and its effects by promoting climate change mitigation and adaptation. It also promotes resilience, investment and conservation for biodiversity, the circular economy, and climate finance. In Colombia, Euroclima aims to:

• Support the management and implementation of commitments under the zero-deforestation agreements (CDA) signed for the cocoa, meat, milk and palm oil chains
• Implement activities to achieve the objectives for deforestation control in the Amazon region and combine the efforts with the national climate change targets
• Strengthen instruments for integrated climate change management in the environment sector
• Develop and share strategies for the use, management and sustainable exploitation of products from forest biodiversity, and thereby generate benefits for local communities living in forest ecosystems
• Formulate and implement programmes and projects to allow indigenous peoples to sustainably and collectively use forests and biodiversity

The overall objective of the European “Amazonia+” programme is to increase the capacity of countries of the Amazon basin to mitigate CO2 emissions and adapt to the effects of climate change, significantly reduce deforestation and forest degradation, and improve the protection of forest biodiversity. The prevention of deforestation and forest degradation in the Amazon Forest is being strengthened in cooperation with indigenous peoples and local communities. It is currently in the start-up phase and has identified strategic directions to prioritise the areas of operation, the activities and opportunities for scaling up and coordination in the Amazon region, as well as potential beneficiaries and implementation mechanisms.

 

Social protection: ensuring the autonomy of elderly people

Expertise France also works in the field of social protection in Colombia. The “Facility on Ageing in Latin America and the Caribbean (VITAL)” was launched in 2020 by Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and is implemented by Expertise France and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Through on-demand technical assistance, VITAL aims to provide an appropriate response to the multi-dimensional consequences of the ageing of the Latin American population in five countries in the region (Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba and Dominican Republic. It includes a strong gender equality perspective through a Gender Help Desk.

The activities in Colombia started in 2022, with support from international experts who have provided four types of assistance:

• Technical assistance for the development of the National Silver Economy Strategy for the Departamento Nacional de Planificación (DNP) and Colpensiones
• Technical assistance for gender mainstreaming in care policies for the Departamento Nacional de Planificación (DNP)
• Technical assistance for the professionalisation and formalisation of caregivers
• Technical assistance for the creation of a National Register of Caregivers

More than 20 activities are planned with the Colombian partners in 2023. While the presidential elections in June 2022 have brought changes to the institutional landscape, VITAL is continuing to be developed on the ground.

Last May, the country made its mark during a regional activity of the VITAL project, as a virtual host of the 8th meeting of the CUIDAR+ regional network. This meeting made it possible to continue the exchanges between Latin American and Caribbean authorities on care issues and elderly care policies.