Theterritorial experience on sustainable human development and peacebuilding UNDPs REDES programme

UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME

Empowered lives.

Resilient nations.

ART - Articulation of Territorial Networks for Sustainable Human Development

THE DEPARTMENT OF NARIÑO. THE TERRITORIAL EXPERIENCE ON SUSTAINABLE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND PEACEBUILDING UNDP’S ART REDES PROGRAMME

Sust ai Dev nable H Peac elopmen uman ebui t an d l Loca ding at t he l Lev el

UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME

Empowered lives.

Resilient nations.

THE DEPARTMENT OF NARIÑO. THE TERRITORIAL EXPERIENCE ON SUSTAINABLE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND PEACEBUILDING UNDP’S ART REDES PROGRAMME

ART

Articulation of Territorial Networks for Sustainable Human Development

This document, produced by UNDP – Global ART Initiative, presents the experience of UNDP’s ART REDES Programme in the Department of Nariño, Colombia. It has been developed under the leadership of Nariño’s department and the municipality of San Juan de Pasto (hereinafter Pasto), and with the collaboration of dozens of social, ethnic and community-based local organizations.

This experience shows how local, intermediate and national authorities have articulated their actions, and how different social and economic actors have participated in the local development process. Furthermore, the experience of the Department of Nariño demonstrates the impact that different subjects and projects of international cooperation have when devise and implement their own action in response to the territories’ demand and in a coordinated manner.

The ideas and opinions expressed are the author’s sole responsibility and do not necessarily reflect any official opinion or commit the institutions mentioned herein. This publication can be totally or partially reproduced, as long it is quoted and is used for educational or academic, non-lucrative purposes.

Sustainable Human Development and Peacebuilding at the Local Level

Copyright Š 2014 by the United Nations Development Programme

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior permission from UNDP. The designations of geographic entities in this book, and the presentation of the material herein, do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the publisher or the participating organizations concerning the legal status of any country, territory or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

Photo credits: Borja Paladini Adell/UNDP Colombia

Thanks to the national and local governments, organizations, institutions, networks of civil society and local governments for their active commitment and support to the Sustainable Human Development processes carried out in the Department of NariĂąo.

To UNDP ART REDES donors for their contributions and support for ART Initiative, and to the Country Framework Programme in Colombia.

INDEX

The experience of UNDP’s ART Redes Programme in the department of Nariño

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Forewords Executive summary Section1: The department of Nariño and the municipality of Pasto at a glance Section 2: Towards a sustainable human development and social peacebuilding strategy for nariño origins of the experience and main actors Section 3: methodological elements of the sustainable human development and peacebuilding processes in Nariño Section 4: Main results of Nariño’s experience Conclusions

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The experience of UNDP’s ART Redes Programme in the department of Nariño

FOREWORDS - UNDP

This document systematizes the experience of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Nariño, Colombia, between 2008 and 2013. Throughout these years, the agency has supported a wide range of territorial actors and contributed to reestablishing the “social contract” in this conflict-prone region, in partnership with Nariño’s department and Pasto’s municipality.

This process originated fromNariño’s desire to rationalize the multitude of international cooperation actors and interventions, as their numbers grew due to the armed conflict and humanitarian crisis afflicting the region. It also expresses the determination of Pasto’s municipality to steer cooperation efforts towards the city and internationalize its experience.It has been carried out through the Presidential Agency for Cooperation (APC, as per Spanish acronyms), in line with the Colombian Government’s efforts to improve and streamline the support of international cooperation to Colombia, and with the unwavering support of UNDP, through its ART-REDES Programme.

This document aims at becoming a knowledgesharing product that puts Nariño and Pasto’s experiences at the disposal of all Colombian regions and municipalities as well as that of other countries. It also aims at influencing the international debate on development cooperation effectiveness and on the relationship between democratic governance, territorial development and local-level sustainable human development (SHD) and strategic peacebuilding. Indeed, Nariño has become a recognized successstorythatshowcaseshow the territorial approach is related to development effectiveness and can contribute to peace in the region and in Colombia.

Nariño’s experience confirms that the agendas of development effectiveness can also contribute to territorial development, social peacebuilding, SHD and democratic governance at the local level.

This participatory and complex effort has involved the establishment ofshort-term plans, such as Development Plans and cooperation strategies, and medium and long-term baselines for alignment and articulation, such as public policies, territorial programmes, community “life plans” and ethno-development agendas, around which all public investment strategies and international cooperation resources are now articulated.

Through ART-REDES, UNDP has lent its technical, political and financial support to this pilot initiative. Thisprogramme has helped Nariño and Pasto to explore, experiment and implement an innovative local strategy for development cooperation effectiveness, from a social peacebuilding perspective. To do so, UNDP and Nariño’s local actors have also received the support of the Spanish International Cooperation Agency for Development (AECID, as per Spanish acronyms), the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), the Catalan Agency for Development Cooperation (ACCD, as per Catalan acronyms) and the Italian Development Cooperation. In addition, a wide range of social, community, institutional and international cooperation actors (various United Nations agencies and international NGOs) have participated in shaping the processes described in this document. We thank them all for their invaluable collaboration.

Silvia Rucks Country Director

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FOREWORDS - UNDP

Nariño is going through complex times, and it is now timely to consolidate the efforts of the last four Nariño Governments in achieving a Sustainable Human Development that is based on the steadfast respect for human beings, nature and dignity. These are essential values to defend life and peace in this territory.

Important processes have been undertaken in this respect, grounded in Nariño’s strong citizen participation, as a diverse afro-descendant, indigenous, farmer and mestizo population.

These processes are also based on the ethical conviction of pursuing equity, by continuing all efforts in reducing inequalities between the men and women of Nariño, the mountainous and coastal areas, and urban and rural settings.

Likewise, they are founded on the search for innovations within human development dynamics that consciously aim at generating synergies between the territory’s governance, territorial development and the local control of transformation processes and change, generating better conditions for decent life.

At this historical standpoint, Nariño has found in the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) an ally that has facilitated programmes and projects in the region and clearly committed to support the Department of Nariño in its perseverant initiative towards endogenous development processes. To do so, UNDP has contributed to jointly reinforce several actions that have gone beyond the relationship with international cooperation actors, so far based on negotiating projects and programmes, to one established on the premise of designing and implementing strategic agendas for development and peace in Nariño. For instance, the public policies and sub-regional investment agendas that have been developed have allowed for better territorial governance and improved

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Sustainable Human Development and Peacebuilding at the Local Level

“plans for life” and ethno-development for the region’s ethnic population.

This has encouraged social actors to assume a leading role, with a clear political vision, in the territory’s dynamics of change and transformation; it has also enabled them to respond more effectively to the immense social challenges triggered by the armed conflict and humanitarian crisis that affect large sectors of Nariño. Indeed, these actors have come up with proposals and concerted agendas, for territorial development and for influencing the national agenda, bolstered by the unity and convergence of wills generated by the wide participation of the region’s social and institutional sectors.

