Over the past several years, PASO Colombia has been working hand in hand with rural communities struggling to leave armed conflict behind. In doing so PASO has been partnering with them to perfect the ERA collaboration model, mobilizing local intelligence and resources, and connecting them to national and international institutional knowledge, capital, and markets. In 2020, PASO was able to adapt and scale-up this model, initially developed to support the collective reincorporation of FARC ex-combatants, and successfully apply it to promote sustainable rural development in the territories most affected by armed conflict, working with other actors like ex-coca growers and Venezuelan migrants.
In particular, PASO Colombia worked hand in hand with the Colombian government, and the UN Multipartner Trust Fund for Sustaining Peace in Colombia, to apply the ERA model to Colombia’s Integrated National Program for the Substitution of Illicitly Used Crops. This program, contemplated in part 4 of the peace agreement, was meant to support individuals voluntarily substituting coca crops for legal agricultural projects. Building on the ERA model, PASO Colombia was able to deliver results for over 4000 Colombians, building new markets and creating measurable improvements in social trust among participants. PASO Colombia is moving into 2021 confident in the knowledge that the ERA model can work at a significant scale to help build sustainable peace in rural Colombia, transforming the traditional logic of aid and turning the communities into active drivers of sustainable development in their own territories.
Program Incubation Progress
