Inter-American Foundation An Independent Agency of the U.S. Government FOIA IAF-2018-009 April 24, 2018 Via email to foia@americanoversight.org 1030 16th Street NW Suite B255 Washington, DC 2005 Dear Mr. Evers, This letter is in response to your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) email inquiry, received on April 2, 2018. In that email you submitted the following request: 1. All records related to any use of air travel for official government business (including first-class or business-class commercial travel or use of government-owned or government-leased aircraft, chartered aircraft, or aircraft owned by a business entity or private individual) by any member of IAF’s Board of Directors or Advisory Council or any spouse, child, or other relative of a member of IAF’s Board of Directors or Advisory Council. IAF may exclude from its response records relating solely to scheduled, economy-class commercial service. For purposes of this request, travel is “for official government business” if the travel involves attendance or participation at any meeting or event within the purview of a Board or Advisory Council member’s official duties, even if some or most of the trip involves personal activities. Responsive records include, but are not limited to, communications requesting use of air travel other than scheduled, economy-class commercial service; communications involving approval or denial of such use of air travel; booking confirmations or other records; itineraries; bills; receipts; travel manifests; travel vouchers; requests for IAF to reimburse travel expenses; and records reflecting reimbursements paid by IAF. 2. All records reflecting travel arrangements or travel expenses requested, made, or incurred by or on behalf of any spouse, child, or other relative of a member of IAF’s Board of Directors or Advisory Council. Responsive records include, but are not limited to, requests for travel arrangements to be made; confirmations of travel bookings or other arrangements; requests for approval to incur travel expenses; records reflecting or seeking reimbursement from relatives for travel expenses incurred on their behalf; requests for agency reimbursement to relatives for travel expenses or for agency payment of travel expenses incurred on their behalf; and evidence of actual payment or reimbursement of travel expenses, such as payment confirmations or receipts. For the purpose of this request, travel arrangements and expenses include, but are not limited to, arrangements or charges for hotels or similar accommodations; commercial airfare; use of government aircraft or other government transportation; train tickets; taxis, rideshares, or other car services; transit tickets or passes; per diem allowances; or expenses for food, beverages, or incidentals during travel. We have assigned your request as IAF-2018-009. Please reference this number on all future communications. A search was completed and documents responsive to your request were found. We are releasing 78 pages in part due to redactions made under Exemption 6 of the FOIA. Exemption 6 allows an agency to withhold “personnel and medical files and similar files the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.” 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(6). The phrase “similar files” covers any agency records containing information about a particular FOIA Response IAF-2018-009 Page 2 individual that can be identified as applying to that individual. To determine whether releasing records containing information about a particular individual would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy, we are required to balance the privacy interest that would be affected by disclosure against any public interest in the information. The information that has been withheld under Exemption 6 consists of personal information such as email addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, passport numbers, etc. We have determined that the individuals to whom this information pertains have a substantial privacy interest in withholding it. Additionally, we have determined that the disclosure of this information would shed little or no light on the performance of the agency’s statutory duties. Because the harm to personal privacy is greater than whatever public interest may be served by disclosure, release of the information would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of the privacy of these individuals and we are withholding it under Exemption 6. Please note that you have the right to file an administrative appeal within 90 days of the date of this letter. By filing an appeal, you preserve your rights under the FOIA and give the IAF a chance to review and reconsider your request and the agency's decision. If you would like to discuss our response before filing an appeal to attempt to resolve your dispute without going through the appeals process, you may contact our FOIA Public Liaison, Ms. Lesley Duncan for assistance at the below listed mailing address or at lduncan@iaf.gov or (202) 688-3047. If you are unable to resolve your FOIA dispute through our FOIA Public Liaison, the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS), the Federal FOIA Ombudsman's office, offers mediation services to help resolve disputes between FOIA requesters and Federal agencies. The contact information for OGIS is: Office of Government Information Services National Archives and Records Administration 8601 Adelphi Road- OGIS College Park, MD 20740-6001 ogis@nara.gov ogis.archives.gov 202-741-5770 Regards, Paul M. Zimmerman General Counsel 1331 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W. Suite 1200 North Washington, D.C. 20004 Tel: (202) 360-4530 Fax: (202) 803-6124 www.iaf.gov From: To: Cc : Subj ect : Dat e: Atta chment s: Eddy Arriola Karen Vargas Katie Lane Re: ACTION REQUIRED: Internal Flight: Bogota / Cali Tuesday, January 31, 2017 7:49:33 PM image829000.png Hi Karen... Katie booked her f light. She w ill send you any information you may need . I've cc'd her so you have her informa t ion . Thanks. Eddy A : -~~.~w ~-~°.~.:,<.~ I EDDY ARRIOLA CHAJRMAN OF THE BOARD&. CEO a. 1150South MiamiAve. MiamiFl 33130 I t. - m.- f e. eddy.arriola@apollobank.com I This transmission,and any other document accompanyingit, contains confidentialinformation that may be legally priVileged. The information is intendedonly for the use of the indiVidualor entity namedabove. If you are not the intended recipient,you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying,distributionor the taking of any action in relianceon or regardingthe contentsof this electronicinformationis strictly prohibited.If you have receivedthis transmissionin error, pleasenotify me immediatelyby telephoneat and delete the materialfrom your computer.Thankyou. •• • I From: Karen Vargas Date: Wednesday, January 25, 2017 at 8:11 AM To: Eduardo Arr io la Subject: Fwd: ACTION REQUIRED: Interna l Flight : Bogota/ Cali Hi Eddy - Just want to make sure that you saw t his. For Katie: the Avianca fl ight that everyone will be on is: Avian ca Flight 9203 Bogota - Cali WED 22 FEB 2017 07:10 Bogot a(BOG) 08 :18 Cali(CLO) Tota l duration 0lh08m, Direct f light I already purchased you rs. Please send me you r itinerary as soon as you have it so that I can fo rwa rd to the embassy for clearance. Thanks and feel free to call/ emai l me any quest ions. Karen ---------- Forwarded message ---------From : Karen Varga s Date: Thu, Jan 19, 2017 at 4:27 PM Subject : Re: ACTION REQUIRED: Interna l Flight: Bogot a/ Cali To: Eddy Arrio la , Char les Krause , IAF-18-0228-A-000001 From: To: Cc: Subject: Date: Karen Vargas JACK VAUGHN Annette Vaughn Re: Colombia board trip Thursday, February 16, 2017 12:10:43 PM I think cash USD is easiest but totally whatever is most convenient for you. Karen On Thu, Feb 16, 2017 at 12:02 PM, JACK VAUGHN wrote: Got it, thanks. Can we payin $US or will we need COPs?  jv On Feb 16, 2017, at 10:12 AM, Karen Vargas wrote: Hello, I hope you all have everything you need for the trip next week. We have finalized a number of small details that were pending and I'm using this email to pass relevant info to you. I'm also including a breakdown of some expenses which will need to be paid directly to Irene during the trip.  1. Bio for Mr. Jaime Hill, who will join for the CEO luncheon: Jaime Hill T. is the CEO for Holcim Colombia. Born in El Salvador, Mr. Hill has been with Holcim for more than 20 years. As business administrator from the University of Georgetown, he has played a critical role in positioning Holcim Colombia among the top and most respected 100 businesses of the country. Previous to his present position, he was the Commercial Director for El Salvador and for Colombia.  2. Additional attendees at Tuesday morning's embassy meeting:  Jennifer Davis-Paguada, Head of Political Section Eric Falls, Deputy for Political Section John Fennerty, Counselor for Economic Affairs Susan Bell, Counselor for Public Affairs 3. And last but definitely not least--  EXPENSE USD (@ 2894) COP Notes / who pays Lunch in Silvia, Cauca 20,000 7 Charles, spouses Lunch in Morales, Cauca 15,000 5 Charles, spouses everyone except spouses (spouses pay 14 for 52 incremental cost only ) Room and board in Silvia (Hotel Comfandi) for night of Feb. 22 149,700 Incremental cost for double room 40,300 14 spouses Assistance by Irene Bermudez in Bogotá (3 hours @ 50,000) 150,000 52 spouses *Per JR, cost of single room is: 149,700 doble is 190,000 (additional cost of 40,300) IAF-18-0228-A-000002 Total pay ment due from Charles 184,700 $64 Total pay ment due per pers o n from Lorrie , Annette , Katie 334,700 $78 incremental costs exist 149,700 $52 **may increase if additional Total payment per perso n from staff I board members (JR, JP, SC, RK, JCI, JV, EA) Safe travels, Karen • Illll lKaren Vargas 202.524.8869 www.iaf.gov lll]lll]lll][I] IHIKar en Varga s 202 .524.8869 www .iaf.gov • lll lllllll IAF-18-0228-A-000003 From: Subject: Karen Vargas JACKVAUGHN Re: Flights in Colombia Date: Friday, February 03, 2017 9:25 :37 AM To: Good catch! Thanks Jack --- and thanks Annette for calling in her passport info yesterday! K On Thu, Feb 2, 2017 at 10:33 PM, JACK VAUGHN wrote: Annette Ka Vau hn DOB PP# also see below******** for my expity conect ion. 1 - JV On Feb 2, 2017, at 3:22 PM, Karen Vargas wrote: Not yet Jack. Pls sends at your earliest. :-) On Thu, Feb 2, 20 17 at 3:15 PM, JACK VAUGHN wrote: Looks good, do you have Annette 's PP info? jv On Feb 2, 20 17, at 1:37 PM, Karen Vargas wrote: Thanks Jack. This is the final infonnatio n that I have listed. Let me know if you have updates or changes . -k Jack Calvin Vaughn JR (IAF board secretary) Official Passport No .- ; Date of Expiration:-************** IAF-18-0228-A-000004 Sunday, February 19 American 1462, Depart Dallas 1:15pm, Arrive Miami 5:00pm American 915, Depart Miami 6:20pm, Arrive Bogota 10:07pm Wednesday, February 22 2017 Avianca 9203, Depart Bogota 7:10am, Arrive Cali 8:18am Friday, February 24 American 920, Depart Cali 7:38am, Arrive Miami 11:32am American 19, Depart Miami 2:00pm, Arrive Dallas 4:12pm   Annette Vaughn Passport No. XX; Date of Expiration: XX Sunday, February 19 American 1462, Depart Dallas 1:15pm, Arrive Miami 5:00pm American 915, Depart Miami 6:20pm, Arrive Bogota 10:07pm Wednesday, February 22 2017 Avianca 9203, Depart Bogota 7:10am, Arrive Cali 8:18am Friday, February 24 American 920, Depart Cali 7:38am, Arrive Miami 11:32am American 19, Depart Miami 2:00pm, Arrive Dallas 4:12pm On Thu, Feb 2, 2017 at 1:09 PM, JACK VAUGHN wrote: Hi Karen, just reaffirming, no Cartagena for us.  jv On Jan 31, 2017, at 2:42 PM, Karen Vargas wrote: Hi Jack.  Bob just let me know that you were interested in flying from Cali to Cartegena on Friday. There are two direct flights on Avianca:  11:20 am→12:48 pm IAF-18-0228-A-000005 AviancaAvianca 9502 CLO- CTG 5:17 pm-6 :45 pm AviancaAvianca 9384 CLO-CTG This is yours/ Annette's current itinerary: Jack : 02/19/20 17 DFW-MIA 02/19/20 17 MIA-BOG 02/22/2017 BOG-CLO 02/24/2017 CLO -MIA 02/24/2017 MIA-DFW IA.A1462 Confnm ed O1:15 PM/05 :00 PM Economy / V rA.A9 1S Confnm ed 06:20 PM/10 :07 PM Economy / V AV 9203 Confnmed 07: 10 AM/08: 18 AM Economy / E 92 Confnmed 07:38 AM/11 :32 AM Economy / V IA.A1 Confnm ed 02:00 PM/04 :12 PM Economy / G Annette : 02/19/20 17 DFW-MIA IArnerican Airlines 1462 MIA -BOG American Airlines 915 02/22/20 17 BOG-CLO ~V 9203 02/24/2017 CLO -MIA American Airlines 920 MIA - DFW American Airlines 19 - -=== ~~ ~ -~ Let me know if there is anything else I can do to help . Karen U il lKaren Var gas 202.524.8869 www.iaf.gov [l]ll]lll][I] IHIKaren Vargas 202.524 .8869 www.iaf.gov I[l]lll][l]lll] IR!Karen Vargas 202.524.8869 www.iaf.gov lll][i][l]ll] IAF-18-0228-A-000006 From: To: Subject: Date: JACK VAUGHN Karen Vargas Re: Flights in Colombia Friday, February 03, 2017 12:15:05 AM And aisle seats forward, too please... Jack C. Vaughn, Jr.  Sent from my iPhone On Feb 2, 2017, at 3:22 PM, Karen Vargas wrote: Not yet Jack. Pls sends at your earliest. :-) On Thu, Feb 2, 2017 at 3:15 PM, JACK VAUGHN wrote: Looks good, do you have Annette’s PP info?  jv On Feb 2, 2017, at 1:37 PM, Karen Vargas wrote: Thanks Jack. This is the final information that I have listed. Let me know if you have updates or changes.  - k  Jack Calvin Vaughn JR (IAF board secretary) - Official Passport No. (b) (6) Sunday, February 19 - ; Date of Expiration: (b) (6) American 1462, Depart Dallas 1:15pm, Arrive Miami 5:00pm American 915, Depart Miami 6:20pm, Arrive Bogota 10:07pm Wednesday, February 22 2017 Avianca 9203, Depart Bogota 7:10am, Arrive Cali 8:18am Friday, February 24 American 920, Depart Cali 7:38am, Arrive Miami 11:32am American 19, Depart Miami 2:00pm, Arrive Dallas 4:12pm IAF-18-0228-A-000007   Annette Vaughn Passport No. XX; Date of Expiration: XX Sunday, February 19 American 1462, Depart Dallas 1:15pm, Arrive Miami 5:00pm American 915, Depart Miami 6:20pm, Arrive Bogota 10:07pm Wednesday, February 22 2017 Avianca 9203, Depart Bogota 7:10am, Arrive Cali 8:18am Friday, February 24 American 920, Depart Cali 7:38am, Arrive Miami 11:32am American 19, Depart Miami 2:00pm, Arrive Dallas 4:12pm On Thu, Feb 2, 2017 at 1:09 PM, JACK VAUGHN wrote: Hi Karen, just reaffirming, no Cartagena for us.  jv On Jan 31, 2017, at 2:42 PM, Karen Vargas wrote: Hi Jack.  Bob just let me know that you were interested in flying from Cali to Cartegena on Friday. There are two direct flights on Avianca:  11:20 am→12:48 pm AviancaAvianca 9502 CLO-CTG 5:17 pm→6:45 pm AviancaAvianca 9384 CLO-CTG This is yours / Annette's current itinerary:  -- Jack: 02/19/2017 DFW-MIA AA 1462 Confirmed 01:15 PM/05:00 PM Economy / V 02/19/2017 MIA-BOG AA 915 Confirmed 06:20 PM/10:07 PM Economy / V 02/22/2017 BOG-CLO AV 9203 Confirmed 07:10 AM/08:18 AM Economy / E 02/24/2017 CLO-MIA AA 920 Confirmed 07:38 AM/11:32 AM Economy / V 02/24/2017 MIA-DFW AA 19 Confirmed 02:00 PM/04:12 PM Economy / G IAF-18-0228-A-000008 Ann ette: 02/19/20 17 DFW-MIA !American Airlines 1462 MIA-BOG American Airlines 9 15 02/22/20 17 BOG-CLO AV 9203 02/24/2017 CLO -MIA --,Am .,==en...... .c_an _,A..... ir-.-. lin _ e_s--= 9'""' 20 MIA - DFW American Airlines 19 Let me know if there is anything else I can do to help. Karen IIRIKar en Vargas 202 .524 .8869 www.iaf.gov I[l][l][l][fl] IR!Kare nVargas 202.524.8869 www.iaf.gov [fl][l][l][I] IRIKare n Vargas 202 .524 .8869 www.iaf.gov n• n• IAF-18-0228-A-000009 From: Karen Vargas To: JACKVAUGHN Subject: Re: Flights in Colom bia Date: Friday, February 03, 2017 9 :41 :50 AM As for seats, the system selects/requests your preference of aisle seats. I don't know if they are "good" seats but they are aisle seats. I'm sure you can also negot iate to sit next to your wife. r/s, k On Fri , Feb 3, 2017 at 9:25 AM, Karen Vargas wro te: Good catch ! Thanks Jack --- and thanks Ann ette for callin g in her passpo 1t info yesterday ! K On Thu , Feb 2, 2017 at 10:33 PM, JAC K VAU GHN wro te: Anne tte Ka Vauo DOB PP# also see below******** for my expi1y con-ection . JV On Feb 2, 2017, at 3:22 PM , Karen Vargas wrote: N ot yet Jack. Pls sends at your earliest. :-) On Thu , Feb 2, 2017 at 3:15 PM, JACK VAUGHN wrote: Looks good , do you have Ann ette 's PP info ? jv On Feb 2, 2017, at 1:37 PM, Karen Vargas wrote : Th anks Jack. IAF-18-0228-A-000010 This is the final information that I have listed. Let me know if you have updates or changes.  - k  Jack Calvin Vaughn JR (IAF board secretary) - Official Passport No. (b) (6) Sunday, February 19 - ; Date of Expiration: (b) (6) ************** American 1462, Depart Dallas 1:15pm, Arrive Miami 5:00pm American 915, Depart Miami 6:20pm, Arrive Bogota 10:07pm Wednesday, February 22 2017 Avianca 9203, Depart Bogota 7:10am, Arrive Cali 8:18am Friday, February 24 American 920, Depart Cali 7:38am, Arrive Miami 11:32am American 19, Depart Miami 2:00pm, Arrive Dallas 4:12pm   Annette Vaughn Passport No. XX; Date of Expiration: XX Sunday, February 19 American 1462, Depart Dallas 1:15pm, Arrive Miami 5:00pm American 915, Depart Miami 6:20pm, Arrive Bogota 10:07pm Wednesday, February 22 2017 Avianca 9203, Depart Bogota 7:10am, Arrive Cali 8:18am Friday, February 24 American 920, Depart Cali 7:38am, Arrive Miami 11:32am American 19, Depart Miami 2:00pm, Arrive Dallas 4:12pm On Thu, Feb 2, 2017 at 1:09 PM, JACK VAUGHN wrote: Hi Karen, just reaffirming, no Cartagena for us.  jv IAF-18-0228-A-000011 On Jan 31, 20 17, at 2:42 PM , Karen Vargas wrote: Hi Jack. Bob ju st let me know that you were interested in flying from Cali to Ca1tegena on Friday. There are two direct flights on Avianca: 11 :20 am-12 :48 pm AviancaAvianca 9502 CLO-CTG 5:17 pm- 6:45 pm AviancaAvianca 9384 CLO-CTG This is yours/ Annette's current itinerary : Jack: 02/19/20 17 DFW-MIA M 146 Confirmed 01:15 PM/05:00 PM Economy I V 9 1 Confum ed 06:20 PM/10:07 PM Economy I V 02/19/20 17 MIA-BOG 02/22/20 17 BOG-CLO AV 9203 Confmn ed 07:10 AM/08: 18 AM Economy I E 02/24/20 17 CLO -MIA 92 Confnm ed 07:38 AM/11 :32 AM Economy I V I Confinne d 02:00 PM/04:12 PM Economy I G 02/24/20 17 MIA-DFW Annette : 02/19/20 17 DFW-MIA ~e rican Airlines 1462 MIA-BOG American Airlines 9 15 02/22/20 17 BOG-CLO AV 9203 .