This document presents the progress of these dynamics, in particular the experience undertaken in 2007–2013 with the support of UNDP through its territorial and national offices.

We would like to extend our sincere appreciation for this support.

Raúl Delgado

Governor of Nariño

The experience of UNDP’s ART Redes Programme in the department of Nariño

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

For the last five years, the southwestern department of Nariño has been engaged in a momentous effort to simultaneously improve SHDprocesses and promote better systems of social peacebuilding. Local actors have chosen to embark onnon-violent transformation processes; Nariño’s citizens are determinedto shapetheir future development and to have a say in the peace proposals.

This systematization aims at presenting the elements that have defined and steered the driving forces of SHDand peacebuilding at the local level. Specifically, the document focuses on the contributions of UNDP’s ART REDES programme to these processes. Other key influences are also highlighted, in particular the strong local leadership that has accompanied the process since its beginnings.

Throughout the process, platforms, methodologies and instruments that support development effectiveness at the subnational level and develop the local capacities for peace were presented, negotiated and contextualized.

Today, the process is chiefly propelled by Nariño and involves an array of development and political actors, national programmes and international cooperation interventions.

As a result, Nariñohas taken ownership of the proposed systems for multilevel governance and horizontal mechanisms for articulation among actors. It is, in fact, implementing an integral transformative political, social, economic, cultural and peacebuilding agenda at the local level, establishing linkages and synergies between all these elements. This, in turn, is allowing a more effective local responseto the territory’s key challenges, such as deeprooted poverty, the exclusion of certain social and population groups, conflict, human rights violations, and the weakness of the State in most

rural areas, among others.

The results generated by the experience are felt at the local, national and international levels, the most important of which being the promotion of innovative dynamics that combine elements of territorial development, good governance and peacebuilding. At the local level, the coordinated strategies and development interventions are allowing for alternatives to violent conflict, and promoting development effectiveness.

Partnerships have been multiplied, political frameworks and agendas have been development, and strategic programmes and projects are increasingly financed locally. At the national level, the experience is being scaled up and many instruments and practices developed and implemented in Nariño are mainstreamed in the National System for International Cooperation.

At the international level, Nariño has received international exposure and recognition as a model in development effectiveness and innovation, and a good practice to advance towards the MDGs. This documentis divided into four sections: the first presents Nariño, to contextualize the process and define its particularities; the second describes some of thekey elements that have shaped Nariño’s best practice, whereby development effectiveness and strategic peacebuilding initiatives stem from the local level; the third section reflects on the key methodological aspects of Nariño’s experience, highlighting some of its fundamental aspects and lessons learned; the fourth and last section introduces the main achieved resultsand their influence at the departmental, national and international levels.

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SECTION 1

Sustainable Human Development and Peacebuilding at the Local Level

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The experience of UNDP’s ART Redes Programme in the department of Nariño

THE DEPARTMENT OF NARIÑO AND THE MUNICIPALITY OF PASTO AT A GLANCE Nariño is a southwestern Colombian department that shares a long border with Ecuador; the department’s capital is San Juan de Pasto. Nariño has contradictory, complex characteristics; rural areas predominate, and it is culturally and ethnically extremely diverse1. Nariño has a long history of participatory democratic practices, evidenced in the cabildos (open councils), the mingas2 of thought, the communities’ “life plans” and ethno-development agendas. The tradition of formulating public policies with high social participationand involvement is a deep-rooted one. However, on the downside, Nariño is affected by situations that jeopardize its quality of life and growth: high levels of poverty, exclusion, inequalities, absence of the State, corruption, nepotism and isolation due to a deficient road infrastructure. In this sense, Nariño has been one of the regions hitworse by the armed conflict and the ensuing humanitarian crisis. Despite this adversity, Nariño’s people want to choose their own path todevelopment and peacebuilding; they have found in the ART REDES proposed approach, strategy and methodologies a starting point from where to explore, adapt, contextualize, improve and lead the available pathstoaddress their common challenges and reachtheir shared goals.

1. The population of Nariño is 70% mestizos, 11% indigenous, and 19% afro-Colombian. Half the population lives in poverty, and 17,2% live in extreme poverty.

2. The minga is an indigenous tradition of cooperative and voluntary work for the common good, planned as a participatory and collaborative process involving the whole of society (source: http:// unesdoc.unesco.org/

Social participation in the political and development processes is a longstanding practice in Nariño. One such expression is the minga, an old tradition of communitarian, collective and cooperative work that originated in rural areas. Today, the minga has transcended its rural origins into the political sphere, where communities organize themselves to claim rights, reflect, analyze their reality, build knowledge and plan for their development. Another example of such practices is the participatory formulation of “life plans and ethno-development”, which set the bases of development priorities for the short, medium and long term, becoming political frameworks and crucial elements of the political debate and dialogue. These processes are vital to peacebuilding from a local and strategic perspective, as they are effectively a joint exercise that takes into account the territory’s assets, priorities and vision for the future. They become “transformation agendas” for the promotion of decent standards of life, peace, ethno-development and sustainability.

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Sustainable Human Development and Peacebuilding at the Local Level

TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND SOCIAL PEACEBUILDING STRATEGY FOR NARIÑO ORIGINS OF THE EXPERIENCE AND MAIN ACTORS I. Underlying theoretical factors

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1. Nariño is endowed with dynamic forces that combine local and territorial development with elements of good and democratic governance: a. Local governance,understood as the constructive, transparent and participatory interaction between the territory’s various actors,good relations between the various levels of Government and more effective responses to citizens’ demands. b. Local development,where various actors of a given territory join forces to promote policies, programmes and projects that aim at improving the quality of life of the poor and excluded sectors of society and the socioeconomic conditions of its people, and at consolidating territorial cohesion. c.. Territorial development is a strategic approach to articulate the local, national and international dimensions, therefore enhancing development planning, facilitating dialogue among territories, and generating mechanisms to boost local economic activities, service delivery and equity. A bottom-up, longterm process, this approach allows different local institutions and actors to work together onthe definition of multi-sector priorities, and in planning and implementing development strategies. Those territories that require better governance strategies and a focused local development are given a special emphasis, with a focus on the most vulnerable groups.

2. Nariño represents several key aspects of Colombia’s national reality: conflict, a multiracial population, political differences, wide socioeconomic contrasts and others. It is piloting the inclusion of these driving forcesinto peacebuilding efforts at the local level:joint work on issues of common interest can transform conflict, and this is the reason SHD processes are being incorporated within local peacebuilding strategies.

3. Nariño has witnessed significant advances in the implementation of development effectiveness principles: the territory’s actors are now leading their own development processes, while including and acknowledging the role of national and international actors in the efforts towards local development.

