Colombia

This 18-month pilot project of the Joint Programme for Women, Natural Resources, Climate and Peace aimed to support civil society and the Government of Colombia to realize the vision on gender equality, rural development and environment presented in the Havana Accords (2016 Peace Agreement between the Government of Colombia and the FARC) by:

• Strengthening the meaningful engagement of diverse groups of women in natural resource governance and management; and
• Strengthening women’s capacities for conflict prevention and resolution over natural resources.

At the local level, the project focused on supporting women civil society leaders and organizations, as well as local government entities, in Chocó and the Bajo Cauca region of Antioquia, two areas where conflict dynamics are intertwined with natural resource exploitation and environmental degradation.

This includes, for example, strengthening the capacities and opportunities for engagement of women’s groups in a highly innovative and unique governance process that is seen as a symbol of peace in Chocó: the implementation of the T-622 ruling of the Colombian Constitutional Court on the Atrato, a 750 km long river flowing through the department of Chocó that has long been a central axis for the development of illegal activities such as the trafficking of drugs and weapons, and the illegal exploitation of gold, timber and other natural resources. Through its 2016 ruling, the Court recognized the Atrato River, its basin and tributaries as an entity subject to rights and ruled on a series of orders to protect, conserve, maintain and restore this entity, including the creation of a collegiate body of men and women called "Guardians of the Atrato River Corps" in charge of monitoring compliance with the sentence.

As a result of the project, women’s needs and perspectives were more fully incorporated into several key processes, including the implementation of ruling T-622 on the Atrato River, the public policy of Chocó, the policy guidelines to protect ancestral knowledge related to biodiversity, and the environmental sector’s policy for citizen participation.

Several knowledge products were developed as part of the project, to make resources on gender, natural resources, and peace available in Spanish and document stories and experiences of from Colombia. All resources are available on UN Women Colombia’s dedicated web pages.

This pilot was supported by the Governments of Finland, Norway and Germany and implemented by the Colombia country offices of UN Women and UN Environment, with advisory support from the country office of UNDP.