Implementation of the Peace Accords supporting former coca growers

The Technical Secretariat of the United Nations Multi-Donor Fund for Sustaining Peace in Colombia visited the Contingency Plan that PASO Colombia is executing in the Rural Reserve Zone of the Amazon Pearl, municipality of Puerto Asis (Putumayo), located on the shores of the Cuembí river, and inhabited by approximately 800 families. Fund representatives spoke with Plan beneficiaries, checking on their progress and highlighting their experience in their newsletter.

This Plan covers 10 municipalities in the departments of Putumayo, Guaviare, Valle de Cauca, Norte de Santander, Antioquia and Meta. It supports at least 24,000 people from 2,000 families associated with the Comprehensive National Program for the Substitution of Illicit Use Crops (PNIS). Participating communities identify strategic areas in which they can focus their collective efforts to strengthen productive and commercial networks that offer viable alternatives to illegal economies. They are then trained and hired to work on the construction of collective infrastructures, the generation of new markets for their products and the strengthening of productive processes and organizations. The Plan has a strong gender focus and at least 80% of the participants are women. It has a childcare component in which a group of women are trained and paid to care for the children of mothers who participate in training activities and pay for community service.

With this Contingency Plan, PASO is helping to make the fourth chapter, called "Solution to the problem of illicit drugs", of the final Agreement to end the Conflict and build a stable and lasting peace a reality. The project also helps promote collaboration between ex-combatants and families who have decided to substitute crops for illicit use.