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The experience of UNDP’s ART Redes Programme in the department of Nariño

II. Origins of the Nariño experience In 2003, UNDP published “The Conflict, a Way Out” report, which offered alternative scenarios for conflict management and identified the conflict’s origins and driving forces.

It also introduced the hypothesis that the “armed conflict in Colombia has been the main obstacle to human development […] whereas human development is the main way out of the conflict”. The report suggested the prioritization of political, social and cultural options, and identified the human development policies that should be promoted to curb and mitigate the armed conflict. The report also advocated for the decentralization of UNDP’s work.

Thanks to the favorable conditions and potential on the ground, Nariño’s UNDP Territorial Office initiated this decentralization, and paved the way to merge ART’s instruments and methodology with the REDES strategy. As a result,in 2007, UNDP launched the REDES (Reconciliation and Development) Programme in Nariño and decided to merge it with the ART Initiative (Articulation of Territorial Networks for Sustainable Human Development), joining the two Programmes in a single, coherent strategy, hand in hand with the National Government and Nariño’s authorities. The “Territorial Strategy for Peace, Development and Reconciliation” MOU was signed between the Government of Colombia and UNDP, marking the beginning of the process described in this systematization.

The ART Initiative was launched by UNDP in 2004 as part of its commitment to support countries and territories in their efforts to accelerate progress on the MDGs and achieve SHD. Thanks to a methodological and operational framework based on an integral approach to development, ART sets in motion processes that allow communities to initiate, adapt, manage and consolidate SHD. As they evolve, these processes strengthen local capacities, promote ownership and consolidate coordination and harmonization among development actors.

ART’s instruments seek to facilitate integration to national and territorial planning and promote the sustainability of development policies, while aligning international cooperation actions to development processes that are concerted at various levels and that respond to local demands.

ART’s instruments include the Territorial, Local or Municipal Working Groups, which promote strategic planning management, facilitate consensual decision-making, strengthen and develop territorial capacities and provide accountability and monitoring mechanisms of cooperation actions; Local Planning, which represents the territory’s long-term vision of its development ambitions and potential, and whose activities revolve around the most urgent problems and involve all local key stakeholders, while linking immediate actions to longer term processes; the Strategy for International Cooperation, which is elaborated through a bottom-up, demand-driven process and allows donor’s financial and technical resources to respond to the concerted demands of the territories; these tools contribute to turning concepts into feasible, implementable actions. Last, Decentralized Cooperation embodies the convergent action of local and subnational governments, civil society, NGOs, the private sector and academia with counterparts in other countries. Through a vast network of more than 600 decentralized partners from the North and the South, ART has the ability to maximize their immense potential to contribute to the countries’ endogenous development processes.

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SECTION 2: TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND SOCIAL PEACEBUILDING STRATEGY FOR NARIÑO ORIGINS OF THE EXPERIENCE AND MAIN ACTORS

Sustainable Human Development and Peacebuilding at the Local Level

III. Actors

3. The social contract is a “dynamic agreement between States and societies on their mutual roles and responsibilities”. (http:// www.undp.org/content/ dam/undp/library/crisis%20 prevention/governance-forpeace_2011-12-15_web. pdf.pdf) Establishing or reestablishing the social contract can help reduce armed violence and transition from fragility. Participation, inclusiveness and a common understanding of needs and priorities are key to validate the social contract.

The complexity of the process in Nariño required improving coherence among a wide range of actors. Eventually, multiple proposals by local, national and international actors converged towards a common strategyaligned to local idiosyncrasies, national priorities and international opportunities. This convergence ultimately also contributed to reestablishing the social contract3 , thanks to the process’ inclusiveness and the linkages, trust-building and networking established among various groups. Indeed, the experience reflects and feeds on Nariño’s entrenched local characteristics, chieflyits culture of participation, its desire to take part in development processes, and its political will to promote more inclusive, integral and localSHD and peacebuilding processes. However, it also feeds on ART’s best practices in contextualizing its responses, internationalizing best practices, promoting peacebuilding processes through a territorial approach, and networking among development actors at all levels. Indeed, the ART Initiative has generated multiple international alliances with development partners from around the world.

Local actors Nariño’s department and Pasto’s municipality, as well asa large number of social, academic, economic, civil, ethnic and community actors of the region. The strength of Nariño’s social fabric is key to understanding its progress and learning processes.

National Government – Presidential Agency for Cooperation (APC) The National Government is committed to develop and implement a policy for international cooperation in Colombia through the APC, in line with the principles of development effectiveness. It established the National System for International Cooperation to articulate public and private cooperation resources. The APC has beenfacilitating dialogue between public entities, the national and local levels and social organizations, opening up two-way information channels between cooperation actors in Colombia. Furthermore, the APC has encouraged the establishment of Departmental

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The experience of UNDP’s ART Redes Programme in the department of Nariño

Cooperation Committees to offer institutional and territorial actors a platform for participation, establishing connections, and dialogue. An inherent part of the consolidation of the National System for International Cooperation has been the mainstreaming of ART’s approach and methodology to its work in other regions in Colombia, at the regions’ request.

UNDP Colombia – ART REDES Programme UNDP has been present in Colombia for more than 30 years, strengthening institutional capacities for good governance and supporting local actors in their efforts towards development and peacebuilding and in transitioning from fragility to resilience. Through the ART REDES Programme, officially launched in 2007, Nariño became a “territory in peace construction”, and the Programme the main instrument for the coordination and articulation of the numerous cooperation actors that arrived to Nariño in response to the worsening armed conflict. The Programme complemented Nariño’s rich experience in participatory development planning with a perspective that balanced and widened the existing processes and allowed for Nariño’s internationalization. The Programme also helped link perspectives of long-term and structural change to humanitarian interventions, thus broadening the development approach to better contributing to peacebuilding and development effectiveness.Today, the process leaves a legacy of building processes for SHD and social peacebuilding from a territorial perspective (from within and with the region), even amidst armed conflict.

Other cooperation actors The ART REDES Programme has played a catalytic role in the articulation of international cooperation actors, whether multilateral, bilateral or decentralized;these actorshave been able to join forces with Nariño’s department, Pasto’s municipality and local stakeholders, to participate in the various stages of the process: formulation and implementation of Development Plans, public policies, strategic programmes, local, institutional, community and ethnic capacity building, humanitarian assistance and protection, rural development and others. The following are examples of this multi-actor, multi-level cooperation: a. Inter-Agency cooperation: the Programme “Strengthening Local Capacities for Peacebuilding in the Department of Nariño”, promoted by the Spanish Fund for the MDGs, is one of the largest programmes ever implemented in the region. Likewise, Nariño has been one of the departments where inter-agency coordination efforts have worked at their best, particularly on humanitarian and protection issues. Nariño’s experience exemplifies this active multilateralism, where the United Nations System works with the Government, civil society and international development cooperation partners to reach common objectives. b. Multi-donor cooperation: through UNDP, several bilateral partnerssuch as SIDA, AECID, CIDA,the Italian Cooperation and the EU, have adopted Nariño’s platform as the instrument to coordinate their different support initiatives anddevelop their programmes. c. Decentralized cooperation: partners such as the ACCD and several NGOs have found in Nariño a valid alternative to strengthen their cooperation strategies, and have joined processes such as the Development Plans and the Strategy for International Cooperation.

