Caen

Colombia

Colombia

Mission start year: 
1998
Team: 
61 personnes

Type of intervention

  • Water and sanitation
  • Food security
  • Health

Places of interventions

  • Atlantic Coast (Department of Cesar, La Guajira, Córdoba)
  • South of the country (Department of Putumayo to Nariño)
     

Colombia is living the worst humanitarian crises of the western hemisphere, leading to a great suffering for the population. Decades of conflicts have left tens of thousands of dead among civilians and thousands of others missing or deported by the different groups involved.

ACF has worked in Colombia since 1997 through water and sanitation, food security and health programs. These projects have been designed to face the emergency, allowing resumption of activities and supporting populations affected by decades of conflicts.
 

 

 

Funding

  • ACCD
  • Swiss Confederation
  • AECID
  • UN-HABITAT
  • UNHCR
  • ECHO
  • Government of Castilla-La Mancha
     

Key figures of the country

  • Beneficiaries: 20,000
  • Population: 46.9 million
  • Life expectancy at birth: 73 years
  • Human Development Index: 0.689 (87 of 169)
Tags: 
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MAIN ACTIVITIES

 

Water and sanitation

  • Construction and rehabilitation of water and sanitation facilities
  • Construction of latrines
  • Distribution of water storage tanks
  • Distribution of domestic water filters
  • Monitoring of water quality (bacteriological and physic-chemical)
  • Creation and strengthening of water committees

 

Food security

  • Emergency distribution of food for the population
  • Distribution of agricultural equipment for the resumption of activities
  • Rehabilitation of facilities and means of production
  • Establishment of systems for food treatment and processing
  • Training and technical assistance in production
  • Market researches

 

Health

  • Monitoring of health indicators
  • Rehabilitation and equipping of health centers
  • Training of community health agents
  • Training and education in nutrition

 

 

HUMANITARIAN CONTEXT

 

Colombia is living the worst humanitarian crises of the western hemisphere, leading to a great suffering for the population. Since the 60s, Colombia knows an armed conflict involving the army, Marxist guerillas like the FARC or the ELN and paramilitary extreme right groups, formed by important landowners such as the United Self of Colombia (AUC) and the Aguilas Negras (Black Eagles). The figures speak for themselves: almost 4 million people were displaced or 9% of the total population. There are also other victims of the conflict, such as blocked or confined populations, or populations at risk of displacement.

The combination of displacements, structural poverty and insufficient assistance is the main cause of the crisis. The situation was aggravated by recurrent floods affecting each year the vast majority of the country. The past years have seen unusually long rainy seasons (almost 6 months in some cases) which ended  in floods or waterlogging of crops in villages of the Cordoba and La Mojana regions.

Government transition in Colombia could change the humanitarian context. Enacted laws by President Juan marcel Santos, such as the laws on victims and on land, can have a real impact on the humanitarian context. However, it is estimated that displacements will continue affecting especially indigenous populations and those descended from Africans, and populations in border areas.