=== =-c--~~~~ 02/24/20 17 CLO -MIA American Airlines 920 MIA - DFW American Airlines 19 Let me know ifthere is anything else I can do to help. Karen IfillKaren Vargas 202 .524.8869 www .iaf.gov [l]lll][l][I] UH IKaren Vargas 202.524.8869 www.iaf.gov [l][l][l][I] IAF-18-0228-A-000012 Karen Vargas Katie LaneArriola Re: Travelocitytravel confirmation - Feb 22 - (Itineraiy # Wednesday, February 01, 2017 9:43:04 AM From: To: Subject: Date: Thank you, Katie. If you could also fo1ward to me yours and Eddy's flight inf01mation to and from Colombia. I need to pass this along to the Embassy for count1y clearance. Much Appreciated, K On Tue, Jan 31, 20 17 at 8:19 PM, Katie Lane Ani ola wrote: Here's my ticket for the Bogota to Cali trip. Thank you! Sent from my iPhone Begin fo1warded message: From: "Travelocity.com" Date: Januai 30, 2017 at 10:09:34 PM EST To: Ill 7 Thanks! Your reservation is booked and confirmed . There is no need to call us to reconfirm this reservation. Cali Feb 22 , 2017 - Feb 22 , 2017 Because you booked a flight, you qualify for up to 54% off Cali hotels. Expires Fri, February 10 [ l See live updates to your itinerary, anywhere and anytime. IAF-18-0228-A-000013 Or get the free app: Before you go • E-ticket: Th is email can be used as an E-ticket. • Remember to bring your itinerary and government-issued photo ID for airport checkin and security. Contact the airline to confirm: • spec ific seat assignments • spec ial meals • frequent flyer point awards • spec ial assistance requests Flight overview Travel dates Feb 22 , 2017 - Feb 22, 2017 Itinerary# Your reservation is booked and confirmed. There is no need to call us to reconfirm this reservation. Confirmation 24WKCS (Avianca ) Ticket# (Catherine Lane Arriola ) Change or cance l this reservat ion IAF-18-0228-A-000014 Departure Wed , Feb 22 Avianca 9203 operated by /AVIANCA Bogota (BOG) 7:10AM Terminal: • 1 Cali (CLO) 8:18AM Cabin: Economy I Coach (P) 1h 8m duration Total Duration 1h 8m Traveler( s) Catherine Lane Arriola No frequent flyer details provided Frequent flyer and special assistancerequests should be confirmeddirectly with the airline. Price summary Traveler 1: Adult Flight $122.00 Taxes & Fees Total $150.30 $28.30 $150.30 All prices are quoted in USO. Travel protection You have not bought travel protection . Additional information Additional fees The airline may charge add itional fees for checked baggage or other optional services. Airline rules + restrictions IAF-18-0228-A-000015 We understand that sometimes plans change. We do not charge a cancel or change fee. When the airline charges such fees in accordance with its own policies , the cost will be passed on to you. Please read the comp lete pena lty rules for changes and cancellations applicable to this fare. Tickets are refundable. Please read important information regarding airline liability limitations . More help Change or cancel this reservat ion. Visit our Customer Support page . Call Travelocity customer care at 1-855-201-7820 For faster serv ice, mention itinerary Complete your trip fg l fg l Rooms are filling up quick! Tickets sell out fast! Check out popular hotels in Cali Book your Cali activities now. before they sell out! Get Activities Find a hotel IAF-18-0228-A-000016 Avoid the stress of traffic! How will you get around Cali? Let someone else do the driving Explore Cali with your own set of wheels. Get a ride Rent a car Please do not reply to this message. This email was sent from a notification-only email address that cannot accept incoming email. You are receiving this transactional email based on a recent booking or account-related update on Travelocity.com . © 1996-2016 Travelocity, Inc .. All rights reserved. Travelocity, the Stars Design, and The Roaming Gnome Design are trademarks of Travelocity , Inc. Use of this Web site constitutes acceptance of the Trave locity User Agreement and Privacy Policy CST# 2056372-50 emlcid= PT-ETM-ENSPC-teid80001.0-issu1-testX-lang1033-verX-mcidX-segaX-segbX-segmX-key-paiddate20170130000000-link-wave0 !lil!KarenVargas 202 .524.8869 www.iaf.gov IAF-18-0228-A-000017 Lesley Duncan Fwd: VAUGHN/ANNETTE KAY 22FEB BOG CLO 1 message Karen Vargas To: Lesley Duncan Mon, Apr 9, 2018 at 4 15 PM ------ -- Forwarded message ------ From ANNETTE VAUGHNDate Tue, Jan 24, 2017 at : Subject: Fwd VAUGHN/ANNETTE KAY 22FEB BOG CLO To: Karen Vargas , "Jack Vaughn Jr." Karen here is my avianca flight. FYI jack's on AA still said Tuesday 21st. annette vaughn 1111111 amv s nterors Begin forwarded message: To: - From: Aviancaon line Date: January 23, 2017 at 10 08 50 PM CST Sul>Jec: KAY 22FEB BOG CLO VAUGHN/ANNETTE KAY 22FEB BOG CLO This doc ument is automatically ge nerated. Please do not respo nd to t his mail. ELECTRONIC TICKET PASSENGER ITINERARYRECEIPT AVIANCAON LINE AVENIDA EL DORADO# 59 - 1 SANSALVADOR IATA 809 90475 TELEPHONE: TBA *** NIT: 0614-291139-002-9 DATE: 23 JAN 2017 AGENT:9985 NAME:VAUGHN/ANNETTE KAY NRC: 537-1 : TACAINTERNATIONA L AIRLINES ISSUING AIRLINE TICKETNUMBER : ETKT BOOKING REF AMADEUS: 2OX98F, AIRLINE: TA/2OX98F FROM/TO FLIGHT Cl DATE DEP FAREBASIS NVB NVA BAG ST BOGOTA El AV 9203 Z 22FEB 0710 ZEO00RIH 22FEB 22FEB 1PC OK DORADO INTL FLIGHTOPERATED BY: AVIANCA TERMINAL:1 CALI ALFONSO B ARRIVA L TIME: 0818 ARRIVA L DATE: 22FEB ARAGON INTL AT CHECK-IN, PLEASESHOWA PICTUREIDENTIFICATIONANDTHE DOCUMENT YOUGAVE FOR REFERENCE AT RESERVATION TIME ENDORSEMENTS : /Cl REFUNDFEE APPLIES CHANGES FORA FEE ANDPLUS FARE DIFF/NO ENDORSE PAYMENT : CC VI 139.52 IAF-18-0228-A-000018 FARE CALCULATION :BOG AV CLO Q20.00 93.00USD113.00END AIR FARE TAX TOTAL : USD : USD : USD 113.00 5.05CO 139.52 USD 21.47YS NOTICE CARRIAGE AND OTHER SERVICES PROVIDED BY THE CARRIER ARE SUBJECT TO CONDITIONS OF CARRIAGE, WHICH ARE HEREBY INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE. THESE CONDITIONS MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE ISSUING CARRIER. THE ITINERARY/RECEIPT CONSTITUTES THE PASSENGER TICKET FOR THE PURPOSES OF ARTICLE 3 OF THE WARSAW CONVENTION, EXCEPT WHERE THE CARRIER DELIVERS TO THE PASSENGER ANOTHER DOCUMENT COMPLYING WITH THE REQUIREMENTS OF ARTICLE 3. PASSENGERS ON A JOURNEY INVOLVING AN ULTIMATE DESTINATION OR A STOP IN A COUNTRY OTHER THAN THE COUNTRY OF DEPARTURE ARE ADVISED THAT INTERNATIONAL TREATIES KNOWN AS THE MONTREAL CONVENTION, OR ITS PREDECESSOR, THE WARSAW CONVENTION, INCLUDING ITS AMENDMENTS (THE WARSAW CONVENTION SYSTEM), MAY APPLY TO THE ENTIRE JOURNEY, INCLUDING ANY PORTION THEREOF WITHIN A COUNTRY. FOR SUCH PASSENGERS, THE APPLICABLE TREATY, INCLUDING SPECIAL CONTRACTS OF CARRIAGE EMBODIED IN ANY APPLICABLE TARIFFS, GOVERNS AND MAY LIMIT THE LIABILITY OF THE CARRIER. THESE CONVENTIONS GOVERN AND MAY LIMIT THE LIABILITYOF AIR CARRIERS FOR DEATH OR BODILY INJURY OR LOSS OF OR DAMAGE TO BAGGAGE, AND FOR DELAY. THE CARRIAGE OF CERTAIN HAZARDOUS MATERIALS, LIKE AEROSOLS, FIREWORKS,AND FLAMMABLE LIQUIDS, ABOARD THE AIRCRAFT IS FORBIDDEN. IF YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND THESE RESTRICTIONS, FURTHER INFORMATION MAY BE OBTAINED FROM YOUR AIRLINE. -- Karen Vargas Executive Assistant Inter-American Foundation 202.524.8869 www.iaf.gov Helping communities thrive 0 B IAF-18-0228-A-000019 From: Cc: Subj ect : Paloma Adams-Allen Lesley Duncan Karen Vargas Re: April 20 18 IA F Board Trip to Guatemala Date: Wednesday, Febr uary 28, 2018 2:54 :44 PM To: Good to know . We j ust need to double check what's possible an d give him options. Best, P IHI Paloma Adam s-Allen President and CEO Inter-American Foundation 202.524.8869 W\vw.iaf.gov Helping communitiesthrive On Wed , Feb 28, 20 18 at 2:53 PM, Lesley Dun can wrote : It won 't be an embassy car, but their travel off ice can certainly recommend someone. Lesley Duncan Chief Operating Officer , Inter-Amer ican Foundation On Wed , Feb 28, 2018 at 2:51 PM, Paloma Adams -Allen wrote : OK. I'd prefe r embassy ju st in case. I'll let Jack know that we'll run the traps on this. True! p Paloma Adam s-Allen President and CEO Inter-American Foundation 202 5248869 wwwiafl'PY Helping communitiesthrive [l][l][l][I] On Wed , Feb 28, 20 18 at 2:44 PM, Lesley Dun can wrote : Hi - We can ask the hote l or embassy to find car/driver who could take the Vaugns to Ant igua either before or after. Karen w ill also have to do a cost-construct on the t icket, for the extra days fo r Jack. Jack wi ll need to pay for the transport directly; IAF can 't cover and then seek re imbursement. I'll discuss w ith Karen and we 'll work w ith Jack. L. Lesley Duncan Chief Operating Officer , Inter-Amer ican Foundation I I IAF-18-0228-A-000020 Begin fo1warded message : From: JACK VAUGHN Date: Febrnaiy 28, 20 18 at 1:29:16 PM EST To: Paloma Adams -Allen Cc: Kai·en Var as < · >, Annette Vaughn Subject: Re: April 2018 IAF Board Trip to Guatemala Greetings Paloma : My wife and I are planning on participating and were thinkin g of spend ing a few extra days in Antigua. I had presumed that we would stait in Guat. City and end in Antigua , thus we would simply stay a couple more nights on the tail end of our business. Now that I see the itineraiy , perhaps we can go a bit early straight to Antigua and wait for the team , though it crow ds our calenda r a bit, or ; could we get some USG (or some other safe and reliabl e transpo1t) back to Antigua on Wed. AM? We should be good to fend for ourselves on the front end to Anti gua or on the backend out to the ai1po1t. . . JV On Feb 23, 2018, at 11:46 AM, Paloma Adams-Allen wrote: ty Dear IAF board and advisory counci l members : I'm pleased to share with you an overv iew of the IAF's upcoming board trip to Guatema la (April 15- 18). The agenda will include meetings in Antigua, site visits in the Westem Highlands, and meetings and site visits in Guatemala City. Internat ional travelers should plan to arr ive in Guatemala by ear ly afternoon on April 15th. We 'll kick off the vis it on Sunda y (4/ 15) afternoon , with a roundtable discuss ion in Antigua featuring representati ves from severa l IAF supported youth groups (Asociac i6n Se res , Asociaci6n para e l Desaro llo Sontenib le de la J uventud, Asoc iac i6n para e l Desaro llo Comun itario Qan il). We will depa1t Antigua early on Monday moming for Solola, where we will spend the day visiting with two grantee pa1tne1· s whose effo1ts are expanding economic opportm1ities via agribusiness: (I) an association of smallholder fanuer s (Asociaci6n de Dirigentes Co1muiitarios), who also operate a niiddle school for local children in 14 co=1mitie s; (2) an association of orga1iicand fair trade vegetable producers that are now producing for the expo1t market (Asociaci6n Coordinaci6n Regional de Cooperativas Integrales). IAF-18-0228-A-000021 We will spend Monday nigh t in Antigua and depatt for Guatemala City the next day . Tue sday's agenda will include a visit with the Asociac i6n de Retornados Guatemaltecos , an association of returnees that works alongside govemmen t cotmte1pa1ts to connect retume d migrants to employmen t oppo1tunities and other services. We will also meet with a cross-section of the Guatemalan private sector interested in supporting grassroots development , and wrap up with a meeting with the U.S. embassy . We will spend Tuesday night in Guatemala City and most folks will likely travel home on Wedne sday morning . All board and advisory cotmcil membe rs and spouses are wekome to particip ate. Please let me know if you have any questions, and please confinn with Karen by March 10 if you intend to join the trip . I'm looking forward to it! My best, Paloma Paloma Adam s-All en President and CEO Inter-American F oUlldation 202 5248869 WWW iafgoy Helping communitiesthrive IAF-18-0228-A-000022 From: Paloma Adams-Al len Karen Vargas Lesley Duncan; Jose Toasa To: Cc: Subject: Re: Update: Board Trip participants/ trave l schedu le Tu esday, March 20, 2018 3 :03:44 PM Date: It does! Paloma Adam s-Allen President and CEO Inter-Am erican Foundation 202.524.8869 www.iaf.gov Helping communities thrive On Mar 20, 2018, at 1:54 PM, Karen Vargas wrote: Hi Lesley , et. al. This just in: Annette Vaughn will no longer accompany Jack on this trip. In addition, Jack will now be on the same travel schedule as the Sunday group routing through Miami and aniving in Guatemala City at 11 :50am. Please make necessa1y updates to group meals and hotel / embassy courier schedul e. :-) Hope this simplifie s eve1ything even more! Best, K [I] Karen Vargas Executive Assistant Inter-American Foundation 202.524.8869 www.iaf. gov Helping communities thrive [l][l][i]II] IAF-18-0228-A-000023 From: To: Cc: Subject: Date: Attachments: Lesley Duncan Jenny Petrow Karen Vargas; Juanita Roca Re: A few items from our trip to Colombia Monday, February 27, 2017 3:55:15 PM image002.png Hi Jenny - Bob already asked Steve/Karen to set up a debrief for Board trip, and develop a "lessons learned" document, so keep collecting those thoughts. Re the hotel payment - I'd suggest that you approve reimburse hotel charges directly to LLAS (except for spouse costs), and then everyone claim "0 zero" for that night.  That is cleanest way to cover. But maybe I'm not understanding the question?  Feel free to call me. L. Lesley Duncan Chief Operating Officer, Inter-American Foundation On Mon, Feb 27, 2017 at 2:22 PM, Jenny Petrow wrote: Hi Karen and Lesley, Trip was a success! And I learned that no one reads the board book :-/ I think it's worth it to have a post-mortem and think about what things can be changed or reduced for the next trip. Embassy reception was fantastic. All your hard work paid off, and the staff (Jennifer especially) was very impressive. Question: How do we voucher the hotel that the LLAS paid for in Silvia and that we reimbursed him for? Do I need to ask him for the total receipt and share it with Karen (for the board) and other IAF-ers to put on the voucher? If either of you have an answer let me know. Thanks! Jenny IAF-18-0228-A-000024 From: To: Karen Vargas Eddy Arrio la; Jack Vaughn: Juan Carlos Itu rregui: Charles Krause Cc: Subject: Robert Kaplan: Juanita Roca: Jenny Petr ow : SEAL Colombia Colomb ia board trip_ E-briefing book Date: Attachments: Tuesday, February 14, 2017 4:42 :33 PM Colombia-Feb-2017-FI NAL.pdf Hi all, We hope you're exc ited for the upc omin g board trip to Co lombi a. You should have received a package with hard copie s of the briefin g book on Monday. For yom convenien ce, we are attaching an electroni c PDF copy to this email. You will also find at the bottom of this email the additional links Bob sent out in his earlier ema il. I'd also like to hi ghlight that the IAF has an anged for airport pick ups by the hotel in accordance to flight ani vals (please check the agenda section of the book) . Tuesday will be a full day of business meetings followed by the reception at the Ambassa dor's Residence. ** Men should wear a jacket and tie for these events and women should dress in complementa1y fashion . **Don't forget to pack for the w eather, rain is expec ted dmin g your trip . If you have any questions or concerns , please don't hesitate to reach out directly . - Karen Grassrootspeacemaking io Colombia IMF Article IY for Colombia l lllKaren Vargas 202 .524 .8869 wwwiafgov IAF-18-0228-A-000025 IAF-18-0228-A-000027 Colombia Contents Agenda ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 2 Travel Tips �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 6 Colombia Travel Warning �������������������������������������������������������������������� 7 Contact Information ������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 9 Map of Colombia & Projects to visit ������������������������������������������������� 11 Summary of the Portfolio ��������������������������������������������������������������������� 12 Peace Projects Map �������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 13 Active Portfolio ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 14 Fact Sheet: Corporación RedEAmerica ��������������������������������������������������� 20 Fact Sheet: Consorcio ���������������������������������������������������������������������������� 22 Fact Sheet: Cabildo Indígena del Resguardo de Guambia ������ 24 Fact Sheet: Grupo de Teatro Esquina Latina ��������������������������������� 26 Grassroots Transformadores ��������������������������������������������������������������� 29 The Most Tenacious Woman in the World ������������������������������������������ 31 Seeds for the Future ������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 39 Resguardos, Cabildos and Indigenous Governance ������������������ 44 Biographies ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 46 United States Diplomatic Mission in Colombia ���������������������������� 48 Inter-American Foundation IAF-18-0228-A-000028 Colombia Board Trip to Colombia February 2017 Participants Board of Directors: Eddy Arriola (chair), Juan Carlos Iturregui (vice-chair), Jack Vaughn Advisory Council: Charles Krause IAF: Bob Kaplan, President & CEO; Steve Cox, Managing Director for Networks and Strategic Initiat ives; Jenny Petrow, Foundation Representative for Colombia; Juanita Roca, Foundation Representative for Colombia; Marcela Campuzano, Local Liaison in Colombia; Nicolas Bermudez, Local Liaison in Colombia; Carolina Gonzalez, Data Verifier Guests: Katie Arriola, Lorrie Kaplan, Annette Vaughn Contact Information Country Code: +57 Jenny Petrow: Juanita Roca Marcela Campuzano (Colombia Cell) U.S:ia Cell) (Colombia Cell) (Works in Colombia) Dress Code Bo gota: Business attire. Gentlemen should bring a jacket and tie for the Embassy meeting, CEO luncheon and Ambassador's Reception. Women should dress in complementary fashion. Weather: 44°F - 62°F, Rain Silvia: Comfortable clothing and shoes, layers, and rain gear. Weather: 38°F - 59°F, Rain Cali : Comfortable clothing and shoes, layers, and rain gear. Weather: 70°F - 79°F, Rain Lodging Hotel Rosales Plaza Calle 71a #5-47, Bogota, Cundinamarca, Colombia Phone: +57 1 3171100 Comfandi Hotel Calle 10 # 1 - 18, Silvia, Cauca, Colombia Phone: +57 2 8251253 Cali Marriott Hotel Avenida 8 Norte No 10-18, Cali, Valle del Cauca, Colombia Phone: +57 2 4854545 Inter-AmericanFoundation IAF-18-0228-A-000029 Colombia Agenda Saturday, February 18 Weather forecast: High 62ºF / Low 42ºF, Rain Dress code: Travel and leisure day 1:37pm 9:45pm 10:07pm Bob and Lorrie arrive Steve arrives Charles Krause arrives *We have arranged two pick up times with the Hotel – one for Bob / Lorrie in the afternoon (1:40pm) and the other for Steve and Charles in the evening (10pm) Sunday, February 19 Weather forecast: High 62ºF / Low 43ºF, Rain tapering to a shower Dress code: Travel and leisure day 1:37pm Eddy and Katie arrive 10:07pm Jack and Annette arrive *We have arranged two pick up times with the Hotel – one for Eddy / Katie in the afternoon (1:40pm) and the other for Jack and Annette in the evening (10pm) Monday, February 20 Weather forecast: High 62ºF / Low 44ºF, Rain Dress code: Business casual, layers, and rain gear recommended All activities held at the Hotel Rosales Plaza 11:03am Juan Carlos arrives (*pick up at airport arranged with hotel) Presentation of the Colombia portfolio and peace initiative 4:00 pm 5:00pm Conversation with Margareth Florez (RedEAmérica) 7:00pm Group dinner within walking distance of the hotel Lodging: Hotel Rosales Plaza Calle 71a #5-47, Bogota, Cundinamarca, Colombia Phone: +57 1 3171100 Tuesday, February 21 Inter-American Foundation 2 IAF-18-0228-A-000030 Colombia Weather forecast: High 62ºF / Low 44ºF, Rain Dress code: Business (e.g. sports coat, tie), layers and rain gear recommended 8:00am Breakfast at Hotel Rosales 9:30am Depart from hotel for Embassy Bring your passports and a second form of ID 10:30am Meeting with Embassy staff and USAID 12:30pm CEO’s luncheon Business attire for all, men should wear ties 2:15pm Return to hotel for afternoon program 2:30pm Panel: Colombian Peace Process with guest speakers Marc Chernick of Georgetown University; Maria Emma Wills of Centro Nacional de Memoria Histórica; and Cesar Rodriguez-Garavito of Dejusticia 3:45pm Coffee Break 4:00pm Panel: Colombia’s ongoing challenge with inequality and exclusion with speakers from IAF grantee partners Juan de Dios Mosquera of Movimiento Cimarrón; Nohra Padilla of Asociación Nacionales de Recicladores; and Andrés Hernandez of Transparencia por Colombia Transparencia por Colombia (Transparencia) is an autonomous Chapter of Transparency International, a nongovernmental organization with affiliates in 90 countries and a leader in the fight against corruption. The Colombian chapter, incorporated in 1998, works (1) to encourage civil society oversight of government; (2) to involve the private sector in the fight against corruption and promote integrity in business; and, (3) to build an ethical culture within state institutions. Currently, Transparencia has 35 members and three sponsors, including individuals, universities, foundations and businesses. Among its successes, the Colombia Transparencia chapter created a program for the funding and support of grassroots organizations that monitor the use of government investments in their communities. In recent years this experience has been shared with other Transparencia chapters and this way advocating for the important role that communities have in the fight against corruption. Asociación Nacional de Recicladores (ANR), founded in 1992, a former grantee, is headquartered in Bogota and has 11 regional offices representing 106 garbage collectors’ and recyclers’ organizations throughout Colombia. ANR partners with the public and private sectors to increase its members’ visibility and income. It provides its members legal and technical assistance and the opportunity to take advantage of programs that offer equipment, housing, and health benefits. ANR is governed by a general assembly; a board of 11 directors oversees the work of the executive director. ANR has successfully undertaken various projects focusing on training, institutional development and the acquisition of working capital; it has transmitted new models for garbage collection and recycling to its regional offices. Asociación Movimiento Nacional por los Derechos Humanos de las Comunidades Afrocolombianas (Cimarrón) was founded in December of 1982 to further the rights of Afro-Colombians and fight racial discrimination. It is governed by a general assembly of urban-based Afro-Colombian professionals, which appoints a board of 11 directors. The executive director oversees a staff of 10 employees. Cimarrón emphasizes organizational development, education, human rights, and civic participation. It has become a model for advocacy against racial discrimination. In 1997 its work was recognized with an award from the French government. Inter-American Foundation 3 IAF-18-0228-A-000031 Colombia 5:30pm Relax and freshen up before dinner 6:30pm Depart for reception at Ambassador’s residence 7:00pm Reception at the Ambassador’s residence Business attire for all, men should wear ties Wednesday, February 22 – Silvia / Valle de Cauca Weather forecast: High 59ºF / Low 38ºF, Rain in the afternoon Dress code: Comfortable clothing and shoes, layers and rain gear recommended 5:30am Depart for airport 7:10am Flight from Bogota to Cali 8:20am Arrive in Cali, meet transportation at airport and drive three hours to Silvia 12:00pm Check into Comfandi Hotel 12:30pm Fresh trout lunch and discussion with Misak traditional leaders; includes visit to indigenous-run trout farm Guambia, founded in 1995, works to preserve the territory, social and political autonomy, and cultural identity of the indigenous Guambiano people, also known as the Misak. Guambia, their principal administrative entity, represents 19 cabildos, the governing structures of indigenous resguardos, or geographically demarcated units. Each cabildo holds an annual general assembly to elect its governor, vice-governor, mayor, treasurer, secretary and bailiff who represent and serve community members. A commission representing all 19 cabildos meets annually to elect Guambia’s governor and vice-governor, who work closely with the cabildos’ secretaries to define priorities and address issues. Guambia manages resources that it mobilizes and funds transferred to it from the Colombian government. It administers programs in health, education, justice, communications, agriculture, territorial defense and the environment. It also manages private, incorporated companies, which have successfully opened new venues for marketing Guambiano products. 