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Sustainable Human Development and Peacebuilding at the Local Level

METHODOLOGICAL ELEMENTS OF THE SUSTAINABLE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND PEACEBUILDING PROCESSES IN NARIÑO This section describes the main elements of Nariño’s experience and identifies its methodological aspects. The sum of all these components is an innovative proposal that reflects the contributions of several actors to territorial development and peacebuilding.

I. Contributions and influences 1. Nariño’s department and Pasto’s municipalityensured that all interventions were aligned with the territory’s planning cycles, in particular with the Quadrennial Development Plans.

2.

Social, ethnic and community actors emphasized the need to develop a work proposal that took into account the territory’s assets and visions, through a participatory and transformational approach.

SECTION 3

3. The National Government linked the process to the national dynamics for development and the principles of development effectiveness,through the National System for International Cooperation.

4. The ART Initiative contributed with its longstanding and tested territorial approach and participatory instruments and mechanisms, such as Local Planning, Strategy for International Cooperation, Working Groups and Quick Impact and Strategic Projects, among others. Thanks to its global platformof more than 1,600 decentralized cooperation partners from the North and the South, the ART Initiative was key to internationalize Nariño’s experience and make its best practices, such as peacebuilding at the territorial level, known and supported. Its spaces for participation and concertation, seen as neutral, inclusive, open and diverse platforms, provided the ideal springboard for dialogue among various ethnic groups and actors who would otherwise not meet or engage with each other. The Initiative emphasized the need to respond to the evolving paradigm of international development cooperation, such as multilateralism, new development actors and development cooperation effectiveness at the subnational level.

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The experience of UNDP’s ART Redes Programme in the department of Nariño

5. The REDES programme conveyed the need to promote social peacebuilding through the territory’s assets for peace and to include those traditionally marginalized groups, such as women, youth, indigenous people and afro-Colombians, farmers and victims of violence, among others. REDES also highlighted the need to promote more strategic approaches to peacebuilding that not only respond to humanitarian crises but also address more complex processes such as crisis recovery, conflict transformation and structural peacebuilding.

II. Phases of Nariño’s experience Phase One

Aimed at generating trust and legitimizing the process

Phase Two Consisted of a short-term programming cycle linked to the territory’s Phase One: aimed at generating trustcombined and legitimizing the process. political cycles and with a series of instruments to invigorate the process from a territorial perspective.

Phase Two: consisted of a short-term programming cycle linked to the territory’s political cycles and combined with a series of instruments to invigorate the process from a territorial Phase Three Broke down the Quadrennial Development Plans and their cooperation perspective. strategies into territorial agendas, programs and projects for the medium and long term.

Phase Three: broke down the Quadrennial Development Plans and their cooperation strategies into territorial agendas, programs and projects for the medium and long term.

Phase Four Promoted the continuity of the process by influencingdemocratic political change.the continuity of the process by influencingdemocratic political Phase Four: promoted change.

Phase Five

Formulated sustainability strategies at the local level, implemented policies,sustainability programs and strategic programmes the territory and Phase Five: formulated strategies at the local level, in implemented policies, influenced national dynamics. programs and strategic programmes in the territory and influenced national dynamics.

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Sustainable Human Development and Peacebuilding at the Local Level

Phase One

SECTION 3: METHODOLOGICAL ELEMENTS OF THE SUSTAINABLE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND PEACEBUILDING PROCESSES IN NARIÑO

At the national level, a series of high-level meetings were held between the National Government, Nariño’s department and UNDP, ultimately agreeing to launch the ART REDES Programme and to open a UNDP territorial office in Nariño.

At the local level, a study on “Conflict and Local Peacebuilding Capacities in Nariño” was undertaken with the participation of a high number of social, community and ethnic local actors. The study focused on identifying the existing potential for the non-violent transformation of conflict at the territorial level. UNDP used this study to support local peacebuilding initiatives. During this phase of gathering knowledge and propping mutual trust, UNDP facilitated and supported more than 30 debates between municipal and local government candidates through ART-REDES, therefore encouraging multilevel dialogue and horizontal linkages, and contributing to convey the needs, priorities and visions for the future of the local communities.This ultimately laid the groundwork for a locally identified work strategy for peacebuilding and development. This preparatory phase paved the ground for the process’ sustainability and strength; the Programme promoted dialogue with all relevant actors, working on the ground to tailor its proposal to the territory’s priorities and needs, and relentlessly worked on strengthening its partnerships with all actors (including conflictive ones), to ensure coordination, coherence and to promote a shared understanding of the territory’s needs and the best way to address them.

Other key-strategies of this trust-building phase included the following actions 1. Make the Departmental and Municipal Development Plans the starting point of the entire process:theStrategy for International Cooperation aimed at articulating and mainstreaming international cooperation, was included as an additional component to the existing Development Plans, complementing the plans with a novel international perspective.

2. Acknowledge the territory, its history, assets and visions for the future: the analysis of the territory’s realities focused on its potentialities and strengths (as opposed to concentrating on weaknesses) to foster a more proactive approach in tackling the region’s challenges. UNDP coined these potentialities as “peace assets and capacities” and built its work strategy around these and the existing peacebuilding processes. One such asset is Nariño’s development planning process, which takes place among the indigenous, afro-Colombian and farmers’ communities and allowscombining and reconciling the aspirations of local communities with the more institutional Development Plans. This process promotes alignment among local, regional, national and international actors within converging, all-encompassing agendas.

3. Build on the political leadership and citizens’ participation: the commitment of all these actors boosted the initiative’s convening power and the legitimacy and representativeness of the subsequent Development Plans. Participation had a territorial, thematic, sectorial and demographic dimension; the strong local leadership, the openness of the process and the numerous available participation mechanisms put in place are key to understand the depth of the process and the extent of its outreach.

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The experience of UNDP’s ART Redes Programme in the department of Nariño

4. Activate quick impact projects: these projects were important to highlight the potentialities of international cooperation. Two such projects were “Sí Se Puede”, for rural development and the voluntary substitution of illegal crops, and a programme for the management of watering districts for Nariño. These initiatives demonstrated the importance of formulating more articulate territorial strategies for development and peacebuilding, and contributed to changing the prevailing conceptionon international cooperation, previously seen as a “cash briefcase”.

5. Build capacities and knowledge on international cooperation: in collaboration with Nariño’s department and Pasto’s municipality, ART REDES co-organized numerous workshops and seminars on international cooperation, MDGs, peacebuilding and non-violent transformation of conflicts. Furthermore, virtual graduate diplomas on international cooperation and project cyclesand on “Do not harm approach” were launched.

