Cesar has been a territory particularly hit by violence, which is why nine years ago, after a study that determined the need to implement the Development and Peace Program in this department, which was already being intervened in the south by the PDP of Magdalena Medio, began the intervention of the population of the north and center with support programs that contribute to the strengthening of processes and territorial dynamics of development and peace, to promote a dignified life and the construction of the common good.
The PDP is advancing in 25 departments of the country and seeks to combine various aspects, such as: humanitarian assistance derived from the effects of violence, seeking productive development options and betting on the reorganization of the public sector, taking into account that normally, a good part of the problems arise due to the lack of responses from this sector in terms of safety and improvement of people’s quality of life.
According to the executive director of the Cesar Development and Peace Corporation, Amaury Padilla, this is a civil society initiative that seeks to build new and better social, political, economic, cultural, territorial and environmental realities, through the consolidation of relations between civil society, local, departmental and national institutions and the private sector, with the support of international cooperation
“This has not been a territory of peace, of tranquility, violence has had to do with our current conditions, and it is from the development and peace program that we want to see the meaning and opportunities of the peace agreement. With the firm understanding that peace is going to be in our daily lives, with people that is the main focus of our attention, concern and efforts, ”explained Amaury Padilla.
He also indicated that it is intended to generate dynamics and relationships that allow the redefinition of life, human dignity, integral development and respect for nature; as well as overcoming the structural challenges that keep the dynamics of violence, exclusion, poverty and marginalization in force.
The fundamental role of development and peace programs are aimed at motivating the capacity for dialogue between different actors in a territory, especially between opposites, providing those conditions to determine how to live life, pushing everyone forward.
In Cesar, exercises are being implemented to strengthen capacities for the construction of territorial peace. According to Padilla, it is about understanding the language of the actors in the middle of the dialogue such as the State, civil society and private companies.
“The use of inappropriate language between the parties does not allow understanding, and generates an imbalance between them, creating disbelief and insecurity, which impedes the ability to continue with the dialogues. That was what had happened historically in our country. However, one of the things we have learned from this four-year dialogue exercise that has just been happily signed in Havana is to learn about this capacity for dialogue.
That is what we want to promote in this territory from the PDP ”, stated Padilla.
In recent years, 13 municipalities and rural areas of Cesar have intervened, such as Pueblo Bello, Valledupar, El Copey, Bosconia, El Paso, Chiriguaná, Astrea, Chimichagua, Curumaní, La Jagua, Becerril and Codazzí. Similarly, the PDP has served a large part of La Guajira and Magdalena with resilience projects, improvement of access to health services, promotion of the participation of women in the claim, in land restitution and strengthening of capacities for the construction of territorial peace. It also dictates courses in 12 municipalities from the north to the center of the department, itinerant trainings, in which groups of three municipalities are integrated that rotate so that everyone knows the territory, create ties that contribute to their development.
“We believe that dialogue is what will allow us, despite the differences, to reach agreements, what we are doing in this exercise of strengthening capacities for the construction of territorial peace, is how we generate capacities for territorial dialogue”, Padilla argued.
The projects promoted by the European Union, the Department for Social Prosperity, Ecopetrol and are executed by the Cesar Development and Peace Corporation, the entity that administers the Development and Peace Program, made up of the Chamber of Commerce, the Udes University, and the University Foundation. from the Andean Area, Carboandes Foundation, Diocese of Valledupar, Pastoral Social and Servipan.
According to the executive director of the corporation, the importance lies in the contribution to the understanding that development and peace make in the territory and all the actors that inhabit them.
“We try to clean up personal ideology a bit, whether or not I agree with mining, palm farming. What we manage is to see with the greatest objectivity what is already there, and that removing it is very complicated. That territorial actor, call it a private company, call it the state or call it civil society, must speak and agree ”, he explained.
He recognized that the task is not easy in a department that has around 400 thousand victims of the armed conflict and the challenge is to achieve dialogue with the different sectors in a territory that has suffered and that has managed to get ahead despite the various types of violence.
“Stick to reality, the department receives a lot of money in royalties, however, traveling through the mining corridor is an experience of the state of administrative poverty and those of morbidity, illiteracy and malnutrition, while the community blames the mining companies. Therein lies the main work of this corporation in seeing with more calm the co-responsibility of all the actors, from the government where corruption has leaked, the companies have made mistakes and the communities have not done things in the best way ”, he concluded .
The Development and Peace Program includes participation through diplomas that include four basic areas of knowledge and two in-depth seminars. Integrated in:
1) Formulation and projection of projects, if the communities are clear about their problems, the causes and consequences of a problem can be identified and turned into a project that allows solving the most pressing problems.
2) Culture of peace and urban development, the major problems identified depend on simple everyday situations that generate problems of coexistence.
3) Organizational strengthening and human rights, the organization is fundamental for human development, whoever does not organize will not be able to survive, an organized community does not allow violence to enter it, it is capable of solving its needs from the most elementary to the most basic. high.
4) Governance and governance for peace, is how we are able to understand and understand that the challenge lies in the construction of citizenship, we have rights and duties to live together healthily in society.
The in-depth seminars are made up of mechanisms for claiming and repairing, judicial and non-judicial, against human rights violations allowed by the companies. The companies in charge would be the Ministries of Mines and Energy, the Environment, the Office of Human Rights of the Presidency and companies. mining.
And secondly, the peace process that aims to publicize the points of agreement, what they consist of, how the village area located in the municipality of La Paz will be managed, transitional justice, the judges of the special jurisdiction for peace, solving doubts and myths, lies and truths, which will be attended by members of the Office of the High Commissioner for Peace, the Electoral Observation Mission and the United Nations Development Program.
The Development and Peace Program will offer a diploma for journalists with an emphasis on journalistic ethics and the management of post-agreement moments. It is scheduled to start at the end of September. Moderated by Las Dos Orillas, the Prodepaz network; the Valledupar Circle of Journalists, the Foundation for New Journalism, the endorsement would be in charge of the University Foundation of the Andean area.
By Ariadne Osorio Ponceariadneosoriop@gmail.com