2:00pm Site visit to meet beneficiaries, see sugar cane farms and “panela” (brown sugar) production at local “trapiche” (mill) funded by IAF project 5:30pm Relax in hotel 7:00pm Dinner at the hotel and debrief on the day Lodging: Comfandi Hotel Calle 10 # 1 - 18, Silvia, Cauca, Colombia Phone: +57 2 8251253 Thursday, February 23 – Silvia / Valle de Cauca Weather forecast: High 58ºF / Low 38ºF, Periods of rain Dress code: Comfortable clothing and shoes, layers and rain gear recommended Inter-American Foundation 4 IAF-18-0228-A-000032 Colombia 7:00am Breakfast and hotel check-out 7:30am Depart for site visit with Consorcio Corporación Consorcio para el Desarrollo Comunitario (Consorcio), founded in l998, is a consortium of four Colombian corporate foundations: Fundación Corona, Fundación EPSA, Fundación Smurfit Carton de Colombia, and Fundación Restrepo Barco. Its mission is to work toward a more equal, prosperous, democratic society by developing community organizations. It is governed by a board of five directors that elects an executive director every two years. Work focuses on organizational development and management of information on issues related to local development. Its two methods for working with grassroots development, “Ruta de Fortalecimiento Organizacional” and “Desarrollo Integral Territorial,” (DIT) have reached some 700 community leaders and organizations throughout Colombia. 9:30am Site visit and meeting with Consorcio DIT partners and beneficiaries, local government and business leaders includes presentations and Q&A session 12:30pm Traditional lunch with Consorcio leadership and participants 1:30pm Depart for Cali 4:30pm Site visit to grantee partner TEL includes short presentation on the group’s history and their project with the IAF, two theatrical performances “Cuadro Teatral” and “Memoria Viva,” followed by open discussion Grupo de Teatro Esquina Latina (TEL) was founded in 1978 as a non-profit theater group based in Cali, Colombia. TEL is governed by a general assembly of 12 members that every two years elects a board of five directors responsible for establishing the operational structure and program direction. The board appoints a general and executive director, and is supported by an advisory council made up of representatives from different sectors and areas within the city and the region. Within the operational structure of the group there are three teams: the artistic team, administrative team, and technical team—many of whom have themselves began as participants in programs from TEL’s target neighborhoods. 7:00pm Check into Marriott 7:45pm Group dinner and debrief Forecast in Cali: High 79ºF / Low 70ºF, thunderstorms Lodging: Cali Marriott Hotel Avenida 8 Norte No 10-18, Cali, Valle del Cauca, Colombia Phone: +57 2 4854545 Friday, February 24 – Cali Weather forecast: High 79ºF / Low 70ºF, A.M. Showers, then a t-storm Dress code: Comfortable clothing and shoes, rain gear recommended Morning International Flight Departures Inter-American Foundation 5 IAF-18-0228-A-000033 Colombia Travel Tips What to Bring Most functions will permit informal attire, although business attire should be worn for the meetings and reception that will take place on Tuesday, February 21. Men should bring a jacket and tie for these occasions and women should dress in complementary fashion. For your Wednesday and Thursday site visits, we recommend comfortable clothing and closed-toed walking shoes. We recommend a light jacket for the evenings (i.e. fleece). Given the forecast, a rain jacket and or umbrella is also recommended. UV index is high in Cali and sunscreen, hats, and long sleeves are also recommended. Mosquito repellent for Cali is encouraged. The agenda includes a dress code note for each specific event. Weather Typically, February weather in Bogota is mild and ranges from mid-40s to high-60s. Expect shifts in temperature. Cali has tropical wet weather that range from low-70s to high-70s. Fog and showers can be expected with an occasional thunderstorm. Time Zone Bogota (Colombia) and Silvia / Cali (Valle del Cauca) are in Eastern Standard Time / GMT-5. Safety The IAF has been in communication with the Embassy’s Regional Security Officer throughout the planning of this trip. The State Department issued a travel warning on April 5, 2016, however there is no advisory in effect for Bogota or Cali. General information regarding travel and security conditions in Colombia can be found on the State Department Bureau of Consular Affairs website. Entry, Exit & Visa Requirements (From State Department website) U.S. citizens traveling to Colombia do not need a visa for a tourist/business stay of 90 days or less. The U.S. Embassy was notified via a country clearance cable of your official travel. Vaccinations & Health Precautions The State Department states that no inoculations or medical precautions are required for temporary travel to Bogota. Travelers to the capital city of Bogota may require some time to adjust to the altitude (8,600 feet), which can adversely affect blood pressure, digestion, sleep and energy level. Inability to sleep through the night is especially common. Persons with medical conditions related to the circulatory or respiratory systems, (high blood pressure, history of coronary heart disease, emphysema, for example), and anyone with sickle cell anemia, should ask their physician if travel to Bogota or other high-altitude locations is advisable. Diamox, a medication commonly prescribed to aid with acclimatization, is not generally required for travel to Bogota. However, it is advisable to limit physical activity and drink plenty of nonalcoholic beverages for the first two to three days after arriving in Bogota. Water and food are safe in the city’s better restaurants, but avoid eating at small roadside stands, as food preparation standards may be questionable. Yellow fever vaccine is not required but the Embassy and the CDC recommend that travelers receive the vaccine if travelling outside of the urban areas of the largest cities of Bogota, Cali, or Medellin. While there is no malaria risk in Bogota, there is risk in all rural areas at altitudes less than 5,200 feet (1,600 meters), outside of major cities. Use of repellent and prophylactic drugs is recommended. Inter-American Foundation 6 IAF-18-0228-A-000034 Colombia travd, state,gov Students Abroad U,S. Visa International Parental lntercountry Adoption O\il d Abduction "-.';;'l Contact Us "' Find U.S. Embassies & Consulates SEARCH f'\ 1 ...... '.' .,,-:,: Emergenc ies travel.state.gov > Passports & International ltav el > Alerts and Warnings > Colombia Travel Warning @Print 10 Email ColombiaTravelWarning LASTUPDATED:APRIL5, 2016 Tens of thousands of U.S. citizens safely visit Colombia each year for tourism , business, university studies, and vol unteer work . Security in Colombia has Improved significantly in recent years, including in tourist and business travel destinations such as Bogota, Cartagena, Barranquilla, Medellin, and Cali, However, violence linked to narcotrafficking continues to affect some rural and urban areas. Despite significant decreases in overall crime in Colombia, continued vigilance is warranted due to an increase in recent months of violent crime, including crime resulting in the deaths of American citizens. This Travel Warning replaces the previous travel warning released on June 5, 2015. There have been no reports of U.S. citizens targeted specifically for their nationality. While the U.S. Embassy has no information regarding specific and credible threats against U.S. citizens in Colombia, both the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia People'sArmy {FARC) and National Liberation Army {ELN) terrorist groups continue to condemn any U.S. influence in Colombia. The Department of State strongly encourages U.S. citizens to exercise caution and remain vigilant as terrorist and criminal activit ies remain a threat throughout the country, Explosions occur throughout Colombia on a regular basis, including in Bogota. Small towns and rural areas of Colombia can be extremely dangerous due to the presence of terrorists and criminal elements, Including armed gangs {referred to as "BACRIM" In Spanish), that are active throughout much of the country. Violence associated with the BACRIM has spilled over into many of Colombia's major cities, These groups are heavily involved in the drug trade, extort ion, kidnappi ng, and robbery, Violence associated with crime is a threat throughout Colombia, During the period November 2014 to January 2016, there were several homicides of U.S. citizens In connection with robberies, Including armed robbery on streets and in taxi cabs, public transport, home invasions, and muggings, The victims represented a mix of tourists, long-term residents and persons with dual U.S.-Colombian citizenship. The incidence of kidnapping in Colombia has diminished significantly from its peak in 2000, However, kidnapping remains a threat. Terrorist groups and other criminal organizations continue to kidnap and hold civilians, including foreigners, for ransom. No one is immune from kidnapping on the basis of occupation, nationality, or other factors. U.S. government officials in Colombia regularly travel to the major cities of Colombia such as Bogota, Medellin, Cali, Barranquilla, and Cartagena without Incident, U.S. government officials and their families in Colombia normally are permitted to travel to major cities only by air. They may not use inter- or intra-city bus transportation, or travel by road outside urban areas at night, U.S. government officials in Colombia and their families are restricted to traveling within certain areas. This includes using the main highways to travel between Bogota and Bucaramanga, and between Bogota and Ibague. Personnel are allowed to drive between Manizales, Pereira, and Armenia and within the "coffee country• departments of Caldas, Risaralda, and Quindio. On the Caribbean coast, personnel are restricted to driving along Highway 90 from Cartagena, through Barranquilla to Santa Marta. Travel to all other areas of Colombia is off limits unless specific authorization is granted, All U.S. citizens in Colombia are urged to follow these precautions and exercise extra caution outside of the aforementioned areas, For more detailed information on staying safe in Colombia, please see the State Department's Country Specific Infonnation for Colombia. For the latest security information, U.S. citizens traveling abroad should regularly monitor the Bureau of Consular Affairs' internet web site, where the current Worldwide Caution, Travel Warnings, and Travel Alerts can be found, Follow us on Twitter and the Bureau of Consular Affairs page on Facebookas well. Inter-AmericanFoundation 7 IAF-18-0228-A-000035 Colombia closest U.S. Consulate as listed below. For further information: • See the State Department's trave l website for the Worl dwide Caut ion, Travel Warnings, Travel Alerts, and Country Specific Information for Colombia . • Enroll in the Smart Traveler Enroll ment Program (STEP) to receive security messages and make it easier to locate you in an emergency. • Contact the U.S. Embassy in Colombia, located at Calle 24 Bis No. 48-50 Bogota, D.C., Colombla, at (+57-1) 275-2000, 8:00 a,m . to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. After-hours emergency number for U.S. citizens is ( +57-1) 275-2701. • Call 1-888-407-4747 toll-free In the United States and Canada or 1-202-501-4444 from other countries from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, Monday through Friday (except U.S. federal holidays). • Follow us on Twitter@) and Facebook@ + Embassies & Consulates Assistance for U.S. Citizens U.S. Embassy Bogota Calle 24 Bis No. 48-50 Bogota, D.C. Colombia • Telephone +(57) (1) 275•2000 • Emergency After-Hours Telephone +(57) (1) 275-2701 •L Fax +(57) (1) 275-4501 • Email ACSBogota@state .gov • { U.S. Embassy Bogota VIEW MORE LOCATIONS Inter-AmericanFoundation • 8 IAF-18-0228-A-000036 Colombia Contact Information The international and country codes for dialing to Colombia from the U.S. are 011-57 Inter-American Foundation Representative Jenny Petrow Colombia Cel: U.S Cel: Juanita Roca Colombia Cel: Local Liaison (LLAS) Nicolas Bermudez and Marcela Campuzano Tel: Cel: Data Verifier (DV) U.S. Embassy Calle 24 Bis #48-50 (Gate One) Bogota, D.C. Colombia Tel: +57 275-4900 Tel: +57 275-4900 Emergencies: +57 275.2000 Fax: +571.315.2 197 http://bogota.usembassy .gov U.S. Agency for International Development Mission Director Peter Natiello USAID 5101 American Embassy/Bogota Colombia , Postal Code - M 34038 Phone 571-275 -2000 Fax 571-315 -3528 Email colombiausaidwebinfo@usaid.gov USAID Contact Keith Battles Washington, DC Email kbattles@usaid .gov Hotel Rosales Plaza Calle 7 1a #5-47 Bogota, Cundinamarca, Colombia Tel: +57 1 3171100 Comfandi Hotel Calle 10 # 1 - 18 Silvia, Cauca, Colombia Tel: +57 2 8251253 Cali Marriott Hotel Avenida 8 Norte No 10-18, Cali, Valle del Cauca , Colombia Tel: +57 2 4854545 Inter-AmericanFoundation 9 IAF-18-0228-A-000037 Colombia General Emergency Medical Services Emergency/Safety: 123 / 112 (146 in Popayan) Police 156 / 112 (165 in Popayan) Medical 132 Fire 119 Traffic accidents 127 or 767, GAULA (antikidnapping) 165 (145 in Popayan) Toll-free numbers start with 018000 Bogota Ambulance (031)6316026 / (031)4903579 / (031)3588563 Cel: 3505586711 / 3505851517 http://serbiomedambulancias.com Clínica del Country Carrera 16 No.82-57 Conmutador 530-0470 / 530-1270 http://www.clinicadelcountry.com/ Cali Ambulance (57)(2) 5140304 (57) (2)3267363 Clínica Fundacion Valle de Lili Carrera 98#18-49 Tel (57) (2)3319090 www.valledelili.org Centro Médico Imbanaco Carrera 38A #5A-100 Tel: (57)(2) 5141976 www.imbanaco.com Popayan Clínica La Estancia Calle 15 # 2-350 Sector La Estancia Tel (57)(2) 8331000 Inter-American Foundation 10 IAF-18-0228-A-000038 Colombia Map of Colombia Projects and Sites to Visit v'v'dlem; t d 0 Barranquilla • Ca rtagena 0 n n • Grupo de Teatro Esquina Latina Corporaci6n Consorcio para el Desarrollo Comunitario I Cabildo lnd1gena del Resguardo de Guambia ~ Kilomete rs 100 0 \ 200 j Inter-American Foundation 400 * Projects to be visited • Colombian projects • Regiona l Initiatives: Holcim (8 countries); Red EAme rica 11 IAF-18-0228-A-000039 Colombia Summary of the Portfolio The IAF has funded grassroots and nongovernmental organizations in Colombia since 1971, when it awarded one of its first grants to Corporación de Papeleros de Colombia in Antioquia. Since 1971, the IAF has made about 365 grants, an investment of more than $52 million. Colombia is third, after Brazil and Mexico, for total number of grants made by the IAF. Currently the IAF manages 40 grants that fall under two initiatives: The conventional portfolio (21 grants) and the peace-building initiative (18 grants). Additionally, a grant to the Holcim Foundation/Colombia, that is managing the grant for Holcim corporate foundations in eight countries, is headquartered in Colombia. In the current portfolio, the IAF commitment totals $6,397,769, complemented by $5,917,620 in counterpart contributions, for a total investment of $12,315,389. Project activities take place in 16 of the 32 departments of Colombia, as well as the capital district of Bogota. In fiscal year 2016, the IAF received 135 proposals for funding—the most of any country—and approved six new grants. To date in FY17, IAF has already approved 17 grants, exclusively for the peace-building initiative, and received 59 proposals. The current portfolio has four areas of focus: a) citizen and political participation; b) asset mobilization and corporate partnerships; c) diversity and social inclusion; and, d) rural economic development and climate adaptation. Additionally, the IAF recently launched a strategic peace-building initiative, responding to the unprecedented opportunity to build lasting peace in Colombia as a result of the ratification of the peace accords between the Colombian government and the FARC. As the peace negotiations got underway, the IAF began to explore the implications for our grantees partners and for the IAF as a funding agency. We concluded that even though the IAF was already contributing to peace-building through its grants program—grantee partners were participating in the creation of local development plans, raising awareness on human rights, gaining skills for the prevention of violence and finding economic alternatives—there was a time-sensitive opportunity for the IAF to offer its grantee partners the chance to convene, discuss and decide on next steps for their organizations as they looked for constructive ways to participate in the peace process. This led to a targeted call for proposals and the approval of 18 small grants. Phase I of the initiative was launched in November 2017 in a meeting of all participants outside of Bogota and will continue until the end of the year. Colombia Peace Initiatives Exchange, November 29-December 1, 2016 Inter-American Foundation 12 IAF-18-0228-A-000040 Colombia Peace Projects Map ,I Ecuador Brazil Peru Kilometers 100 0 200 400 ) J Inter-AmericanFoundation ~ Peace projects 13 IAF-18-0228-A-000041 Colombia Active Portfolio *As of February 6, 2017 Active Grants: 21 active grants, 18 peace-building and 1 regional Total IAF Commitment: $5,295,820 + $663,954 (peace-building) + 437,995 (Holcim/CO) Total Counterpart: $4,240,663 + $330,332 (peace-building) + 1,346,625 (Holcim/CO) Asociación de Comunidades Andinas de Nariño (Tierrandina) will work with 252 farmers from the municipalities of Consacá, Yacuanquer and Sandoná, department of Nariño, to strengthen a network of sustainable farms and to develop as a grassroots organization. Corporación Grupo Semillas (Semillas) will work with six organizations of African descendants and indigenous Colombians in the departments of Cauca and Tolima to improve relations with Colombians of other ethnicities and support responsible agriculture. The project will directly benefit 1,760 Colombians. Corporación Taller de Promoción Popular y Desarrollo Alternativo (Prodesal) will involve 1,036 young Colombians in local policy-making, raise their awareness of their rights and improve their business skills through technical assistance, training, forums and exchanges. A subgrant fund will finance 40 start-up businesses. Corporación RedEAmérica (RedEAmérica) will improve measurement of the impact of its training and investment in grassroots projects; will study and document four examples of successful subgrantee partners; will encourage the application of principles of grassroots development to core business functions; and will recognize extraordinary contributions to grassroots development in the hemisphere. Corporación Socioecológica para el Futuro de Bolívar (Ecofuturo) will work in the municipalities of Bolivar, El Dovio and Versalles, department of Valle del Cauca, to improve land use in 50 private reserves and on farms, offer educational activities on conservation in five rural schools facilitate collaboration involving community residents and local authorities toward the designation of three sections of public land as protected areas. The project is expected to benefit 385 Colombians directly and another 6,000 indirectly. Red Departamental de Mujeres Chocoanas (Red Departamental) will engage its members in a planning process expected to update information on them, their needs and their priorities. It will also offer them training in gender and social development leading to certification. The project is expected to benefit 140 women directly and another 1,113 indirectly. Asociación de Productores de Panela de la Vereda Las Vegas (Asoprovegas) will work with its members and two other grassroots organizations in the municipality of Tulua, department of Valle del Cauca, Asociación de Escuelas Agroecológicas Campesinas de San Rafael (Aseas) and the Asociación de Agricultores Orgánicos de San Lorenzo (Asoagro), toward better land-use