All these exercises were important because they provided a better knowledge of international cooperation, its actors, approaches, methodologies and practices; they allowed a better gaging of international cooperation in a mid-income country such as Colombia; generated cohesion between the various participating actors; changed the perception on international cooperation and disseminated knowledge on its inner workings; and favored more analytical and informed local views on international cooperation.

6. Inter-agency coordination for the formulation of Development Plans: this phase also wasa consistent effort to promote coordination and articulation between the territory’s actors and those of international cooperation. The elaboration process of the Development Plan offered an ideal space for participation, consensus building and dialogue around shared “guiding frameworks”, i.e. the MDGs, humanitarian and protection issues, SHD and peacebuilding, therefore generating a common starting point for collaboration among various actors, and alignment with the territory’s needs and priorities.

Challenges Although assets, potentialities, actors and challenges were identified, no baseline was initially defined to facilitate a better assessment of the process from a development effectiveness perspective. However, several tools have been developed since then to fill the gap and contribute to evaluating the overall process: Nariño’s department and Pasto’s municipality have updated two systems on development indicators and the management of results and the APC now has an information system on the official aid to development.

According to these tools and official data, Nariño’s department manages the highest volume of international cooperation resources in Colombia. In collaboration with Nariño’s department and Nariño’s university, UNDP also designed a baseline of MDG indicators and objectives for the analysis and evaluation of public policies aimed at the MDGs. Moreover, ART REDES has a baseline to evaluate the Programme’s impact in Nariño and other regions of intervention.

Last, APC and UNDP have also developed a baseline for development effectiveness at the subnational level; it shows that Nariño is the department that has progressed the most in implementing development effectiveness.

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Sustainable Human Development and Peacebuilding at the Local Level

Phase Two

SECTION 3: METHODOLOGICAL ELEMENTS OF THE SUSTAINABLE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND PEACEBUILDING PROCESSES IN NARIÑO

Short-term Development Plansand the Strategy for International Cooperation were formulated during this phase. These participatory documents lay the foundations for a longerterm and wider programming cycle, linked to public policies and strategies.

To elaborate these short-term documents, existing participation and dialogue spaces for local and international actorswere strengthened, to articulate interests and needs and learn to mediate differences. This articulation evolved into “transformational social partnerships” and created a diverse and inclusive platform from where strategic development and peacebuilding processes are pushed forward. This process allowed integrating international cooperation programmes and projects within concertedbottom-up, demand-drivenstrategies.

What follows is a summary of the main components of the Departmental and Municipal Development Plans and Nariño’sStrategy for International Cooperation and of the actors who took part in formulating these participatory documents.

1. Development plans and international cooperation guidelines were formulated through a participatory and concerted planning process. The strategy for international cooperation is divided into four main areas of work: SHD; development for peacebuilding; MDGs; specificities of frontline regions. Currently, these guidelines are being used as an articulation framework by more than 280 local, national and international organizations.

2. Committees and working groups a. A departmental Office for International Cooperation:was created to improve the alignment and coordination of cooperation resources around the priorities identified locally, and to facilitate follow up and evaluation. A specialized technical sub-office was established to monitor the formulation and implementation of the department’s Development Plan. These offices were key to invigorate the process, ensure the linkage with the Governorate and City Hall, and disseminate information on development cooperation (calls for proposals, TORs, etc.). b. The departmental and municipal working groupsestablished, with the support of ART REDES as participatory, inclusive platforms that give a voice to all territorial development actors and contribute to bridge between the local government and CSO.Private institutions and other local actorshave played an instrumental and pivotal role in the process. Among others, they have: stimulated the strategy for international cooperation; disseminated and gathered information for the territory’s actors and international cooperation; articulated various actors and sectors of international cooperation; articulated regional planning to the offer and demand of international technical cooperation; promoted the merging of strategic programmes and projects; strengthened and promoted capacitybuilding, training and local and sub-regional knowledge on international cooperation; helped communities and social organizations to submit grant and project proposals; socialized and internalized the methodologies of cooperation organizations; provided technical assistance and support for the management of international cooperation resources; consolidated the Department’s

18

The experience of UNDP’s ART Redes Programme in the department of Nariño

database on the state of international cooperation in Nariño; maintained an archive and inventory of project proposals and initiatives; facilitated information on international cooperation’s calls for proposals; and have designed and implemented an information and communication system tracking the progress of regional strategies for international cooperation.

Phase Three With remarkable local participation, political commitment, and the involvement of multiple development actors, Nariño has pushed forward agendas, policies and programmes that have become political and articulation frameworks for the medium and long term, and have contributed to reestablish the social contract between public authorities and its people. These agendas link short-term priorities (2-4 years) to processes for change on the medium and long term (5-12 years).

The prioritized processes were the following: Demographic Women and gender equality; youth; human rights and integral attention 1. Demographic process: Women and gender equality; youth; human rights and integral process: to victims. attention to victims.

Communication and culture; inclusive urbanurban economic development and 2.Thematic Thematic process: Communication and culture; inclusive economic development process rural development. and rural development. for the sideside of Nariño andand its mountain range.

3.Territorial Territorial process: for pacific the pacific of Nariño its mountain range. process Each of these processes is referred to as a “transformational social partnership”; they collectively represent the “local platform for human development and social peacebuilding” and have generated four general results: 1. Promoted inter-institutional plural alliances amongstate actors, social, community, ethnic and territorial actors, universities, guilds, international actors, and others.

2. Created political and alignment frameworks such as public policies and plans for their implementation; decennial plans; strategic agendas; strategic territorial programmes; community “Life Plans” and ethno-development plans for afro-Colombians. Such benchmarks are important because they become roadmaps for territorial development on the medium and long term, become ownership and alignment instruments for the territory’s actors and for international cooperation actors, and allow maximizing the use of resources, particularly local ones.

3. Elaborated strategic programmes and projects for the territory, facilitating the implementation of political and public policy frameworks; these programmes become integral “articulation agendas” between social, institutional and international cooperation actors. They also allow to tally up and complement local, national and international resources. The projects, funded until 2011 with international cooperation resources, will be gradually financed with local, departmental and national resources.

19

Sustainable Human Development and Peacebuilding at the Local Level

These four results are complementary and intertwined and represent various phases of the process. They are also a continuity and sustainability strategy, as they generate platforms for inter-institutional work that allow addressing pressing issues (short-term) as well as their structural dimensions (long-term).

SECTION 3: METHODOLOGICAL ELEMENTS OF THE SUSTAINABLE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND PEACEBUILDING PROCESSES IN NARIÑO

Participation of civil society organizations, 2007 -2011 2007

0

2008

70

2009

150

2010

220

2011

300

Transformational social alliances area theoretical and methodological element that allows articulating the dynamics of SHD and social peacebuilding at the local level and among multiple actors. “Transformational social alliances represent all the actors who undertake converging actions revolving around the territorial dynamics of development” 4. Berdagué, Julio. 2012.

