Project News

The project team conducted a baseline survey in August of this year in El Castillo, Yacopí, Cundinamarca, a conflict-affected area, which was then officially selected as one of the pilot project sites. In order to launch the project, the team conducted the following four activities with the board of directors of the cooperative association during two visits on November 3 and December 6 to formulate an action plan.

After the business planning workshop, with the association board members

1) Sharing baseline survey results

It is important for business planning to understand the current situation of the association and its members themselves, including conflict victims. The project also believes it is crucial to share the results with the survey participants who cooperated with the project in their busy daily lives. In this section, the project members have presented the recommendations derived from the project team's analysis, as well as the goals and activity options that the association should address and proposed procedures for doing so.

2) Description of the pilot project in DRIP de PAZ

Here it was explained that this project aims to create a model to improve and strengthen the Integrated Agricultural and Rural Development Project (PIDAR) of the Rural Development Agency (ADR) from the viewpoint of peace promotion, the basic procedures to achieve this goal, and past examples of JICA cooperation. The key to the modeling is the demonstration of the association's own initiative, and it is very important that the union itself formulates its own business plan and develops it sustainably together with its members and non-members.

Sharing BL results with association board members and explaining the pilot project

3) Association business planning workshop (1)

Using the above information and recommendations as a foundation, from this point on, the project team asked the board members to take a hands-on approach and summarize the association's key issues and related activity proposals. Finally, after discussing the areas of particular priority, the establishment of activity groups (thematic subcommittees and local mutual-help groups) was selected as recommended by the project team.

Results of the association business plan workshop (1) (in the background is the union's pile of cacao, which smells good)

4) Association business planning workshop (2)

In order to promote the association's initiative, the pilot project plan will be put in writing by the members themselves. However, it is difficult to materialize the plan in just one workshop. Therefore, a workshop was held to further concretize the results of the association business plan workshop (1). As a result, seven thematic subcommittees and six regional mutual aid groups to be set up were finalized as a proposal by the Board of Directors, and the member selection, etc. will take place at the next general meeting of the association. The important activities for the next six months have been identified, and a business plan will be compiled based on these activities.

JICA Experts reviewing the results of the Association Business Planning Workshop (2) with Board members

Board members considering membership in a community mutual-help group

Activity planning is an essential activity that will greatly determine the success or failure of the pilot project, and since this Yacopí City site is the first in the DRIP de PAZ project, the project is carefully following up on it. The project aims to demonstrate a successful model here as a "Farmer Field School for Peace Promotion" and effectively disseminate it to other project sites in conflict-affected areas.

This project will continue to cooperate for the realization of rural reforms and peacebuilding in Colombia.

Visiting association members' farms (increasing individual cocoa production is also a challenge)