practices on 57 farms, resulting in the increased production of sugar cane, a more reliable food supply and greater collaboration among the three organizations. The project is expected to benefit Colombians 170 directly and another 470 indirectly. Corporacion Consorcio para el Desarrollo Comunitario (Consorcio) will provide small grants, training and other support to grassroots organizations for projects undertaken in collaboration with locallevel government and other partners, and will participate in workshops and conferences on grassroots development with other members of the Inter-American Network of Corporate Foundations and Actions for Grassroots Development (RedEAmérica). Inter-American Foundation 14 IAF-18-0228-A-000042 Colombia Asociación Movimiento Nacional por los Derechos Humanos de las Comunidades Afrocolombianas (Cimarrón) will provide 300 Afro-Colombian women training toward their more active participation in local government and in social protection programs. It will help them become more aware of their rights and leadership potential and will create opportunities for them to serve on civic committees in 10 localities in Bogota. Fundación Mujer y Futuro (FMF) will train 300 women in the municipality of Bucaramanga toward more active participation in local government and in social protection programs available to them in compliance with municipal policy targeting gender equality. They will also receive technical assistance and have the opportunity to participate in exchanges. Asociación de Campesinos de la Vereda Palmas (Asocap) will work with Asociación Comunitaria de Productores de Mora y Demás Cultivos de la Región (Asocomore) and Fundación Ecológica Produende (Produende) to develop the leadership skills and income potential of young residents of the rural municipalities of Darien, Trujillo and Riofrio, department of Valle del Cauca, and will provide them access to materials, supplies, and equipment. The work will benefit 350 Colombians directly and another 1,500 indirectly, and it should motivate young residents to stay and build a future for themselves in the region. Asociación para el Desarrollo Campesino (ADC) will work with its member mingas, or organizations, and with other community groups in the municipalities of Pasto, Buesaco, Chachagui, Ipiales, Puerres and Yacuanquer to encourage practices that benefit the environment and help farmers remain on their land. The grassroots members will form a network. ADC’s program also includes environmental education in primary schools. The project will benefit 700 Colombians directly and 2,000 indirectly. Junta de Acción Comunal Cumbarco (JAC Cumbarco) will work with residents of Cumbarco to increase the resources of local grassroots groups, develop them as organizations and encourage the participation of young residents in their initiatives, including to improve the production and marketing of coffee, plantains and flowers. The project will benefit 165 Colombians directly and another 510 indirectly. Cabildo Indígena del Resguardo de Guambia (Guambia) will collaborate with the indigenous Misak residents of the cabildos of Silvia, Ovejas Siberia, San Antonio, Pisitao and Kurachak, department of Cauca, to improve their production, processing and marketing of sugarcane and scallions. The resulting increase in income will benefit 1,250 indigenous Colombian farmers. Corporación Caribe Afirmativo (Caribe Afirmativo) will raise awareness about the struggles of the LGBTI community in the Caribbean region, offer art therapy to individuals who have been victimized and advocate for their rights. The grant will benefit 300 LGBTI Colombians directly and 520 persons indirectly. Corporacion Consorcio para el Desarrollo Comunitario (Consorcio) will help develop an approach that enables 50 grassroots organizations to contribute toward the peace process in their communities and will work with the organizations to adjust the approach as necessary via a series of workshops. The project will benefit 140 Colombians directly and 8,500 indirectly. Corporación de Profesionales Construyendo Ciudadanía (CPCC) will engage with seven youth groups, and other young Monterinos, between the ages of 14 and 28, to develop their organizational capabilities and grow into leadership roles. It will provide training and technical support aimed at increasing young people’s knowledge of their rights and increasing their representation among decision-makers in their community. The grant will directly benefit 700 young people and 2,000 other community members indirectly. Inter-American Foundation 15 IAF-18-0228-A-000043 Colombia Fundación Grupo de Acción y Apoyo a Personas Trans (GAAT) will convene Bogota’s transgender community to collect information on five basic rights: education, employment, freedom of movement, health and housing. GAAT will use the information it collects from the meetings to raise awareness about violations of these rights and advocate for this community. The project will reach 650 transgender Colombians, their family members and allies, and representatives of public sector institutions, nongovernmental organizations and universities. It will indirectly impact another 2,000 people. Fundación Ambiental Dapaviva (Dapaviva) will carry out educational activities with school children, residents, businesses and public institutions around the Reserva Forestal Protectora Nacional Cerro Dapa Carisucio, to teach them about the local ecosystems and conservation strategies such as recycling and composting, with the objective of encouraging the protection of the environment. Dapaviva will also train a group of young Colombians to be park rangers, and will explore opportunities for registering private lands as nature reserves. The project will work with 1,500 residents of Dapa, Yumbillo, La Buitrera and La Olga, Valle del Cauca, and will indirectly benefit an additional 3,250. The Asociación de Mujeres Indígenas “La Chagra de la Vida” (Asomi) will work with its members and the members of five indigenous communities, representing the Inga, Kamentsá, Siona, Kofán and Koreguaje ethnicities, to draw upon proven traditional practices to improve livelihoods, protect their way of life and the natural environment. Asomi will increase the diversity and productivity of chagras, or sustainable farms, revitalize traditional knowledge and practices, and increase exchanges and cooperation among its members and directly benefit 475 persons and 1350 indirectly. Grupo de Teatro Esquina Latina (TEL) will carry out peace building activities using a community theater approach with 11 grassroots theater groups in Cali, Valle del Cauca and the north of Cauca. TEL will also launch an online version of its community theater program called radioteatro that uses the internet to disseminate radio dramas more broadly. Participants will build their confidence and gain the skills to become agents of change in their communities. They will forge networks of local, departmental and national organizations to promote a culture of peace. The project will benefit 300 young people and other community members affected by the armed conflict and other forms of violence. It will indirectly reach about 37,600 additional residents, who will gain the opportunity to use theater to critically reflect on the history of the conflict and opportunities for reconciliation. Corporación Proyectarte (Proyectarte) will partner with local schools, social service organizations and grassroots groups to improve opportunities for 180 young people ages 11-20 living in vulnerable communities in northeast Medellin. Through arts and other methodologies, Proyectarte will help boost participants’ confidence and leadership skills to advocate for their rights and build networks for advancing social, employment and leadership opportunities in their communities. The project will also reach 60 families of participating young people. Regional Grant Fundación Social de Holcim Colombia (Holcim/CO) is the social investment arm of a Colombian cement manufacturer and is a member of The Inter-American Network of Corporate Foundations and Actions for Grassroots Development (RedEAmérica), an IAF-initiated business-sector launched in 2002. In collaboration with other Holcim/CO foundations that are incorporated in Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Mexico and Nicaragua, it will develop a subgrant fund to finance grassroots projects and otherwise increase the corporation’s social investment. Holcim/CO’s counterpart more than doubles the IAF’s funding. The grant should benefit 380 individuals directly and 1,400 indirectly. Inter-American Foundation 16 IAF-18-0228-A-000044 Colombia Peace-building Initiative Asociación para el Desarrollo Campesino (ADC) will produce a nation-wide community radio campaign and host a national event to highlight and promote the successes of farmer organizations and their work toward peace-building in the country at the community level. It will also create alliances among farmer organizations and community media. The project will directly benefit 50 community radio stations and 30 farmer organizations and indirectly reach people living in 320 municipalities across Colombia. Empresa Cooperativa del Sur del Cauca (Cosurca) will carry out workshops, general assemblies and participatory research to engage residents in the creation of three community museums focusing on the history of the conflict and how to begin the healing process. Cosurca will also facilitate communication among member organizations and update its institutional work plan to enhance peace in the region. The project will directly benefit 8,400 participants of 18 member organizations. Fundación para el Etnodesarrollo de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia (Etnollano) will work with members of indigenous communities located in the municipalities of Puerto Carreño, Paz de Ariporo and Hato Corozal in the departments of Vichada and Casanare. It will strengthen governance and the environmental sustainability of indigenous territories through visits to their communities, workshops, meetings with local government officials and the production of audio-visual materials and publications. The project will reach 4,500 people directly and 25,000 inhabitants of non-indigenous communities. Cabildo Indígena del Resguardo de Guambia (Guambia) will convene a series of meetings and workshops in 19 cabildos (indigenous associations) to discuss and analyze the ongoing peace negotiations and, through a participatory process, create a post conflict strategy for the Guambiano indigenous communities. The project will directly benefit 200 persons, and will indirectly benefit 26,000 indigenous community members. Corporación Buen Ambiente (Corambiente) will convene organized farmers and high school students in six municipalities in the Páramo de Santurbán, department of Santander, to identify and disseminate ongoing peace-building activities in the region. Corambiente will carry out workshops, community meetings and exchanges. They will also produce and disseminate television programs. The project will directly benefit 420 people and indirectly reach another 5,000 residents of Santander. Fundación Hijos de la Sierra Flor (Hijos de la Sierra Flor) will work with indigenous and Afro-Colombian women’s groups in five municipalities of the department of Sucre to promote dialogue on reconciliation. They will offer tools and methodologies for community peace-building initiatives and to recognize ancestral practices for conflict resolution and rebuilding trust. The project will directly benefit 195 women and indirectly benefit an additional 1,500 family members and residents of the five municipalities. Red Departamental de Mujeres Chocoanas (Red Departamental) will strengthen the leadership skills of 60 women in 30 municipalities in the department of Chocó to enable them to educate others about the peace accords and support processes of reconciliation in their communities. The project will directly benefit 60 indigenous and Afro-Colombian women leaders and indirectly reach an additional 360 women. Transparencia por Colombia (Transparencia) will convene grassroots organizations and local authorities in three municipalities in the department of Chocó to assess local residents’ capacity to monitor activities of municipal and departmental development plans. Transparencia will carry out workshops and community meetings and produce and disseminate a user-friendly tool for strengthening their oversight capacity. The project will directly benefit 80 people and indirectly reach another 100 residents of the department of Chocó. Inter-American Foundation 17 IAF-18-0228-A-000045 Colombia Fundación Gaia Amazonas (GAIA) will work with three organizations, which represent 40 local indigenous communities located in the department of Vaupes, to prepare them to actively participate in peace-building activities through workshops and meetings with government officials. The project will reach 30 people directly and 2,385 community members indirectly. Fundación Sumapaz (Sumapaz) will work with community-based organizations in northeast Medellin to create an urban peace agenda. Sumapaz expects that by using a participatory approach to construct a common agenda, grassroots organizations will be better prepared to negotiate with local officials and propose peace projects in their communities. Sumapaz will disseminate the peace agenda through a publicity campaign. The project will directly benefit 40 community leaders and 180 members of about 12 community-based organizations; it will indirectly impact the residents of the four sections (comunas) of northeast Medellín. Corporación Taller Promoción Popular y Alternativas de Desarrollo (Prodesal) will work with young people in nine municipalities and two cities in the Caribbean region of Colombia to build municipal peace agendas leading to one Caribbean youth peace plan. Prodesal and its participants will present all of the developed agendas to local and regional authorities and disseminate their contents widely via digital and social media. The project will directly benefit 750 young people from the departments of Atlántico, Bolívar, Córdoba and Sucre. An additional 750,000 young people in these four departments will benefit from having municipal and regional peace agendas. Corporación Caribe Afirmativo (Caribe Afirmativo) will strengthen the skills of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) population leaders and organizations in seven municipalities of Colombia’s Caribbean region to better advocate for a gender focus in the peace-building process. The project will directly benefit at least 70 leaders of LGBT organizations and indirectly benefit an additional 12 organizations and public officials — approximately 1,000 people — in Colombia’s Caribbean region. Centro de Investigacion y Educacion Popular (CINEP) will support peace-building efforts at the grassroots level through applied research with a select group of 16 Inter-American Foundation (IAF) grantee partners in Colombia. It will generate baseline information on local initiatives throughout the country to contribute toward identifying best practices in peace-building. The project will directly benefit 80 people and reach 1,600 people indirectly. Junta de Acción Comunal Vereda Cumbarco (JAC Cumbarco) will promote a culture of citizenship and peace in Cumbarco, municipality of Sevilla, Valle del Cauca, among families, schools and the community. The project will reach 170 students and their families, teachers and members of grassroots organizations and indirectly reach an additional 340 residents of Cumbarco. Fundación Mujer y Futuro (FMF) will contribute to peace-building in the city of Bucaramanga. FMF will use a hands-on methodology to train 30 women leaders in how to promote a culture of peace from a gender perspective, which recognizes the differential role of women as peace builders and as victims of the conflict. The project will directly benefit 30 women leaders of community organizations and local action committees (juntas de acción local) and indirectly reach an additional 600 people. Fundación Natura (Natura) will work with members of five regional indigenous organizations to strengthen governance and the environmental sustainability of indigenous territories through the creation of a development and peace strategy for the department of Vaupés in the Colombian Amazon. Activities will include local and regional workshops, meetings with local government officials, and the production Inter-American Foundation 18 IAF-18-0228-A-000046 Colombia of audio-visual materials and publications. The project will reach 300 direct beneficiaries and 5,000 inhabitants of 54 indigenous communities. Corporación Socio-Ecológica para el Futuro de Bolívar (Ecofuturo) will create spaces for women living in the rural municipality of Bolívar to reaffirm their own value as peace builders, recognize and strengthen their contributions to the rural economy, learn about their rights and obligations and avail themselves of public programs created for their benefit. The project will directly benefit 30 rural women who live in the areas around the municipality of Bolívar and indirectly benefit an additional 90 family members. Corporacion Consorcio para el Desarrollo Comunitario (Consorcio) will provide small grants, training and other support to grassroots organizations for projects undertaken in collaboration with local-level government and other partners. They will participate in workshops and conferences on grassroots development with other members of the Inter-American Network of Corporate Foundations and Actions for Grassroots Development (RedEAmérica). Colombia Peace InitiativeS Exchange, November 29 -December 1, 2016 Inter-American Foundation 19 IAF-18-0228-A-000047 Colombia The IAF has directly contributed to the consolidation of these practices by entering into agreements with RedEAmerica members, requiring that these corporate partners match the IAF's contribution and follow established grassroots development practices. Agreements with RedEAmerica members evolved from bilateral agreements to agreements with multiple partners, this way motivating collaboration between RedEAmerica members. Between 2003 and 2016, RedEAmerica's members invested $18,478,150 in these cooperative programs, almost doubling the $9,884,080 committed by the IAF over the same period. In addition, grassroots groups that accessed funds for their projects mobilized more than $4,500,000. This joint funding has reached individuals and communities through initiatives undertaken by grassroots groups, often incipient, whose projects were too small to qualify for direct IAF awards. Strategic support from the IAF In 2002, RedEAmerica began as a strategic initiative for the IAF, where it funded the initial creation of the necessary tools and information in order for the network to grow and have the capacity to have regional influence. Since that time, the network has grown in membership and become consolidated as a membership organization, particularly for corporate foundations. Starting in 2012 the IAF prioritized a way to work strategically with RedEAmerica's secretariat, increase the visibility of the network and explore more systematically its business engagement. This resulted in this cooperative agreement and a call for proposals in February 2012 for network members, through which the IAF increased the requirements for counterpart funds, explicitly weighted the type of counterpart (private versus public sources) and made a specific request for activities that involved engagement with businesses. The call for proposals resulted in four cooperative agreements that emphasized collaboration among RedEAmerica members in Mexico, Brazil, Colombia and among corporate foundations of a business, LafargeHolcim. Inter-AmericanFoundation 20 IAF-18-0228-A-000048 Colombia Achievements Creation of web-based certificate program on grassroots development: RedEAmérica created a bilingual (Spanish and Portuguese) six-module training course, in alliance with the Tecnológico of Monterrey (Mexico), for persons interested in gaining the necessary understanding and skills for implementing grassroots development activities. Since 2009, 13 versions have been implemented, serving over 400 individuals, including all RedEAmérica members and personnel from non-member organizations. • Creation and testing of a self-assessment tool: RedEAmérica created an electronic self-assessment tool, RADAR, to rapidly and systematically measure a set of standards that have enabled network members to evaluate themselves and compare their practices in the implementation of the grassroots development approach and establish areas for improvement to ensure the quality, impact and scale of their interventions. • Launch of the Latin American RedEAmérica-IAF awards: The RedEAmérica’s V International