Territorios en Movimiento.

Dinámicas Territoriales Rurales en América Latina.

Documento de trabajo, 110.

Santiago de Chile: Centro Latinoamericano para el Desarrollo Rural – RIMISP. See also - Paladini Adell, Borja. 2012. From Peacebuilding and Human Development Coalitions to Peace Infrastructure in Colombia. En Barbara Unger.

In Barbara Unger, Stina Lundström, Katrin Planta and Beatrix Austin (eds.). Peace Infrastructures – Assessing Concept and Practice.

Berghof Handbook Dialogue Series No. 10. Berlin: Berghof Foundation. http://www. berghof-handbook.net/ dialogue-series/no-

(Berdagué, 2012 4). These alliances include a wide diversity of actors, promote converging objectives among them, act on the short-term from a long-term transformational perspective, tally up the strengths and plurality of all actors, and generate infrastructures in support for peace. The processes initiated in Nariño well reflect the dynamics of “transformational social alliances”: Development Plans are formulated in a participatory, inclusive way; the Territorial Programmes are elaborated in concertation with the ethnic population; the strategic agendas are articulated around processes identified as priorities by the population; and the Strategy for International Cooperation facilitates coordination between the territory’s various development actors.

PhaseFour To ensure the sustainability of the results achieved and of the process itself, a strategy of advocacy has been designed in three thematic areas: 1. Facilitate an alliance for a transparent, responsible and program-based vote 2. Formulate a regional agenda for political advocacy, identifying ongoing processes that need to be consolidated. The processes need to fulfill the following criteria: respond to priorities identified in the latest development plans or strategies for international cooperation; involve public institutions, international cooperation, social, ethnic, territorial and community actors; bea political framework for alignment and articulation with regional and local priorities; include instruments that foster citizens’ participation and representation; generate and define strategic projects and programmes for the territory.

3. Support the process of accountability, articulation and formulation of new Development Plans in the new administrative tenures.

20

The experience of UNDP’s ART Redes Programme in the department of Nariño

Phase Five In addition to the phases and strategies above, and in order to ensure the sustainability of the process and its results, the following additional strategies were also implemented: 1.Support and influence the Development Plans of 2012 – 2015 and update the Strategy for International Cooperation. Despite the political changes resulting from the 2011 elections, most “transformational social partnerships” processes have been maintained, thanks to the Programme’sadaptive, flexible approach that intensely worked on establishing solid partnerships at all levels. The territory’s new political leadership generally assumed the dynamics with only slight modifications on certain areas of emphasis; the process is now being mostly led and financed at the local level.

2. Shift from the Strategy for International Cooperation to a strategy of local cooperation and territorial management, embodied in the document “Towards a common territory.

Regional agenda for advocacy. Strategic processes for human development and peacebuilding in Nariño and the municipality of Pasto”. The agenda is aimed at influencing the political cycle and positioning key agendas and priorities for peacebuilding in Nariño within the 2012 – 2015 Development plan, i.e. on the medium and long term.

Nariño is developing a sub-regional structure for governance and has defined a series of development and peace proposals,thanks to the processes launched since 2008.

3. Influence and interact constructively with national dynamics: buttressed by the ART REDES’ technical support, expertise in local development planning and in international networking, Nariño has developed its own strategic proposals, programmes and projects, has internalized the process, and has been able to export some of these good practices to the national and international levels, as the following examples show: a. Colombia’s Superior School of Public Administration (ESAP, as per Spanish acronym) has taken on the gender equity school. b. The APC is incorporating the learning processes that Nariño has acquired particularly for the promotion and consolidation of the departmental committees for international cooperation. c. The National Planning Department and ESAP selected the process described in this document as one of the ten good practices in territorial development, and presented them to all new governors and mayors in December 2011. d. The experience has been socialized in various departments and municipalities. e. Nariño’s case has been presented in several international forums on local and territorial development, local peacebuilding and development effectiveness, among which Busan (IV High Level Meeting on Development Effectiveness), the Berghofcase study on peace infrastructures “From peacebuilding and Human Development coalitions to peace infrastructure in Colombia”5 , and others. f. In the recent peace talks between the Colombian Government and the FARC, held in Norway and Cuba, UNDP’s deep-seatedlinks with the territories was acknowledged, allowing the agencyto organize the main events for public and civil society participation in the peace processin Colombia. Nariño’s representatives, among other representatives from other regions, were able to put forward innovative,

5. Op. cit.

21

SECTION 3: METHODOLOGICAL ELEMENTS OF THE SUSTAINABLE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND PEACEBUILDING PROCESSES IN NARIÑO

Sustainable Human Development and Peacebuilding at the Local Level

concerted and strategic proposals, owing to the previous grass-root and work, which expanded the opportunities for negotiation and consensus building, and created links of trust and “common purpose”. Specifically, UNDP lent its support to these two spaces of participation: i. Three rounds of Regional roundtablesin support of an end to the conflict: these counted with UNDP’s support in logistics, organization and convening. Around 400 leaders from Nariño participated, bringing in their proposals and agendas, many of which were enriched during the period described in this document. ii. Three National Forums on the key issues surrounding the negotiation agenda between the national government and the FARC guerrilla, organized by the United Nations and the National University, with the participation of over 1,200 persons (50 leaders and representatives from Nariño) in each forum.

4. As yet another strategy to ensure the process’ sustainability that also became a proposal for peacebuilding, apioneering event was organized in Nariño in 2013: “Andar el Sur” (Walking the South).

5. Last, an agenda for peacebuilding and post-conflict in Nariño was formulated, with UNDP’s technical support and the leadership of Nariño’s department and three catholic dioceses, to be validated by the territory’s social and civil actors.

22

The experience of UNDP’s ART Redes Programme in the department of Nariño

This section presents the main results achieved in Nariño, particularly those that have benefited most from UNDP’s ART REDES Programme and the ART Initiative’s global support. UNDP has played a fundamental role in supporting the process from a perspective of development cooperation effectiveness, allowing multiple actors to converge towards Nariño’s peace and development priorities and agendas. ART has also been pivotal in internationalizing Nariño’s experience and harnessing the financial and technical support of international development partners, thanks to its worldwide network of bilateral and decentralized development actors.

23

SECTION 4

MAIN RESULTS OF NARIÑO’S EXPERIENCE

Sustainable Human Development and Peacebuilding at the Local Level

Results at the local level (Nariño): a. General results: the main, most important result has been the promotion of innovative, transforming synergies that combine elements of territorial development, good governance and democratic governance, and peacebuilding. Nariño is now endowed with a number of local development and peacebuilding processes that generate more structured, coherent and strategic dynamics for change. Moreover, agendas such as the Departmental Development Plan 2012 – 2015 have become guidelines that articulate local, national and international actors and feed into development effectiveness. Cooperation actors now find concerted, strategic and locally defined proposals for development and peacebuilding. Local and national actors have acknowledged this as a good practice, making Nariño an example for the rest of Colombia. There are, however, certain challenges that remain to be tackled: the protracted armed conflict and humanitarian crisis, which are curbing Nariño’s human development, and the lingering non-democratic practices that are based on nepotism and individualism.

