World Bank -Colombia- Trust Fund for Peace 2014-2022

The Multidonor Trust Fund (MDTF) was initially set up for a period of five years with an expected closure on December the 31st, 2018. However, the members of the Steering Committee agreed to extend the funding to adjust the MDTF in line with a request from the Government of Colombia (GoC), and to ensure achievement of the objectives. On December the 5th, 2017 an amendment was signed to extend the activity period until December the 30th, 2019. This was followed by three additional amendments: a second extension was agreed on August the 26th 2019 which extended the activities until September the 30th, 2020; on July 27th, 2020, a third amendment was signed that extended activities until September the 30th, 2021. Finally, the last amendment was signed on March the 26th 2021 extending the activities until September the 30th, 2022. The last reporting period took place between October 2020 to May 2022, and a reimbursement of USD 132.752 was made the 17th of November 2022, equivalent to SEK 1 395 436. The Colombia Peace & Post-Conflict Support and MDTF financing contributed to strengthening the efforts of the GoC in building territorial peace and implementing the post-conflict agreement. This was achieved by consolidating knowledge based on field experience; leveraging international best practices to inform operational designs and approaches in peace building; providing seed funding to test innovative approaches and pilots; and contributing to institutions strengthening via the systematization of processes and procedures. Under the implementation period of the contribution, several important results were achieved within the different components of the contribution. Some of which will be highlighted below: Collective victims reparation Within the first component, despite the slow start-up and low disbursement in the first three years, the project made notable progress in 2018 and 2019. The activities for this output ended on August 30, 2019, when 93% of the 4,7million USD appropriated funds had been executed. All proposed goals for Strengthening national and sub-national capacities to execute the Collective Reparation Program have been met. Furthermore, the development of frameworks, guidelines, model and collective reparation route have been produced and disseminated jointly with other government entities. The project supported 123 measures of collective reparation plans (64 restitution measures, 35 satisfaction measures and 9 for guarantee of non-repetition) of which 35 were for ethnic groups, 9 for peasants communities and 15 for organizations, movements or groups of victims. The main achievements are as follows: (i) the development, validation, and adoption of a collective reparation framework, which makes collective reparations doable and affordable within specific parameters and time frames required; (ii) an improved information system for collective reparations that is interconnected with other systems, with a security module to improve connections between them, and (iii) an operational model for the implementation of reparation plans at the national and local level, developed and used by the Victims Unit and by members of the National System for Attention and Integral Reparation to Victims (SNARIV). This project strengthened the position of the Victims Unit with the SNARIV, which facilitated coordination of multiple public actors to deliver the collective reparation plans. Furthermore, to improve knowledge management, the information system of the Unit for the Reparation of Victims (UARIV) was strengthened through improvements and recommendations made by a consultancy firm, based on a diagnosis of 62 information systems. In addition, several meetings for an exchange of experiences among victims organizations were held. In august 2019 a final meeting for knowledge exchange was held, where 50 representatives of different organizations participated. The participants shared positive results and challenges based of the implemented programs for the reconstruction of social fabric, psychosocial support, conflict resolution and coordination with other public institutions. The Embassy participated and witnessed the important impact of all developed programs for collective reparation of victims. Multipurpose Cadaster System The first technical assistance (TA) project had three components: the Advisory Committee, Learning and Knowledge Sharing and Research and Investigation. Despite the problems caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the technical assistance made noteworthy progress due to the leading role played by the High Counsellor for Management and Compliance (under the Colombian Presidency) and the boost given by the loan of US$100 million, that was agreed between the WB Board and the Colombian government in 2019. The government requested a second technical assistance from the WB to define and implement the recommendations from previous assistance, provided in 2017 and 2018, with the 7 multipurpose cadaster pilots and the advisory committee, in which the Swedish Cadastral Authority (Lantmäteriet) participated. The second TA continued to provide support in the following areas: 1. Strategic and technical coordination of the Multipurpose Cadastral Project; 2. Cartography production and geodetic network for the Agustín Codazzi Geographic Institute (Spanish Acronym is IGAC); 3. Streamlined land tenure formalization procedures for the Ministry of Agriculture and National Land Agency (Spanish acronym is ANT); 4. Strengthening of ICT systems and concepts for the IGAC and Superintendency of Registries and Notaries (Spanish Acronym is SNR); 5. Alternative