Forum, held in 2013 in Guatemala, focused on young people and initiatives to reduce their migration, unemploy ment and resorting to violence. The IAF and RedEAmérica took advantage of the event to recognize four successful member-funded grassroots initiatives with the First Latin American Grassroots Development Award, Transformadores. RedEAmérica has since incorporated the award as one of its key dissemination activities with the support of its members, without IAF funding. • Development of a multi-year strategic plan: At the start of 2014 RedEAmérica embarked on an outward looking and inclusive strategic planning exercise (2015-2019), which identified understanding core business practices and the role these can play in the reduction of poverty as an important next phase in the network’s development. This resulted in a strategy to incorporate the principles of grassroots develop ment into private-sector core business functions. As part of this effort, a seven person committee repre senting RedEAmérica members, the IAF, businesses and academia, has been created to contribute to the development of a core business program for the network. Opportunities for a RedEAmérica - IAF Alliance • RedEAmérica is well positioned to contribute an innovative perspective to core business practices, increasing its impact beyond its work with corporate social investment. • Through its alliance with RedEAmérica, the IAF can continue to scale its grassroots development approach by reaching community organizations throughout Latin America. • RedEAmérica and the IAF can continue to innovate, mobilize funds for grassroots development and influence business practices. RedEAmérica: Featured in Print Drawing from the massive documentation collected during his research for the IAF into socially engaged businesses in Latin America, Lester Salamon of Johns Hopkins University produced a lively and cohesive narrative for his book Rethinking Corporate Social Engagement: Lessons from Latin America, released in 2010 by Kumerian Press. Salamon credits the IAF for initiating partnerships with corporations that developed new attitudes and more effective practices, points developed earlier in his 2008 article for Grassroots Development based on the same research. In the course of his research, Salamon interviewed many Latin Americans associated with RedEAmérica. His book contains frequent references to the network, which he terms “a dynamic center of support for the participatory approach [to social engagement] in the region.” Inter-American Foundation 21 IAF-18-0228-A-000049 Colombia CONJORCIO Coun para el DESARROLLOCOMUNITARIO Background Consorcio, founded in 1998,is a consortium of four Colombian corporate foundations: Fundaci6n Corona, Fundacion EPSA, Fundaci6n Smurfit Carton de Colombia, and Fundaci6n Restrepo Barco. Its mission is to work toward a more equal, prosperous, democratic society by supporting the development of community organizations. A board of five directors governs Consorcio and elects an executive director every two years. Its work focuses on organizational development and management of information on issues related to local development. Previously (from 2003 to 2015), Consorcio successfully managed resources for a sub -grant fund in Colombia, the Colombian National Fund, created by eight Colombian members of the Inter -American Network of Corporate Foundations and Actions for Grassroots Development (RedEAmerica) and the IAF to support grassroots development projects throughout the country. The cooperative agreement was the first of its nature for members of RedEAmerica. It contributed to the mobilization of resources, increased collaboration between corporate members and a better understanding by RedEAmerica members of the potential impact of these types of funds. Following this successful experience, RedEAmerica members in Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador and Mexico followed the example, creating similar funds. Consorcio has received funding from Global Communities International (CHF), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Colombian Departarnento Nacional para la Prosperidad Social, and Instituto Distrital de la Participaci6n y Acci6n Comunal (IDPAC). Strategic support from the IAF Corporate engagement is an important component of the Colombia portfolio. Historically, it has given the IAF presence throughout the country and access to regions where we do not have grants. Since the creation of RedEAmerica in 2002, Colombian members have taken the lead in implementing best practices for grassroots development, sharing these advances within the country and throughout the hemisphere. Successful funding of sub -grants in various regions has resulted in the creation of important networks of strengthened grassroots organizations which have begun accessing local municipal funds and other national and regional resources. Through Consorcio 's work in various regions of the country, including sub -grant funding with IAF and RedEAmerica, it has supported more than 50 grassroots organizations. It not only has contact with these Inter-AmericanFoundation 22 IAF-18-0228-A-000050 Colombia organizations, but in many cases, after years of contact, it knows their evolution, strengths and weaknesses and where they are in their processes. In addition to these 50 organizations, some IAF grantees have benefitted from training and exchanges offered by Consorcio. Consorcio has two active grants with IAF: a cooperative agreement focused on the departments of Valle del Cauca and Cauca that focuses on local development strategies called “Desarrollo Integral Territorial (DIT),” and a small grant as part of the IAF’s peace-building initiative. Through the cooperative agreement, Consorcio manages a small grants fund and offers training and other support to grassroots organizations for projects undertaken in collaboration with local-level government and other RedAmérica partners. Through the small grant, Consorcio will help develop a training approach that enables 50 grassroots organizations to contribute toward peace-building in their communities. The project will benefit 140 Colombians directly and 8,500 indirectly. Achievements Consorcio has contributed to the advancement of RedEAmérica as the network creates and consolidates tools and support for the implementation of grassroots development for its members throughout Latin America. Achievements have included managing the first multi-member sub-grant fund and documenting best practices that are now part of RedEAmérica’s tool kit. The active sub-grant cooperative agreement took RedEAmérica’s analysis and thinking about local development and created and tested the DIT methodology, which awards subgrants within a broader local development strategy that focuses on collective action and a sense of territory. Finally, the active peace-building grant has developed a tool, “Actores Territoriales de Paz,” which helps community members understand their role in peace-building. It has reached some 700 community leaders and organizations throughout Colombia. Inter-American Foundation 23 IAF-18-0228-A-000051 Colombia Cabildo lndigena del Resguardo de Guambia Ill' _.,. . I US$318,187 three years Background Counterpart $283,954 - Cabildo Indigena del Resguardo de Guambia (Guambia), founded in 1995, works to preserve the territory, social and political autonomy, and cultural identity of the indigenous Guambiano or Misak people. Guambia, their principal administrative entity, represents 19 cabildos, the governing structures of indigenous resguardos, or geographically demarcated units. Each cabildo holds an annual general assembly to elect its governor, vice-governor, mayor, treasurer, secretary and bailiff who represent and serve community members. A commission representing all 19 cabildos meets annually to elect Guambia's governor and vice-governor, who work closely with the cabildo's secretaries to define priorities and address issues. Guambia manages funds transferred from the Colombian government in addition to resources that it mobilizes. It administers programs in health, education, justice, communications, agriculture, territorial defense and the environment. One of Guambia's most important accomplishments has been the explicit differentiation of its political strategy from the management of commerce and income generating activities. Its businesses include Cooperativa Multiactiva Indigena Las Delicias, created in 1963, and Sociedad de Acciones Simplificada (Screnaway, S.A.S.), created in 2011, which have successfully opened new markets for Misak products. Also see: Indigenous fact sheet Started August 2015 Peace Building $12,000 for one year; 1 / 1 11' Counterpart$l6, l66 1 . () 1,1 1 I IJIU ~ , ,~,Ill TIi i Strategic support from the IAF • Guambia has two active grants with the IAF. The first grant was provided to allow Guambia to collaborate with the indigenous Misak residents of the cabildos of Silvia, Ovejas Siberia, San Antonio, Pisitao and Kurachak, department of Cauca, to improve their production, processing and marketing of sugarcane and scalJions. The resulting increase in income will benefit 1,250 indigenous community members. The second grant agreement between the IAF and Guambia is part of the Colombia peace -building Initiative. Guarnbia will convene a series of meetings and workshops in 19 cabildos to discuss and analyze the implications of the peace accord reached between the Colombian government and the PARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia), and, through a participatory process, create a post conflict strategy for Misak .. indigenous communities. The project will directly benefit 200 persons, and will indirectly benefit 26,000 indigenous community members. Inter-AmericanFoundation 24 IAF-18-0228-A-000052 Colombia Achievements In the first year of the project Guambia worked with 213 beneficiaries to improve their production, processing and marketing of sugarcane and scallions. Guambia has also designed and begun to use a capital seed fund and a savings fund for community members. Challenges • Historically, indigenous communities throughout Colombia have faced discrimination and exclusion, including the challenges of retaining their territories, essential for cultural survival. • Guambiano, or Misak, communities have had to steer through different periods of violence, linked to the presence of the FARC, paramilitaries and cartels in their territories. • Project activities anticipate the involvement of women in production and marketing of scallions. Even though scallion production for household consumption has been traditionally in women 's hands, increased production, processing and marketing are new for ventures that require new skills and attitudes. Other thematic issues An essential aspect of indigenous life is the minga -collective work done to benefit the community . It originates from the indigenous Quechua language. Its specific meaning varies by country. In Colombia la minga refers to the concept of collaborative work, including not just community agriculture projects but also the political and social organizing of a community. For example, la minga can refer to the harvesting of a family's scallion plot with the help of neighbors. La minga can also describe a community meeting on how to manage local resources. Inter-AmericanFoundation 25 IAF-18-0228-A-000053 Colombia Grupo de Teatro Esquina Latina $320,000 for two years; tot al coun terpart $511,472 Started 20 16 Previous Gra ntee 1993-95 $ 103,294 Background The Grupo de Teatro Esquina Latina (TEL) was founded in 1978 as a non -profit theater group based in Cali, Colombia. TEL brings a long history of using theater as a tool for social organizing and peace building in one of the country 's most conflict-ridden zones - Valle del Cauca and Cauca. For more than 30 years they have used theater with young people affected by the armed conflict and other forms of violence to build their self-esteem and capacity for analysis to become agents of change in their communities and promote a culture of peace. Currently , through its program J6venes, Teatro y Comunidad, TEL supports a network of 11 community-based theater groups involving 300 young people and community members from six comunas in Cali (Aguablanca and Ladera) and five municipalities in Valle del Cauca and the north of Cauca. Recently, TEL launched an initiative called Radioteatro, which uses digital radio to expand the program 's reach to new communities and social media spaces. TEL is governed by a general assembly of 12 members that every two years elects a board of five directors responsible for establishing the operational structure and program direction. The board appoints a general and executive director, and is supported by an advisory council made up of representatives from different sectors and areas within the city and the region. TEL has received funding from Cordaid (Holland) , Stichting Foundation, and War Child-WCH Hollanda, as well as Ecofondo , Fondo Mixto para el Valle del Cauca, and Corpovalle in Colombia . It has also partnered with Colombian government ministries , and regional and municipal authorities. In 1995 the IAF awarded the "Dante Fascell scholarship of excellence" to Orlando Cajamarca, TEI..:sdirector for his proposal "Theater and Community: An alternative for grassroots development:' TEL has also received other recognition, including awards and medals of cultural merit from the Ministry of Culture and the Colombian Senate. Strategic support from the IAF Through its program "Youth, Theater and Community ;' TEL will carry out peace building activities using a community theater approach with 11 grassroots theater groups in Cali, Valle del Cauca and the north of Cauca. TEL will also launch an online version of its community theater program called "radioteatro " that uses the internet to disseminate radio dramas more broadly. Participants will build their confidence and gain the skills to bcome agents of change in their communities. They will forge networks of local, departmental and national organizations to promote a culture of peace. The project will benefit 300 young people and other community members affected by the armed conflict and other forms of violence. It will indirectly reach about 37,600 additional residents (audience members and radio listeners) who will gain the opportunity to use theater to critically reflect on the history of the conflict and opportu nities for reconci liation . Inter-AmericanFoundation 26 IAF-18-0228-A-000054 Colombia Achievements A testament to TEI.:ssuccess is the fact that it doesn't just execute "projects" but rather has carried out continuous programming for almost 40 years. Via its community outreach, it supports 11 di verse and autonomous community theater groups in the region. In the current context of Colombia's ongoing peace negotiations TEL brings expertise in peace -building and generates trust in the communities it works in. This year Teatro Esquina Latina will be celebrating its 30th Meeting of Popular Theater, which brings per formances to neighborhoods around Cali and nearby rural municipalities. Recently, TEL was awarded ownership of its own theater space, which it is currently renovating to be able to accommodate larger audiences and host their recording studio for the radioteatro program. Impact TEL uses a methodology for measuring impacts that puts young people at the center as both subjects and researchers. This methodology uses video testimonials and photos to document experiences and results. TEL also contracted a study with Universidad ICESI called "Gestos y gestas: j6venes, teatro y comunidad" in 2009 that documented many of the impacts, including: • Creates new political and social actors who can act as agents of change. • Strengthens a sense of identity, self-esteem and feeling of belonging among young people. • Promotes conflict resolution skills. • Reinforces/creates leadership skills. • Raises awareness of the impacts of the armed conflict and ways to mitigate these impacts. • Promotes a shared vision of community and/or city among participants. • The theater grupos de base themselves become change agents, applying the skills they learn on stage to broader contexts. • Young people better able to solve problems. • Broadens networks, future possibilities. TEL is proposing to expand its reach and impact by using an online modality called radioteatro. Challenges TEL has had to navigate different periods of violence in the history of Cali, Valle and Cauca, related to the presence of the FARC, the Cali cartels, urban violence and micro -trafficking. Many of the young participants in their community programs have f::;!!!!!!!!!!!!1!~!11111111!!!!!!"!"!~ =~ been displaced from the surrounding rural areas and the Pacific coast, or are children of the displaced, the majority from campesino, Afro and indigenous communities. In TEI.:smethodology, through the use of the sociodrama, participants generate ideas for plays from their own experiences and those of their communities, taking this material, reflecting on it, and slowly transforming them into dramaturgical works. This process of building on personal experience to create a collective work of art gives the young people whose identities have been fractured, marginalized or Inter-AmericanFoundation 27 IAF-18-0228-A-000055 Colombia otherwise oppressed an opportunity to reconnect with their cultural roots and link these cultural roots to their developing identities. Running a theater, not to mention an arts -based community outreach program, is not a money -earning venture and as such, Teatro Esquina Latina must fundraise the majority of its operating costs. It has managed to operate continuously for almost 40 years, but not without difficulty. The size of its program has fluctuated; at one time they supported as many as 30 theater groups. Realizing that such a large scope was unsustainable, they decided to focus on 11 groups (those participating in the current project). TEL receives about half of its funding from Colombia public sector partners and foundations, and about half from international donors. A small portion comes from ticket sales. Each local group also mobilizes resources locally, such as rehearsal and performance space, sets and props, and funding, and develop long-term relationship with their municipal governments and local councils, which is another way they ensure their sustainability. Theater as a medium for social change / TEL methodology TEL views theater as a medium for counteracting the negative consequences of the many conflicts present in Colombian society, such as urban violence, family violence, gender inequality, social and cultural marginalization and exclusion and environmental conflicts. It proposed to achieve these goals in two ways: by a) developing the individual as an active social and political subject and b) developing skills for collective life--convivencia. Theater, because it highlights the individual (as actors, directors, etc.) but also the group (working together to achieve a common goal) naturally lends itself to both individual and collective transformations. Furthermore, the artistic and expressive nature of theater provides an outlet for young people who otherwise may not have an opportunity to talk about feelings, hopes, experiences of trauma, etc. For those that find these types of expression difficult in everyday life, the stage becomes a safe space to express these feelings in a way that is non -threatening. The collective aspect of theater also contributes to social change in a number of ways. It can translate into conflict transformation, as it requires working through differing interpretations of the same material. Participants can also "stage" conflicts and work through them in a non -threatening way. Theater for social change also contributes to grassroots development. The experience of working together toward a common goal, which includes not only producing a show and everything that involves, but also negotiating partnerships with local officials and institutions, identifying and obtaining practice space, mobilizing local resources to support the groups, teaches young people leadership and organizing skills. Finally, the social networks that are developed among the grupos teatrales de base, with local actors and broader networks generates social cohesion and social capital in the communities. T E A T R __ ___,1 ESQUINA LATIN Inter-AmericanFoundation 28 IAF-18-0228-A-000056 Colombia Grassroots Transformadores Grassroots Development Journal 2013 Representatives of grassroots organizations, businesses, corporate foundationsand their allies gathered Feb. 27 in Antigua, Guatemala, to celebrate with the winners of the first Latin American Grassroots Development Award, recognizing outstanding community development initiatives as well as the donors that financed, encouraged