In addition, ART REDES has been instrumental in managing programmes and resources, achieving a significant multiplier effect.By 2011, the Programme had alreadymobilized over USD 28 million, with a steady progress in national, local, international and multilateral funding, as shown in the two tables below:

SECTION 4: MAIN RESULTS OF NARIÑO’S EXPERIENCE

Funding of the Programme, per source (2007 – 2011) National

Local

International

Multilateral

2007

0

0.02

0

0.25

2008

0.1

0.05

4

2

2009

0.2

0.1

8

3

2010

0.3

0.15

15

4

2011

0.4

0.2

23.5

5.7

Leverage Effects Partners CSO Resource mobilization, 2007-2008

Partner Mobilization, 2007-2008 40

320 280

30

240 200

20

160 120

10

80 40 0

0 2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

In Nariño, Colombia, the elaboration of the 2008-2011 Regional Strategy for International Cooperation to an increase in number of partners and resources

24

2007 Regional and Local Government International Cooperation

2009

2011 National Government and Institutions

The experience of UNDP’s ART Redes Programme in the department of Nariño

b. Specific results: these concern the prioritized thematic areas (Human Rights, attention to victims of the conflict, inclusive economic development), theterritories, and the key demographic groups. The converging, articulated strategies and collective actions of development cooperation actors are paving the way for viable alternatives to violent conflict and humanitarian crisis in the territory. In fact, these practices are a result by themselves, as they allow Nariño to promote and steer its own path towards social change and to become a territorial platform for transformative processes, social partnerships, political frameworks, programmes, capacity building and empowerment, as embodied in: i. The formulation of the Development Plans, in a participatory, concerted way. ii. The promotion of territorial plans such as the Ethno-development Plan for Nariño’s Pacific side. iii. The promotion of strategic policies and agendas around locally identified themes. iv. The promotion of plans to establish safe passages and restitution processes to the communities affected by the conflict. v. The promotion of “Life Plans” for the indigenous population, and ethno-development for the afro-Colombian communities. vi. The elaboration of territorial or thematic programmes that seek to address some of the issues generated by the war, such as illicit crops. vii. The formulation and implementation of the Strategy for International Cooperation for Nariño’s department and Pasto’s municipality.

Within the specific results, the following processes and achievements are also worth highlighting: i. Demographic processes: Women and gender equality has been promoted through social partnerships, political frameworks such as the departmental public policy for women’s equity, strategic programmes, and instruments such as the Secretariat for Gender Equity and Social Inclusion. More than 3,500 women have been trained in leadership schools and political training, generating vital processes for the empowerment of women, their participation in the department’s dynamics and their leadership of novel processes at the local level.

Youth processes have been set in motionthrough partnerships led by Nariño’s department and with the participation of the National Government’s institutions and international cooperation actors. Political frameworks in support of this process include the departmental public policy for youth, which organizes the use of local, national and international resources. Strategic Programmes, on the other hand, are articulated within the Department’s Development Plan. More than 2,500 youth have received training in leadership and political participation. ii. Thematic processes: Inclusive economic development and territorial rural development has been consolidated as a priority, (including the most vulnerable sectors of the population), through partnerships and political frameworks such as Pasto’s Policy on Productive Inclusion.Through ART REDES and the Inclusive Economic Development programme (IED), UNDP has played an important role in providing technical assistance in this sector. Strategic programmes have included IED initiatives, inclusive businesses, the establishment of entrepreneurial centers for employment and entrepreneurship and

25

Sustainable Human Development and Peacebuilding at the Local Level

SECTION 4: MAIN RESULTS OF NARIÑO’S EXPERIENCE

micro-financing funds, strengthening marketing capacities in Pasto and others. These programmes currently benefit thousands of people. Public and private institutions in charge of rural development have also been strengthened. In particular, the Local Economic Development Agency (LEDA) has become one of the leading actors in promoting inclusive rural economic development linked to a governance and peacebuilding strategy at the local level. With the support of UNDP, the University of Nariño is undertaking an important task of knowledge production and information dissemination.

Human Rights and integral attention to victims has always been a top priority in Nariño, due to the ongoing situation of armed conflict and the humanitarian crisis it generates.

Between 2008 and 2012, several strategies of prevention, protection and integral attention to victims were reinforced, as the department intends to place the victims of the conflict at the center of development and peacebuilding efforts. The Law for Victims and Land Restitution has been enforced and the Platform of Social Organizations, Human Rights and Victims of Nariño, has been established with the participation of more than 90 local actors. The platform has become the main arena to articulate social actors around this issue, and the main advocacy body within institutional dynamics. UNDP’s Territorial Office has assumed the role of the platform’s technical secretariat, lending support to the whole process. Moreover, strategic programmes have been implemented to bring the aforementioned process to the local level, through the joint Programme “Strengthening Local Capacities for Peacebuilding in Nariño”, with the Spanish Fund for the MDGs and a broad coalition of local funds, programmes and associations. Furthermore, departmental and municipal committees have been formed to provide an integral assistance to victims.

Communication and Culture: Development actorsare promoting processes for communication and culture as inherent strategies for human development and peacebuilding. For instance, the “Alliance for Communication and Culture” was fundamental in bolstering the strategies explained in this systematization. A Decennial Communication Plan and Decennial Cultural Plan were formulated to articulate various strategic actors of communication and culture. Local capacities have also been reinforced, with the consolidation of the sub-secretariat of culture, the Council of Culture and other mixed entities, for the promotion of culture in Nariño. A production center for cultural contents has also been created within the NGO Mixed Fund for Culture. iii. Territorial Processes The process for the Pacific side of Nariño: between 2008 and 2012, Nariño’s actors sought articulated and joint responses to address the inequalities that affect the Pacific side of Colombia, traditionally left behind by the government’s institutions and by development cooperation in general. To mend this situation, partnerships have been established between institutional actors.An ethno-development plan for Nariño’s Pacific area was formulated with the input of the indigenous and afro-Colombian populations.

Moreover, several plans have been formulated and promoted, such as (but not limited to) the Integral Rural Development Plan for community councils and the Integral Rural Plan for municipalities. Ethno-development and self-government schools have been created, as well as schools to promote the leadership of women and youth.