Dispute Resolution Mechanisms (Spanish acronym is MASC) in land related matters in post-conflict municipalities. There were significant results in all areas. For instance, institutions such as the ANT and IGAC have changed internal rules to simplify procedures for formalization, interoperability between cadaster and registry and conflict resolution mechanisms, based on the WBs recommendations. As regards the cadaster, the WBs technical assistance has influenced legal and technical reforms to develop public policy for multipurpose cadaster (CONPES 3958, March 26, 2019) and will continue supporting the implementation of this policy through the approved loan in 72 municipalities. In 2020 consultants were contracted to support the multipurpose cadastral system in environmentally protected areas, aimed at preventing deforestation and the transformation of natural ecosystems. The consultants developed an operational manual, an interinstitutional framework agreement and a proposal for a procurement strategy and plan. These were a prerequisite to develop the whole environmental cadastral system in 40 municipalities in the Departments of Caquetá, Guaviare, Putumayo, Meta, Arauca, Antioquia, Chocó, Cordoba and Bolivar. The TA in 2020 included virtual training in land issues, as these issues could create bottlenecks for updating the cadastral system and for land formalization processes that could be solved using existing conciliation resources offered by the Ombudsman's of Colombia (Defensoria del Pueblo), the Chamber of Commerce or the police inspection. The WB provided training, guidance, and orientation to 363 people. The Embassy participated in one of these training and our assessment is that trainings were of high quality, included relevant content and generated positive response from participants. Throughout the process, the TA was successful in bringing together and coordinating many interested donors, for example USAID, the EU, Switzerland, Netherlands, and Spain in supporting the GoCs multipurpose cadaster through a unified approach. ComuniPaz ComuniPaz, is a multisector platform that accelerates the implementation of public service delivery in the municipalities most affected by the armed conflict. The project would be realized through a procurement process to identify firms for implementing priorities of the Territorial Development Plan (PDET is the acronym in Spanish) in selected municipalities of Catatumbo and Chocó subregions. In 2019 it was agreed that the ComuniPaz project should start to prepare the Terms of Reference and technical annex that would be part of the procurement process. This technical assistance was delayed in 2020 due to the COVID 19 pandemic and in 2021 because of internal changes that took place in ART, and therefore the activity period was extended until 2022. Furthermore, as a consequence of the pandemic the GoC changed their priorities and cancelled the loan request made for PDET, which made implementation of ComuniPaz even harder. During 2021 the WB however achieved the following: i): Reviewed the Technical Annex prepared by the ART´s team describing the activities and documentation required for the structuring of projects and provided written feedback; ii): Drafted a detailed methodology with the steps required to ensure the direct involvement of community and local organizations iii): Prepared a final version of the Technical Annex and iv): contracted and reviewed an English version of the Technical Annex, a requirement of the Bank´s procurement process. Despite the project being fully structured with ART, and all the internal processes with the procurement were carried out, the selection process was declared void, as the Bank did not receive a proposal from any of the short-listed firms interested in the execution of the TA. The World Bank mentioned that two factors primary contributed to this failure: firstly, a delay in the approval of the terms of reference by Bank procurement which made the time available for the consultancy services shorter than desirable; and secondly, the costing parameters provided by the ART for the task were unrealistic. The Embassy's general assessment is that the World Bank has complied with the objective of improving the Government of Colombia's timely access to global expertise and finance for consolidating the peace process and the implementation of peace agreements in the two strategic areas of multipurpose cadaster policy and collective victim reparations. Most of the proposed activities were carried out and their objectives achieved. In effect, by the close of the fund 94.3 percent of the resources were disbursed and executed. As stated in the WB Final report, this is a high percent compared to other trust funds in the Bank´s portfolio of Colombia. However, as previously mentioned, this was not the case with the ComuniPaz project that ultimately failed. Within the cadastral component the leadership and willingness from the GoC has been very evident, and the WB has demonstrated its consistent capacity over 7 years. The Embassy's assessment is that the TA has contributed to effective coordination between different relevant public institutions such as the National Planning Department (Spanish Acronym is DNP), IGAC, SNR and ANT with a common action plan and support to modify the legal framework when any bottlenecks were identified. The TA program has resulted in a close dialogue between the WB experts and the leading institution that has been highly appreciated and that has also achieved concrete results.

To improve the Government of Colombia timely access to global expertise and financing for peace consolidation and the implementation of peace agreements.