and otherwise supported them. The award, known as Transformadores, was sponsored by the Inter-American Foundation and RedEAmerica, an IAF-initiated business alliance committed to supporting the self-help efforts of the organized poor throughout the hemisphere. Four initiatives took the honors: • Empresa Comunitaria que Genera Desarrollo en el Cauca, undertaken by Cooperativa de Productores de Fresa de Sotara (FRESOTA) with the support of Fundación Smurfit Cartón de Colombia, improved the income of families who grow strawberries in rural communities of the municipality of Sotará, department of Cauca. Access to training and technology enabled farmers in FRESOTA to add value to their production, bypass intermediaries, develop and manage a loan fund, and invest profits in a library, sanitation and other benefits for the community. • Parceria Votorantim pela Educação supported by lnstituto Votorantim, mobilized families, schools, local governments and businesses in 28 municipalities in l2 Brazilian states. Activities include an annual call for essays which drew more than 6,000 entries in 2012. Educators now reinforce crucial sills by structuring lessons around the popular contest. • Holcim Brazil's acquisition of a cement factory resulted in the loss of more than 1,000 jobs in the municipality of Barroso, Minas Gerais. To mitigate the effect on families, lnstituto Holcim, the companys foundation, worked with residents, the municipality and other businesses on a 10-year plan to improve Barroso.Among other results, it led to the formation of Associação, Ortópolis Barroso, which has mobilized resources for projects that have employed milk producers,mechanics and recyclers, and improved the municipal cultural and sports infrastructure. Inter-American Foundation 29 IAF-18-0228-A-000057 Colombia • Modelo de Desarrollo Integral: La Experiencia Caluco Comprehensive Development Model: The Caluco Experiment], an initiative of Fundación Salvadoreña para el Desarrollo Económico y Social (FUSADES), targeted the reduction of poverty in Caluco, one of the poorest municipalities in El Salvador. FUSADES spearheaded an alliance of residents and local government ofticials to draft a development plan for Caluco, which improved infrastructure for electricity, water and education and helped subsistence farmers earn income by growing vegetables for sale to Wal-Mart and other supermarkets. RedEAmérica members submitted 38 nominees, representing nine countries, which were subsequently winnowed to 11 finalists. Selection criteria included the successful application of the grassroots approach, demonstrated development of the ability to get ahead collectively, transformation, sustainability and meaningful learning. The initiatives in Cauca and Barroso had received IAF funding under bilateral agreements requiring the RedEAmérica members to match the IAF's contributions." All these donors gambled on innovative responses to recurring problems," said Margareth Florez, executive director of RedEAmérica . "The experiences inject new energy into the search for solutions that address the causes rather than the consequences of poverty and provide grist for public policies that empower communities, develop organizations, build citizenship and social capital, promote inclusion and strengthen democracy." For more information, visit www.redeamerica.or.g/premiolatinoamericano. Eduardo Rodriguez-Frias with Eliana Nieto Rodriguez, communications coordinator, RedEAmérica Inter-American Foundation 30 IAF-18-0228-A-000058 Colombia The Most Tenacious Woman in the World Grassroots Development Journal 2011 M any years later, as she faced the threats from Colombia's violent shadows, Nohra Padilla was to remember that distant day when her mother took her through a city dump to discover the small treasures discarded there - bottles, cans, paper and cardboard that could be sorted, cleaned and sold to put food on the table, to clothe her and 11 brothers and sisters, to pay for their education. It was not quite the magical scene of danger and discovery that opens Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, but it was where Padilla's story started. Over time, she would find in those hills of trash and in the people who mined them, her life's work, and in herself, the leadership that would change the politics, economics and culture of recycling, often over the opposition of entrenched groups who benefited from the way things were. A daughter and granddaughter of recyclers, Padilla now heads Asociacion de Recicladores de Bogota, 20,000 members strong, as well as Colombia's National Association of Recyclers. She meets regularly with mayors, ministers, donors and journalists and is invited abroad to share her experiences. At 41, she is on her way to a university degree in public administration, taking courses as her duties permit. Around the conference table, when the lawyers and economists and civil engineers introduce themselves by profession, Padilla simply says, "Recycler:' The story of Nohra Padilla is part of a series for GrassrootsDevelopmentprofiling individuals throughout Latin America who are changing their societies from the bottom up. It is worth noting in this special issue on women leaders that Padilla rose through the ranks of an organization in which most workers are male and that among recyclers, gender is not commonly an obstacle to advancement. Inter-AmericanFoundation 3] IAF-18-0228-A-000059 Colombia The history of trash In that tiny percentage of hereditary matter that separates humans from animals, there must be a gene for generating trash. As long as humans have been on earth, we have left trash behind. Most of what we know of ancient ancestors comes through their detritus—fossilized bones and teeth of the game they ate, the rough weapons and tools they fashioned, shards of pottery that once stored their grain and water, unstrung beads and shining bits of metal with which they adorned themselves and, in their burial pits, the evidence of their age, sex, height, weight, status and of the wounds or disease that killed them. Modern trash is quantitatively and qualitatively different. The middens we leave for future research are vast mountains and bogs that threaten to overwhelm the cities of consumers that produce them. In Latin America, urban growth has exploded since the mid-20th century, and the volume of trash in municipal dumps has outpaced it. Again and again, reform-minded mayors take office with ambitious plans, only to realize that their first priority must be finding new dumpsites as old ones overflow. Dumps, or “landfills,” threaten health, safety and the environment as they pump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, accelerating climate change. In 2000, an avalanche of trash buried hundreds of Filipinos living in a dump. But as long as there have been dumps, people have gleaned them. One person’s trash is another’s lucky find. In Latin America, the number of recyclers has swelled with the waves of migrants to the cities. A recent census counted 150,000 recyclers in Colombia. Like hundreds of thousands of rural Colombians, Nohra Padilla’s parents and grandparents fled farms in Boyacá and Cundinamarca because of the horrific violence that swept through the countryside in the 1940s. So massive was this flight that Colombia became a majority urban country by the early 1960s. Padilla’s family settled in Las Cruces, a barrio near the center of Bogota that had still open land. If the migrants found safety in their new surroundings, work and shelter were harder to come by. Housing built on vacant land from odd bits of lumber, flattened cans and sheets of cardboard gave rise to the sprawling shantytowns that mushroomed overnight and became the face of urban poverty in the region. In the absence of jobs, some migrants scratched out a living searching through trash for anything they could sell. Padilla was born to recycling and was experienced at it before she was 10. But even though they needed her in the dump, her parents put education first. With only one year of schooling, Padilla’s mother had taught herself to read and write, then taught her husband. Their children combined work with their studies, through high school in Nohra’s case. But Nohra’s father became permanently disabled in an industrial accident and died when she was 13. Recycling kept the family afloat, but trapped in one of poverty’s whirlpools: Recliclo porque soy pobre y no salgo de pobre porque solo sé reciclar. [“I recycle because I’m poor and I stay poor because all I know is recycling.”] For recyclers to escape from that whirlpool, someone had to provide the centrifugal force. The politics of trash In 1999, Marcela Chaves, a field worker with Colombia’s Fundación Corona, took me to see a nascent organization of recyclers that she was advising via a program called FOCUS, which was receiving assistance from the Inter-American Foundation. We drove to one of the poorest areas in the southern rim of Bogota to meet the residents of Las Marías, a community literally built on trash. The area had once been a shallow lagoon that migrants had filled with dirt and garbage, tamping it all down, then building their ramshackle houses on the new land. A score of those who made their living from recycling had decided to organize as a cooperative within the Association of Recyclers of Bogota. Their working conditions were as precarious as their houses. Their rickety carts pulled by spavined horses could be seen on the side of highways and major streets, shrinking from speeding cars as they hauled bundled cardboard and piles Inter-American Foundation 32 IAF-18-0228-A-000060 Colombia of newspapers. They stacked their material beside their houses, then sold it for a pittance to middlemen. Recyclers were lucky to earn $4 a day, but none of those I spoke to seemed bitter. Several, in fact, said they liked the freedom to be their own boss and work the days and hours they wished. By opting for membership in the Association, they came in contact with Nohra Padilla, who was about to change their lives. Padilla was 29 then, a stocky woman in a heavy sweater and jeans with turned-up hems, her thick brown hair drawn into a long braid or a knot. She coordinated organizing for the Association and she was helping the Las Marías group position itself to sell its gleanings directly to industry for better prices than the middlemen were paying. Padilla had an air of having just rushed in from a previous meeting, and when she left, she was rushing to the next. But in between, she was focused, listening intently and responding quickly, decisively, emphasizing her words with gestures. Marcela Chaves saw her as an up-and-coming leader. Actually, Padilla had been a leader since her teenage years. At 14, she began attending school at night to leave days free to help support her family. She and a few neighbors and school friends formed a group that collected material together. Soon, they were busy improving their Tisquesusa neighborhood of Las Cruces, where trash dumped illegally on a daily basis had attracted plagues of rodents and flies, causing skin and respiratory diseases. Padilla’s group pressured the authorities and worked to remove the garbage, dig drains to prevent flooding, channel water to public sinks and lay out a park with a sports field. When Bogota’s municipal government decided in the late 1980s to close the major dump that supported 200 recyclers, Padilla and her friends formed cooperatives to defend their interests. Initially ignored by the city, they successfully pressured for negotiations by blocking roads and setting fires in the dump. City officials persisted in closing the dump, but they recognized the cooperatives, aided their efforts to organize trash collecting and outfitted the members with identity cards and uniforms that gave them a semi-official status. The four cooperatives created at that time became the core of Asociación de Recicladores de Bogota, founded in 1990. Support for recyclers across Colombia already had been coming from a prominent former IAF grantee, Fundación Social (FS), which funneled profits from several businesses it controlled, mainly in the financial sector, into the struggle against poverty. An FS program helped recycling groups find storage, upgrade transport and access social security, education, health services and childcare. In 1991, FS began to inform Colombians of the benefits of recycling. With assistance from FS, la Asociación bought a deteriorating structure and recycled it into the organization’s airy, expansive headquarters that includes an office, meeting space, a kitchen, dining areas in an enclosed patio and a childcare center. When a subsequent banking crisis temporarily curtailed FS’s support, Padilla became director of the recyclers’ association. “Ever since,” Padilla said, “we’ve been trying to reach self-sufficiency. But that’s very difficult for an organization whose members are among society’s poorest people. I go long periods without drawing a salary, just bus fare or money for an emergency. When do I receive a salary? When I’m successful in getting one of our projects financed and can charge for administrative costs. And I’m not the only one. Many of us have donated our time and effort to the Asociación.” With some IAF support, Fundación Corona, a corporate foundation, stepped in to back the recyclers’ attempts to organize and to professionalize their work. But bigger obstacles lay ahead. In 1999, Bogota’s government began working on a master plan for the city, with trash collection and removal the key concerns. In 2003, bids were restricted to registered corporations that provided sanitation services. The recyclers were not only left out but were banned from their usual routes. Help came from an unusual source. Inter-American Foundation 33 IAF-18-0228-A-000061 Colombia Alfonso Fidalgo was a successful and politically-connected consultant living in a spacious apartment near Bogota’s trendy Zona Rosa. A handsome man with expressive eyebrows, strong features, and thick, wavy black hair, Fidalgo is one of those high-energy people able to hold a meeting and simultaneously manage three cell phones. A few years before, he’d attended a by-invitation-only meeting in the resort city of Melgar that brought together business leaders with representatives of the guerrilleros waging war against the state—part of an ultimately unsuccessful peace process launched by the Colombian government. At the meeting, Fidalgo sat in on a presentation by Nohra Padilla and a colleague on the problems of trash pickers. “It was love at first sight,” Fidalgo told me. “I thought they made the biggest impact of any of the speakers.” Impressed by the implications of what they said, both for combating poverty and for improving the environment, he volunteered to help them obtain funding from a Spanish foundation. When that didn’t work, he drew a few friends and colleagues, including attorney Luis Jaime Salgar, into an informal support group for the recyclers. Salgar helped the Asociación contest the government decree that had sidelined the recyclers. The appeal was based on the fundamental right of people to work, as guaranteed under the Colombian Constitution of 1991, and it was successful. It not only overturned the decree but gained the recyclers a foothold in the city’s trash management system. “This has been one of the best remunerated jobs in my life,” Fidalgo told me. “Not in money, but in satisfaction. I’ve learned a ridiculous amount. Helping the recyclers has no downside. It’s good for them, and for everyone else. It’s a virtuous circle.” The economics of trash The second time I visited Las Marías, the group, thanks to Fundación Corona and the Asociación, had started to pull away from the drag of the poverty circle by acquiring a partly-roofed yard, where it could weigh each recycler’s contribution and store material until it had truckloads to sell directly to industries. Working conditions were still brutal. I saw a loaded cart, with a sturdy woman in the place of a horse between its shafts, straining to pull it up a ramp into the storage yard. In a corner of the ground floor of a building in an industrial area, like a baseball pitcher warming up, a young man rhythmically hurled bottles against a cement wall and they exploded like grenades. The resulting mound of splintered glass was a danger to anyone who had to handle it, but it could be cleaned more efficiently than intact bottles—an initial step up the rungs of the reprocessing ladder. Padilla has long had two guiding ideas about how recyclers could break free from the poverty trap: gradually take over the reprocessing and move into steady jobs cleaning buildings and tending public parks. When she talks trash, you forget the squelching, reeking dumps and imagine a corporate boardroom where the CEO lays out the business plan. “We want to control the entire process of recycling plastic, from collecting, sorting, sterilizing, all the way to reprocessed raw material for industry,” she said. “Why plastic? Because paper is controlled by a few industrialized multinationals. With metals and glass, the same thing, but not plastic. And you can completely process plastic with relatively simple machinery. Our other focus is non-ferrous metals, aluminum and copper, which are not that commonly found but whose value increases very quickly with whatever you do to it. In plastic and non-ferrous metals, we can compete.” The Asociación put that strategy to work at the Alquería Parque de Reciclaje, a well-organized center occupying most of a city block, which it took over under a contract with Bogota’s municipal government. The ferocious-looking Rottweiler-type dogs patrolling the gate are a reminder that junkyard dog is a metaphor for meanness and that trash has value and must be protected. Past the dogs, trucks drop off tons of unsorted recyclables at one of seven bays. Inter-American Foundation 34 IAF-18-0228-A-000062 Colombia Under a high roof, uniformed, gloved recyclers from 21 cooperatives, some wearing surgical facemasks, rotate to separate the materials. The day I visited, a proper-looking middle-aged lady was methodically dismembering a glossy magazine full of photos of lingerie models, the pages falling like leaves into the big blue drum. Across the yard were smaller buildings housing offices and classrooms where the recyclers take courses offered by Colombia’s Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje (SENA), a vocational-training agency that has been in operation for a half-century. Processing equipment included a long yellow machine roughly the shape and size of the hand-baggage scanners at airports. The change in working conditions that machine represented became clear in a neighborhood in southern Bogota, which Padilla said was one of the city’s most toxic areas. Men shambled along muddy streets with thick sheaves of tanned skins riding on their bent necks and shoulders. We stepped through a green metal door, crossed a dingy yard and entered a rickety two-story structure where plastic bags were prepared for recycling. Dozens of huge canvas sacks full of plastic bags were strewn everywhere. Up a shaky flight of stairs lined with more such bundles, a pair of youths stood in front of wicked-looking blades fixed to a stand, sharp edges facing up. They took the bags one at a time and sliced them apart. Downstairs, other workers used paddles to stuff them into a solution bubbling and boiling in large open tanks. An OSHA [workplace safety] examiner would have run screaming back into the street. At the Alquería Park, all that dangerous work is safely contained within the long yellow box. It takes plastic in at one end, heats it to melting, water-cools it and then extrudes it in dark gray spaghetti-like strings at the other end. A little guillotine slices the strings into purified pellets that are bagged and sold to factories that turn them into chairs, garden hoses, more plastic bags—an almost infinite number of products. With the Alquería facility, the Asociación recyclers became an integral part of Bogota’s trash management system, a big step up from the dusty yard where the Las Marías recyclers brought their material more than a decade ago. In addition to this vertical integration, Padilla has also been working to expand horizontally, into the cleaning and landscaping industries mentioned earlier. “There’s not the profit that’s possible with recycling but there are a lot of jobs that take a recycler who’s not earning much on the street and put him in different but related work,” she explained. The culture of trash If uniforms and identification cards gave recyclers an identity, the arrangement of regular routes and schedules has represented another breakthrough, eliminating competition for the same trash piles and facilitating connection with the people putting out the trash. The realization that they