斯德哥尔摩国际和平研究所-The-World-Food-Programme-s-Contribution-to-Improving-the-Prospects-for-Peace-in-Colombia_56页_524kb

Summary of the World Food Programme's Contribution to Improving the Prospects for Peace in Colombia

Core Content

This report, authored by Caroline Delgado, examines the World Food Programme's (WFP) role in contributing to peacebuilding in Colombia. It is part of a broader SIPRI-WFP knowledge partnership aimed at understanding how WFP programming can support peace and security in conflict-affected countries. The report focuses on the post-agreement phase following the 2016 peace deal between the Government of Colombia (GOC) and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (FARC-EP), and analyzes WFP's interventions through four theories of change (TOCs).

Main Objectives

• To understand WFP's contribution to improving peace prospects in Colombia.
• To identify ways WFP can enhance its peacebuilding role.
• To assess how WFP can measure its impact on peacebuilding.

Key Findings

WFP's engagement in Colombia is evaluated across four main areas:

1. Territorial Peace and Stabilization

WFP contributes to stabilization by:

• Providing food and livelihood opportunities during periods of post-agreement violence, reducing the risk of displacement due to food insecurity.
• Supporting the realization of peace dividends through the slow implementation of the peace agreement.

2. Reincorporation of Ex-Combatants

WFP supports the sustainable reincorporation of former FARC-EP combatants by:

• Facilitating productive projects linked to markets and commercialization.
• Enhancing social reincorporation through community engagement.
• Integrating spontaneous reincorporation sites into national programs.

3. Migration Crisis and Venezuelan Migrants

WFP interventions can potentially stabilize the situation by:

• Reducing the vulnerability of Venezuelan migrants to recruitment by illegal armed groups.
• Alleviating social tensions caused by resource scarcity and migration.

4. State-Community Trust and Vertical Integration

WFP can help restore trust between the state and communities, especially in remote areas, by:

• Supporting the government's territorial development programs (PDETs).
• Enhancing interaction and complementarity among different peacebuilding approaches.
• Leveraging its presence to connect formal and informal peace processes.

Main Recommendations

The report makes 15 recommendations to improve WFP's peacebuilding contributions:

1. Systematize knowledge from working with conflict-affected communities to articulate a people-centred approach to security.
2. Position WFP's work as supporting ethnic communities to remain on ancestral land and promote peace aspirations.
3. Tie WFP interventions to territorial development programs, especially those related to the right to food and economic reactivation.
4. Make ex-combatants a specific target group for monitoring and evaluation.
5. Support the formalization of agreements between ex-combatant cooperatives and local vendors.
6. Tailor interventions with ex-combatants to initially leverage existing hierarchical structures.
7. Facilitate the transformation of old hierarchical structures to adapt to civilian life.
8. Strengthen connections among Special Territories for Education and Reincorporation (ETCRs).
9. Use WFP's leverage with state entities to institutionalize spontaneous reincorporation sites.
10. Gather data on the link between the school feeding program, school enrollment, and child recruitment into illegal armed groups.
11. Use community kitchens as an entry point to refer to other social protection services.
12. Ensure WFP's response to migrants aligns with macro-level strategies for social protection and economic integration.
13. Enhance feedback loops by sharing assessments with local actors and governments.
14. Use WFP partnerships to inform the development of implementation roadmaps for PDETs.
15. Leverage WFP's access to remote areas to address the centre-periphery gap.

Context of the Conflict in Colombia

Colombia has experienced over 50 years of armed conflict, leading to:

• Over 260,000 deaths and 60,000 disappearances.
• At least 7 million internally displaced people by 2016.
• The emergence of multiple illegal armed groups (IAGs), including the FARC-EP, ELN, and AUC.

The peace agreement in 2016 ended the conflict between the GOC and FARC-EP, but other armed actors continue to cause violence. The report emphasizes that the conflict is not over, and the post-agreement phase is marked by complex dynamics, including ongoing violence and the Venezuelan migration crisis.

Conflict Sensitivity and Challenges

The conflict environment in Colombia is highly complex, with multiple drivers such as:

• Unequal access to land and historical political exclusion.
• Illegal economies, particularly drug trafficking and gold mining.
• State-led stabilization efforts, which have had mixed results and often failed to address human rights violations.

Despite these challenges, WFP's programming has shown potential to positively influence peacebuilding, though it may not be decisive in the current context.

Conclusion

The report concludes that WFP's interventions can contribute to peacebuilding in Colombia, but further refinement is needed. It calls for a more systematic and conflict-sensitive approach, emphasizing the importance of integrating WFP's work with broader national and local peace processes. The recommendations aim to strengthen WFP's role in promoting sustainable peace and security.