could count on the same individuals showing up helped make Bogota residents receptive to suggestions that they separate recyclable materials from organic garbage. This made the work easier and cleaner, with less sifting through bags and cans of trash. Better communication reinforced the idea that the recyclers were not derelicts but workers providing an important service. “Gradually, there came the recognition that, for example, we help preserve trees,” a recycler said.” If this pile of shredded paper were not recycled, think of all the trees that would be cut down.” As their efforts became more organized, the recyclers’ contributions became more apparent. Padilla estimates that groups in the Asociación remove for recycling at least 15 percent of the trash generated each day in Bogota, about 100 tons of material. That means their work alone extends the life of the city’s landfills by the same percentage. With set routes and schedules, the freedom that went with scavenging disappeared. Some recyclers dropped out of the Asociación but others appreciated the benefits it provides. These include the center in the headquarters where members can leave their children from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and receive medical and dental services. Since 2006, the center has participated in the government-funded lunch program Bogota Sin Hambre [Bogota without Hunger], serving 300 hot meals a day, mainly to poor people from the Inter-American Foundation 35 IAF-18-0228-A-000063 Colombia neighborhood, as well as to recyclers and their children. Shortly after the program started, Padilla invited me to lunch to show me how smoothly the center was handling the increased responsibility. Behind us, a long line of people with trays waited patiently, quietly chatting, leaving room for busy staff to go back and forth. "People say we're disorganized;' Padilla said;' but look at how proper everyone is. There's respect. There's attention to the presentation of the food. That's important:' Her comment about the food reminded me of other grassroots leaders who also notice all the details, especially those that encourage pride. Poverty is in the concrete realities of life, but it also worms its way into the mind , and overcoming it is partly a question of attitude. When Padilla talks about what the Asociaci6n has accomplished, she always underlines how each victory increased public respect for the recyclers and their own respect for themselves. Fending off the Sopranos Trash management is a tough business, no place for the meek. The foundation of Tony Soprano 's HBO crime principality, let's remember, rested on trash routes and the municipal contracts that awarded them. In the 1990s, as Padilla began her push to enter the bidding process, she and her colleagues received threats from shadowy groups who regarded organizing the poor as subversive. Behind them, Padilla perceived business owners who were profiting from their control of trash collecting and wanted no competition. Attempts at intimidation escalated whenever contracts came up for review, as did offers of bribes. There have been violent episodes; recyclers have lost their lives in clashes over access to dumps. In the face of this danger Padilla says that her organization sought help from the authorities to no avail. In fact, she says, members are sometimes harassed by the authorities and constantly on guard against proposals to strip them of their rights. Inter-AmericanFoundation 36 IAF-18-0228-A-000064 Colombia Undeterred, Padilla has continued to push, but is also working to improve communication and internal security within her organization. She has taken complaints about threats to the press. And she has relied on her allies, including prominent Colombians like Fidalgo and Salgar. She has not wavered in her demand that recyclers have a seat at the table when contracts are negotiated and decisions are reached on sanitation and recycling services in Bogota. In pursuit of that goal, she has won the grudging admiration of municipal bureaucrats. I sat in on one difficult meeting at a government office on dangerous residue in trash and the laws that supposedly regulate it. The conversation veered off on tangents, but Padilla kept pulling it back. She complained that her organization had not received promised information on proposed legislation. “I’m not asking whether,” she said firmly at one point, “I’m affirming that there is no control by the authorities.” A few minutes later, on the sidewalk outside, a woman who had been in the meeting watched as Padilla continued to press her points. “Nohra Padilla,” she said quietly, is “the most tenacious woman in the world.” Patrick Breslin, formerly IAF vice president for external affairs, retired after 22 years of service. He may be reached at (b) (6) . Inter-American Foundation 37 IAF-18-0228-A-000065 Colombia Goldman Environmental Prize to Nohra Padilla N ohra Padilla, a recycler from Bogota, is one of six grassroots environmental activists honored in 2013 with the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize at a ceremony held in San Francisco’s Opera House. A daughter and granddaughter of recyclers, Padilla heads Asociación de Recicladores de Bogotá, 20,000 members strong, as well as Colombia’s National Association of Recyclers (ANR). “I'm a grassroots recycler, which means that I offer an essential public service that allows us to recover materials that would otherwise end up in landfills or incinerators,” said Padilla, who meets regularly with mayors, ministers, donors and journalists and has shared her experiences in Colombia and abroad. In the 1990s, the Inter-American Foundation funded training, equipment and facilities that allowed Padilla’s association to develop as an enterprise that pays a living wage to recyclers and gives them dignity. More recently, in 2009, the IAF awarded a grant to ANR to provide technical assistance and purchase new equipment for 12 garbage-collection and recycling organizations in Colombia's Atlantic Coast. A profile of Padilla and her work in Grassroots Development for 2012 was included in the documentation submitted to the panel of judges who selected the winners of the Goldman Prize. San Francisco philanthropist Richard M. Goldman created the prize in 1989. It is awarded annually to grassroots environmental heroes from each of six continents, whose significant efforts to protect the natural environment often go unnoticed beyond their community, even when they are undertaken at great personal risk. In addition to well-deserved attention for their cause, winners receive $150,000, the largest award in the world for grassroots environmentalists. Inter-American Foundation 38 IAF-18-0228-A-000066 Colombia Seeds for the Future Story by Luis Eduardo Merino and Juan Fernando Merino for the IAF Photos by Luis Carlos Echeverri S ince before recorded time the practice of preserving and trading native seeds among communities has been a fundamental way of life for indigenous peoples in Latin America. This not only ensured food security but also served as an opportunity to strengthen communal ties and share practices that helped them continue to endure. The seed, for indigenous Colombians, has represented the miracle of life and is symbolic to their connection to the earth. In the spirit of this tradition, Grupo Semillas — or the Seeds Group — a Colombian nongovernmental organization (NGO) founded in 1994, supports indigenous Afro-descendants and campesino (farmer) communities in the preservation and exchange of native seeds and agroecological practices. In the process it also promotes the protection of traditional, indigenous territories or resguardos,1 natural resources, biodiversity and sustainable systems for food security. Faced with a clear and present threat posed by increasing desertification and the effects of climate change, Semillas and its partners have proposed more environmentally-friendly traditional agriculture practices to replace conventional models. With support from the Inter-American Foundation (IAF), Semillas shows how these ideas of agroecological methods and defense of territory operate on the ground — and at the grassroots level — in the departments of Tolima and Cauca. Semillas together with indigenous 1 In Colombia both indigenous and Afro-descendents have constitutional rights that guarantee their cultural, linguistic, political and territorial rights, although in the context of the ongoing civil conflict, communities have claimed these rights to varying degrees. The most organized indigenous communities live in “resguardos,” a legal and sociopolitical institution, of colonial origin, where they are given autonomy to administer according to their needs and customs. These communities have communal land titles and political autonomy. Afro-descendent communities, particularly those living in the Colombian Pacific Region, have benefitted from a law which determines ethnic and cultural rights and collective land ownership. and Afro-descendant communities created model farm schools to address food security challenges in both departments, through the exchange of technical skills and traditional knowledge. The group continues to organize exchanges, where participants visit the model farms in order to carry out seed bartering and other activities. These include sharing agroecological best practices and techniques, and the creation of seed banks for the recovery, conservation and management of native seeds. Native seeds bridging communities together in Tolima As the sun passes over the Avechucos Mountains in the Andean department of Tolima, shadows spread across foothills full of legends and history of indigenous struggles in Colombia. It is in this area where the remains rest of indigenous leader Manuel Quintin Lame, who fought for the unity, territory, culture and autonomy of indigenous communities 100 years ago. In October 2016 a group of about 40 people gathered at an agroecological field farm school named after Quintin Lame, in the Pocará resguardo in the heart of the ancestral lands of the Pijao people. These men and women, mostly campesinos and indigenous people, came from different villages in the region to participate in a training workshop organized by Semillas with emphasis on sustainable ecological practices that will benefit their families and their environment. The workshop cycles last up to two years and are conducted every two months in two-day modules. The Pijaos, dispersed in 77 distinct communities, are fragmented organizationally, compared to other indigenous communities in Colombia, into four organizations with some collective land rights. The region is characterized by high levels of erosion, salinity and limited availability of water, largely caused by poor management from large landholders for use as cotton plantations and extensive cattle-raising. Semillas works Grassroots Development 2016 Inter-American Foundation 37 39 IAF-18-0228-A-000067 Colombia with several indigenous organizations engaged in agricultural production with a focus on food security. Upon entering the resguardo, one is struck by a natural curtain of green made up of trees and plants native to the region planted by local inhabitants. “Before this was a very arid zone suitable only for livestock,” said Rosa Aleyda Leal Tapiero, governor of the resguardo. The transformation of this space into fertile land is the result of a collective effort since all the families living there work together with the common goal of affirming our identity and food sovereignty.” The transformation is thanks to the work of Semillas and its partner organizations. They have focused on promoting productive environmental conditions through the model farm system, and fostering exchanges between communities leading to an alliance between grassroots organizations and other stakeholders. A key activity, for example, is the work done to preserve original, native seeds, such as corn, which has many uses and is deeply steeped in the ancestral memory of many peoples throughout the American continents. Apart from maize, there are the seeds of cassava, bean and others. Communities have sown these for generations, but now many are at risk of being altered or disappearing due to the spread of commercial or modified varieties. Participants in the October farm school met with their neighbors to share products from their gardens. Some made sweets and fruit jams while others showed off their hatchlings of gallina criolla (free-ranged chickens), which forage on natural plants and derivatives instead of chemical feed. A group of women found aloe A group of about 40 people at the agroecological field farm school Manuel Quintin Lame, in the Pocará resguardo. Inter-American Foundation Rosa Aleyda Leal Tapiero, governor of the Pocará resguardo. vera as a source of natural wealth as an ingredient in facial cleansing products currently popular in local markets in the region. For Fernando Castrillón, an agricultural engineer and project coordinator of Semillas, seeing these community interactions is one of the highlights of the training workshops. “Friendships are woven here — but other kinds of purposes are woven: people are building new alternatives,” he said. “It gives us satisfac tion to understand that new leadership is emerging, with new ways of understanding a territory, and very concrete knowledge to tackle the problems of hunger and desertification.” But perhaps the most emblematic case of resilience to environmental challenges occurs in the Ilarquito resguardo in the municipality of Ortega. Where once the lands were parched and did not produce much, crops and gardens now thrive. Technical support from Semillas and professionals from several universities and institutions, coupled with communal ancestral knowledge, resulted in a culmination of best practices. Residents built circular vegetable gardens as a strategy to adapt to changing environments. These allow them to not only produce food such as beans, maize and a variety of fruits, but also to plant more trees to protect the ecosystem. In the process they replenish forests, help the soil to better retain water and contribute to all-around improvement of the 40 IAF-18-0228-A-000068 Colombia A young girl holds an ear of corn, a staple food of the Americas for centuries. Saplings in a nursery in the municipality of Ortega, Illarquito resguardo. conditions in the region. In the future they hope the nurseries they are now planting will grow into more than 10,000 trees. For Olga Consuelo Vargas of the Organization of Indigenous Councils of Tolima, the key to sustainability has always rested within the heart of these communities. “Ancestral knowledge is very important for our people,” she said. “We need to rebuild this identity that has been dormant within us. In these workshops we are building peace, building orchards, seedlings, and becoming guardians of seeds and all that knowledge.” Perhaps most lamentable among local residents is the loss of traditional farms, which bore a variety of basic vegetables, as well as fruit trees, timber, and plants used for medicinal and other purposes such as forage for livestock. This supported food security and sovereignty for families in the region. Amidst the boom in sugarcane cultivation that took force in the 1980s, a good part of these farms were bought by sugar plantations. Semillas works with Afro-descendent and Nasa indigenous communities who belong to the Unidad de Organizaciones Afrocaucanas (UOAFROC) and the Asociacion de Cabildos Indigenas del Norte de Cauca (ACIN). Historically these communities have faced pressure from industrial sugarcane production as their lands are encroached on by the use of rental contracts that diminish land’s productivity and water availability. They also face pressure from mining and in some municipalities the presence of illegal actors such as guerrillas and paramilitaries. Territorial pressures from third parties have in turn aggravated tensions between Afro-descendants and indigenous communities. In order to address some of The “green monster” of sugar cane and the AfroColombian experience in Cauca In the department of Cauca to the west of Tolima, fields of sugarcane are abundant in Villa Rica, one of the seven municipalities in the north that are part of the agroecological field schools promoted by Semillas. These multi-hectare plots were supposed to bring prosperity to the people who devoted themselves to their planting. However, as a monoculture that has spread throughout the area for several years, sugarcane has actually caused more damage than good. Inter-American Foundation 41 IAF-18-0228-A-000069 Colombia Building circular gardens and incorporating trees hepls soils retain water. the challenges that these communities face, Semillas’ activities include a regional assessment on the productive and environmental conditions and availability of food, leading to trainings that address any challenges at model farms. Further exchanges between communities, for example, through regional forums, lead to the strengthening of an inter-ethnic dialogue. Back to the basics In Villa Rica residents become nostalgic when they talk about how their fincas (small plots of land) once produced a great variety of native fruit trees and other vegetation. Heberto Usuriaga, an Afro-Colombian campesino, said these traditional processes were lost when their fincas were bought out or planted over. “A lot of people left when the wave of sugarcane came,” he said. “But people were not accustomed to such temporary crops. These campesinos were deceived and they lost a lot.” Inter-American Foundation Usuriaga and his family were introduced to Semillas in about 2012 when the organization began to carry out the agroecological project “Afronortecaucana Formation School” in Villa Rica and in the municipalities of Caloto, Miranda, Guachené, Padilla, Corinto and Santander de Quilichao. They realized they were not alone, that there were other campesinos and organizations reluctant to lose their lands and customs — also affected by the economic model that prevailed in the region. Organized, residents recognized the sum of their efforts to strengthen themselves as a community in the defense and management of their territory and to resolve differences among themselves. Through Semillas’ model farms, community exchanges and regional forums, families continued to embark on a unique path. They shared knowledge, ideas and technical practices defined by themselves and based on their needs. Through this process arose solutions. 42 IAF-18-0228-A-000070 Colombia The Illarquito countryside. And many of those solutions are now bearing fruit. Betsabé Álvarez, owner of Finca La Estella, along with her children has formed a company that will make the most of her cacao crops, thanks to participation in Semillas’ activities. Her family operation transforms derivatives of this crop into a booming industry, bringing to market traditional delights such as chokula (rolled balls of chocolate), sweets and cacao liquor, which are being marketed regionally, and soon, nationally. Deyanira Gonzalías Rodallega, a community leader and member of Semillas’ partner UOAFROC, said the exchanges have been beneficial, but challenges remain. “We have problems of land grabbing, extinction of seeds and loss of water,” she said. “With Semillas we were given the opportunity to look at our problems, like how to deal with the green monster of the cane, Inter-American Foundation which has forced out many native species. This school allows us to exchange seeds, knowledge and experiences with other organizations.” The problem of “land grabbing” from the sugar mills is compounded by mining activities that damage land and dry up water sources. Then there are social problems such as “machismo” or young people looking down on the field work done by their parents and grandparents. However, Gonzalías Rodallega, like other leaders in the region, believes that women and young people should be empowered to participate in management of their communities and lands. The work is arduous and will require a lot of effort, but there is the awareness that unity is strength. And these empowered residents know that the seeds of action and hard work that are being sown now, will grow into more opportunities and a better future. 43 IAF-18-0228-A-000071 Colombia Resguardos, Cabildos and Indigenous Governance The Colombian National Statistics Department estimates that 3.5% of the population of Colombia is indigenous, comprising 70 different indigenous groups and 65 different languages. After Brazil, it is the most ethnically diverse country in the Americas. During the colonial era, the Crown created a system of collectively owned resguardos1 to protect the communities that were in danger of disappearing entirely, and, with them, a valuable labor source. In more recent times, the word resguardo has come to mean a special kind of legal and socio-political institution formed by an indigenous community or entire indigenous ethnic group. The 1991 Political Constitution, one of the most far-reaching in Latin American with respect to indigenous rights, represented an important step in recognizing the fundamental rights of indigenous peoples. Among the many gains, some of the most important included the recognition of indigenous territorial entities (entidades territoriales indígenas 2 ), collective ownership of resguardos, giving indigenous people in these territories the right to use them as they see fit, including decision-making about development. Another benefit was the recognition of customary law (usos y costumbres), which allowed indigenous communities to settle their internal affairs, even in criminal cases, as long as the basic law of the land was not violated. The Constitution strengthened ethno-education and other programs tailored to permit cultural distinctiveness. It also mandated increasing direct transfers of state resources to the resguardos. Indigenous territories and resguardos are governed by councils, or cabildos, that are responsible for seeing that the laws are observed, designing economic and social development policies, plans and programs within their territory, promoting and overseeing public investments, receiving and distributing revenues from those investments, overseeing natural resources, coordinating programs and projects, and helping to maintain law and order. Some indigenous organizations have three levels: ONIC (National Indigenous Organization of Colombia) is the federation of regional councils (the most important regional councils are the CRIT in Tolima and the CRIC in Cauca). The regional councils are the bodies through which the indigenous communities, also called cabildos, can function as groups with a legal status and interact with other indigenous organizations. The members of each cabildo (the number varies between 5 and 12) are elected by each community to one-year terms; they receive no pay and enjoy no privileges. The members of the cabildo elect a governor. Although existing legislation gives them broad authorities with regards to internal administrative, executive and police affairs, their authority over the community is not binding; instead, it is a kind of moral authority. While this reinforces their democratic commitment, it weakens them vis-à-vis challenges or attacks from other state institutions with overlapping or parallel authority. The result is that the authority of the cabildos may be disregarded or dismissed by state institutions, even the courts, the police and municipal institutions. This conflict of parallel authorities also occurs between the cabildos and municipal political authorities. The latter are also popularly elected officials, but in general through a party structure controlled locally by the political elites that operate by buying votes through the community action boards. This source of conflict and of human rights violations could be reduced, according to some analysts, if, within the new territorial division, the municipalities were to be configured to coincide with the indigenous communities or to be contiguous3. It is interesting to note that the region where Guambia’s project activities take place, elected municipal authorities are indigenous, reducing conflict and allowing for collaboration. In fact, the municipality of Silvia is committing important counterpart funds. Inter-American Foundation 44 IAF-18-0228-A-000072 Colombia Finally, as the Colombian indigenous movement has continued to gain access to the political institutions of the state, it has more recently focused on strengthening its own institutions and in cultural recovery and visibility. A clear example of this in the creation of “planes de vida,” or indigenous development plans. Developed by consensus within communities, they lay out the long-term expectations (10 or more years) that are used as a guide by elected cabildos. Planes de vida usually include a history of the indigenous group, its worldview, its principles and values, and general objectives around topics such as health, education, and culture, among others. Guambia’s partnership with the IAF is a product of the Guambiano (also called Misak) plan de vida. Guambianos/Misak The Misak are an indigenous group, with a population of 26,500 that live in the departments of Cauca, Valle del Cauca, Huila, Cundinamarca, Caquetá, Meta and Putumayo in Colombia. Seventy percent of the population lives in the municipality of Silvia, department of Cauca, but as land has become scarce, they have migrated to different regions of the country. They are producers of corn, potatoes, coffee, sugar cane, scallions, beans, and cabbage, used mainly for consumption. In recent years, trout have become an important income generating activity with a stronger business focus. The Misak indigenous territories receive direct transfers of state resources 4 that they use to cover the populations’ needs in education (primary and secondary schools), health (health posts and hospitals) and the purchase of land. The purchase of land, outside of the department of Cauca, became an important strategy of cultural survival in recent decades, due to the lack of available land near their traditional territory. Unlike the Nasa, their indigenous neighbors in the department of Cauca, the Misak have considered this a more viable strategy for their cultural survival, rather than fighting for the return of lands taken from them. The Misak are organized in 19 cabildos, with the Cabildo Guambia being the most important, or Cabildo Mayor, not only in terms of the number of people it represents, but also because of its location in Silvia, considered the center of Misak life (el ombligo del mundo Misak). 1 The communal native landholding established by royal title in the colonial period. 2 Entidades Territoriales Indígenas: territorial entities on par with departments, districts and municipalities. The indigenous territoriales are another regional configuration and may lie within the jurisdiction of one or several departments. 3 Jackson, Jean E. “Overview of the Colombian indigenous movement.” UniverSOS: revista de lenguas indigenas y universos culturales, no.8 ( 2011): 99-114. 4 In recent years between $800,000 and 1 million dollars annually. Inter-American Foundation 45 IAF-18-0228-A-000073 Colombia Biographies María Emma Wills Obregón, Ph.D. María Emma Wills Obregón, Advisor to the General Directorate of the National Center for Historical Memory (CNMH), is starting a new challenge. She is one of the members of the Historical Commission on Conflict and Victims, who has the task of recounting how the Colombian armed conflict began and what is consequences have been. Since 2007 María Emma has been part of the Historical Memory Group, where she led the Gender Studies Group, coordinating several investigations and publishing four books on women and sexual violence in the Colombian armed conflict. She received an honorable mention in the Montserrat Ordoñez Prize in at the Latin American Studies Association (LASA) 2012 meeting in Colombia. In August 2012, María Emma was appointed Adviser to the General Directorate at the National Center for Historical Memory. From 2004 to 2007, María Emma held the position of Director of Political Science at the University of the Andes. And from 1998 to 2004, she was part of the Institute of Political Studies and International Relations of the National University of Colombia as a researcher and teacher. During that stage, she directed the Political Studies Master Program of the Institute. María Emma received her Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of the Andes in 1983. She received her Master’s in Political Science from the University of Montreal in 1991. María Emma received her Ph.D. in Latin American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 2004. Her dissertation was Female and feminist trajectories towards the public in Colombia (1970-2000): Inclusion without representation? César Rodríguez Garavito, Ph.D. César Rodríguez Garavito is Director of the Center for Studies in Law, Justice and Society (Dejusticia) and founding professor of the Global Justice and Human Rights Program at the University of the Andes. He has been a Visiting Professor at Stanford University, Brown University, Getulio Vargas Foundation (Brazil), University of Pretoria (South Africa), Åbo Center for Human Rights (Finland), Central European University, Autonomous Institute of Technology (Mexico) and the Andean University of Quito. César is the Founding Director of Human Rights Lab and he is a member of the academic boards of the Annual Review of Law and Social Science, openGlobalRights, the Global Center for Pluralism and the Business and Human Rights Journal. César is a member of the Board of Directors of WITNESS, Fundar México and the Business and Human Rights Resource Center. He is lead author of the International Panel on Social Progress and co-director of the Global School of Social Rights. César writes a weekly column for the Colombian newspaper El Espectador. César received his law degree from the University of the Andes. He received his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. César has three Master’s degrees: Law and Society from New York University, Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Philosophy from the National University of Colombia. Nohra Padilla Herrera Nohra Padilla Herrera is the leader and spokesperson for the Associations of Recyclers in Colombia. In 2013 she was awarded the Goldman Environmental Award in the category “South America.” Nora the sixth of 12 siblings and is part of a family of recyclers. She grew up searching through trash bags of fellow city residents. Scavenging garbage bags, along with 8,800 people in the city, helped Nohra to get her clothes, shoes and notebooks to go to school. Later, with the sale of cardboard, paper, glass, cans and copper left in the trash, she was able to finance her education. Nohra finished high school, but preferred to fight in the recycling world before going to university. Nohra realized the need to organize more than 30,000 recyclers in cooperatives, in order to be able to fight for their basic rights as workers, are to ensure Inter-American Foundation 46 IAF-18-0228-A-000074 Colombia the safety of the trade and achieve social recognition of the dignity of their work. Thus she became a leader and, for four years, the director of the Association of Recyclers of Bogota (ARB), representing the 3,000 informal recyclers of the city, and the National Association of Recyclers of Colombia (ANR), representing some 12,000 recyclers. There are an additional 25+ associations of recyclers throughout Colombia. One of the major goals of the trade union struggle was the 2011 judicial decision that recyclers could compete with garbage companies to obtain municipal contracts. Another achievement was when the mayor of Bogota decreed that recycling was mandatory. In her role as a union leader, Nohra combines the struggle for social justice (improving the living conditions of workers) and environmental objectives. In her own words, “I dream and I work so that all the recyclers in Colombia are remunerated justly.” Her ultimate goal is for the associations to be organized in such a way that they form companies dedicated to the collection and transformation of materials. Marc Chernick, Ph.D. Marc Chernick is a globally recognized academics on international conflicts and peace processes and a much respected “Colombiaphile.” He has written several books on the conflict in Colombia. Marc is Director of the Center for Latin American Studies and Professor of the Practice of Conflict Resolution and Human Rights at the School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University. He also serves as Director of the Georgetown-Los Andes Program on Conflict Resolution and Human Rights at the University of the Andes. Before joining the faculty at Georgetown in 1996, he served as Director of the Latin American Studies program and Assistant Professor of Political Science at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Earlier he was the Assistant Director of the Institute of Latin American and Iberian Studies at Columbia University. He has worked for several years as a professor at the National University of Colombia in Bogota and as a Visiting Professor / Researcher at FLACSO-Ecuador in Quito and the Institute of Peruvian Studies in Lima. Marc has written widely on issues of violence, guerrilla insurgencies and peacemaking in Colombia and in Latin America, and has served as a consultant to the World Bank, UNDP, USAID, the governments of Norway, Sweden and Switzerland and other international organizations and NGOs on issues of human rights, democracy, early warning and conflict resolution in Colombia and elsewhere in Latin America and Africa. In 2016, in anticipation of the signing of final peace accords Marc lead a project of regional peace and community-level peace talks in conflict-affected regions of Colombia. He has a Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University. Juan de Dios Mosquera Juan de Dios Mosquera an activist and academic with more than thirty years of work with the AfroColombian community. He is founder of the Circle of Afro-Colombian Studies and the National Movement of the Rights of Afro-Colombian Communities (Movimiento Cimarrón), the Continental Network of Afro-American Organizations, the Andean Network of Afro-Descendants Organizations, and the National School of Afro-Colombian leadership. Juan was a primary school science teacher from 1974 to 1992. He studied American Ethnography and Ethnology in the Social Sciences department of the Technology University of Pereira from 1981 to 1982. He has been a Visiting Professor at the Luis Carlos Galán Sarmiento Institute and University Francisco Jose de Calda both in Bogota. He was a Lecturer in Afro-Colombian Studies at the Higher Institute for Afro Formation in Motevideo. Juan has a Bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences from the Technology University of Pereira. He received advanced training in Social Studies at the Center for Social Studies and Research (CEIS) in Bogota. Juan received a Specialization in Latin American Sociology from the University Iberoamericana in Mexico. Inter-American Foundation 47 IAF-18-0228-A-000075 Colombia Andrés Hernández Andrés Hernández is the Co-Executive Director of Transparency for Colombia. For several years he served as Regional Coordinator of Transparency International for Latin America, focusing on strengthening civil society organizations, cross-sector interaction, and exchange of knowledge and methodologies of transparency and anti-corruption. He has contributed and elaborated documents in this field. He has been a lecturer at the Externado University of Colombia in the area of international corruption and is a member of the Ocasa Corporation. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Government and International Relations of the Externado University of Colombia. Andrés received a diploma of studies in Political and Social Sciences from the Political Institute of Paris and a Master’s in Political Action and Citizen Participation from the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Universidad Francisco de Vitoria and The Madrid Bar Association. Margareth Florez Margareth Florez is the Executive Director of RedEAmérica, which focuses on the promotion of collective learning processes between companies and corporative foundations with presence in 11 Latin American countries. From 2006 to 2009 Margareth was the Executive Director of Transparency for Colombia. She has experience in managing non-profit organizations, coordinating initiatives in alliances and networks at national and international levels, obtaining technical and financial cooperation resources at national and international levels, formulating, implementing and monitoring public policies, programs and projects in public and civil entities. Margareth has coordinated and participated in publications on issues of social development and public management. She has participated in several boards of directors of non-profit civil institutions. Margareth received her Master’s in Administration and Planning for Regional Development from the University of the Andes. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture and Urbanism from the Federal University of Pelotas. United States Diplomatic Mission in Colombia Ambassador Kevin Whitaker Ambassador Whitaker was confirmed by the Senate April 1, and sworn in on April 28, 2014 as U.S. Ambassador to Colombia. Prior to this appointment, he was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South America in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs. He is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service. Mr. Whitaker has served in the United Kingdom, Jamaica, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, where he was Deputy Chief of Mission (2005-07). In addition, he previously served in a number of positions at the Department of State, including as Coordinator of the Office of Cuban Affairs (2002-05), Deputy Executive Secretary (2007-08), and Director of the Office of Andean Affairs (2008-11). In 2005, he won the Secretary’s Award for Public Affairs and Public Diplomacy. A native of Virginia, Mr. Whitaker received his degree from the University of Virginia. He is married to Elizabeth Whitaker, a former member of the Senior Foreign Service. Inter-American Foundation 48 IAF-18-0228-A-000076 Colombia Deputy Chief of Mission Philip Laidlaw Philip Laidlaw arrived in Bogota February 8, 2016 to take up his position as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy. He was previously director of the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs Office of Policy Planning and Coordination. In this position, he oversaw regional budget and strategic planning, politicalmilitary affairs, counternarcotics, democracy and human rights, global and multilateral issues, homeland security, cybersecurity, and race, ethnicity, and social inclusion issues. Prior to that, he was the Chargé d’Affaires of the Embassy in Caracas from September 2013 through July 2014. Since joining the Department of State as a Foreign Service Officer in 1992, his overseas assignments include Tirana, Sarajevo, Madrid, La Paz, and San Salvador. He was also Deputy Director of the Office of Andean Affairs. Phil Laidlaw is from Florida. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Economics at Wake Forest University in 1989 and received a Master’s degree in National Security Strategy from the National War College in 2011. USAID Mission Director Peter Natiello Peter Natiello was sworn in as the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Mission Director for Colombia on August 28, 2012. Before that, from July 2011-July 2012, Mr. Natiello served as USAID’s Deputy Mission Director in South Sudan, during the first year of the country’s independence. From August 2009 through July 2011, Mr. Natiello served as USAID’s Senior Development Advisor to the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), in Tampa, Florida. During his tenure at USSOCOM, he deployed twice to Haiti to assist with coordination of U.S. Government earthquake response. Mr. Natiello was awarded the Joint Civilian Service Commendation medal for his service at USSOCOM. Mr. Natiello served from 2003 to 2009 with USAID in Bolivia, where he was Mission Director, Deputy Mission Director, and Director of the Alternative Development Program. As Mission Director, Mr. Natiello was responsible for an $80 million annual portfolio of long-term programs in health, private sector development, environment, food security, democracy/governance, alternative development, and disaster relief. In 2005, the Government of Bolivia awarded Mr. Natiello a medal for his contributions to rural development. Mr. Natiello managed USAID’s democracy/governance and conflict mitigation portfolio in Ecuador (2001-2003), and served as a Democracy and Governance Officer in South Africa (1997-2001). He began his career with USAID in Bolivia, where he served as a Project Development Officer from 1992 to 1997. Prior to joining the Foreign Service, Mr. Natiello served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ecuador and subsequently as a Research Analyst with the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington. He is fluent in Spanish and proficient in Portuguese. Mr. Natiello has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Economy from Colorado College and a Masters of International Affairs from Columbia University. He is married to the former Ms. Carolina Jurado, and they have three children. Inter-American Foundation 49 IAF-18-0228-A-000077 IAF-18-0228-A-000078