Process for the mountainous side (Samaniego, referring to the municipality’s name): a partnership has been establishedamonglocal social organizations engaged in advocacy and managing public policies for youth, women, victims and Human Rights. A “Life

26

The experience of UNDP’s ART Redes Programme in the department of Nariño

Plan” for the communities of the mountains has been elaborated, entitled “Peace and Social Justice: Remaining in the Territory and Achieving a Decent Life”. As for strategic programmes, a “Strategy of Joint Work” is being implemented by Nariño’s Platform of Social Organizations, Victims and Defense of Human Rights through training, capacity development, and productive projects. There is also a training school for more than 400 leaders, psychosocial support to the victims of the conflict and institutional strengthening. c. The multiplier effect of the work done in Nariñois felt at various levels: i. Development and multiplication of partnerships: thanks to the alliance between the department of Nariño and International Cooperation actors facilitated by ART, a number of partnerships have developed around specific thematic areas, territories and demographic groups, strengthening Nariño’s capacity to boost local, national and international coordination and to internationalize its development agendas. These partnerships have significantly increased over time, as shown in the table below: Number of participating institutions, per level (2007 – 2011) National Government Institutions

Regional and Local Governments

International Cooperation

Multilateral Organizations

Total

2007

0

0.02

0

0.25

7

2009

0.2

0.1

8

3

28

2011

0.4

0.2

23.5

5.7

69

ii. Elaboration and multiplication of political frameworks and agendas: Inspired in ART’s bottom-up, participatory methodologies, these documents have been elaborated to rationalize public investment, and orient and prioritize the key interventions aimed at human development in the region. This is reflected in the linkages that have developed between the short-term political strategies (Development Plans) and the longer term ones (public policies, strategies, “Life Plans”).

27

Sustainable Human Development and Peacebuilding at the Local Level

SECTION 4: MAIN RESULTS OF NARIÑO’S EXPERIENCE

iii. Strategic programmes and projects / resources: Having taken ownership of the A“programmed development” approach that expresses the territory’s strategic orientations and has allowed it to shift from international funding to selffinancing. In other words, initiatives stem more from the territory’s demands than from international cooperation’s offers. iv. Instruments to stimulate the process and promote inclusion, and spaces of participation and citizens’ representation: today, Nariño has at its disposal a wide range of representation and citizens’ participation spaces that enjoy a high degree of political and social legitimacy,thanks to the previous intense negotiation and mediation and strong multilevel participation that has characterized the whole process.

“In addition to territorial planning and decentralized cooperation management, ART processes and/or punctual support initiatives have contributed to strengthen other local government functions and capacities, including transparency and accountability in funds management, responsiveness to different constituencies, inclusion of minorities and vulnerable groups in planning documents, citizens information and participation, information and communication technology, local economic development as part of integrated strategic frameworks” (independent evaluation of the ART Programme, Nariño’s case study). v. Leadership schools that have received UNDP’s support through various programmes, in the framework of the process described in this document. vi. Multiplier effect and alignment to regional priorities: in the period of 2008 – 2011, Nariño became the main recipient of international cooperation in Colombia, along with Antioquia. d. Results at the national level: i. ART REDES in the National Cooperation System:Many of the results reached in Nariño show the scaling up potential of this experience. For instance, the approach promoted by the Programme is now mainstreamed in the National System for International Cooperation promoted by the APC. Many instruments and practices piloted and developed in Nariño have been included in this mainstreaming exercise and will be replicated to other regions in Colombia, at their request. Moreover, there has been an explicit acknowledgement of the importance and novelty of the territorial development approach in relation to peacebuilding in Colombia. ii. Results in aid and development effectiveness at the national level: along with Antioquia, Nariño is now the territory where more progress has been made towards the implementation of the Paris Declaration Principles, particularly in relation to ownership, alignment, management by results and accountability. Indeed, Framework Programmes are increasingly becoming part of the governance strategies and development effectiveness measures in the countries, as they advocate a global approach to development issues rather than overly localized responses that merely address a specific territory. iii. Translating national policies in local dynamics: Nariño’s experience has allowed localizing concepts such as complementarity between actors and Government, local government and local-national coherence.

28

The experience of UNDP’s ART Redes Programme in the department of Nariño

e. Results within UNDP and in relation to the coordination of the United Nations System in Colombia: “ART REDES has positively influenced the relationship between the various UNS agencies, contributed to decrease overlap [and to] mainstream the issues of peace and reconciliation within the system” (External evaluation of the ART REDES Programme, final report).What is more, UNDP’s presence in the territories has been consolidated and the territorial approach has been institutionalized; it has become clear that territories need a strategic territorial planning that is the result of the convergence between territorial needs and UNDP’s strategic and programming proposals. Nariño’s experience is recognized as a reference to be followed by other territories and at the national level. As well, the importance of articulating among UNDP’s various areas and programmes to maximize results and impact is now widely acknowledged. Many lessons learned,methodologies and tools presented in this document have also been essential to reinforce coordination between international, national and local cooperation actors, and the territory’s proposals, policies, frameworks and demands. f. Results at the international level: Two main results can be identified in this respect. First, the positioning and international acknowledgement achieved by Nariño and its capital, San Juan de Pasto.

Nariño’s case has been presented in numerous international eventsand forums on development effectiveness,as a role model in aid effectiveness and innovation in development effectiveness,particularly from a perspective of local leadership and ownership of development and peacebuilding processes. Other areas of recognition include the presentation of Nariño’s experience to the UN General Assembly as a good practice to advance towards the MDG

29

Sustainable Human Development and Peacebuilding at the Local Level

Nari単o Colombia

30

The experience of UNDP’s ART Redes Programme in the department of Nariño

CONCLUSION In the context of the sobering wake-up call posed by the international financial crisis and the opportunity represented by the proliferation of development actors and the rise of local and regional authorities as key players of local development, the new global landscape is shaping the debate on international development.

It has led to a new cooperation paradigm, which has become both a necessity and a reality.

Nariño’s experience shows how Sustainable Human Development and peacebuilding can be innovatively addressed from a territorial perspective. Nariño’s processis grounded on a territorial planning model that takes the local level and its actors as its starting premise;on the creation of participatory spaces for dialogue;on the acknowledgment of the territory, its challenges and vital assets;on the recognition of the leading role of its political, economic and social actors; and on the vital role of multilateralism and international partnerships, as viable alternatives to address the region’s challenges and to build on its assets.

Through UNDP, the practices generated in Nariño have been put at the disposal of the countries, as references that contribute to better tackle,at the international level,the challenges and requirements for local development. Good and democratic governance, peacebuilding, poverty reduction, social inclusion and environmental sustainability are but a few of them, and they can all benefit from the integral, cross-cutting and innovative approach proposed by the Programme. Indeed, the Programme clearly demonstrates that local practices can feed into the international debate, giving a voice to the territories in the formulation of those policies that affect them the most, and contributing to tackling the bottlenecks of development.

31

Sustainable Human Development and Peacebuilding at the Local Level

32

THE DEPARTMENT OF NARIÑO. THE TERRITORIAL EXPERIENCE ON SUSTAINABLE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND PEACEBUILDING UNDP’S ART REDES PROGRAMME

ART

Articulation of Territorial Networks for Sustainable Human Development

THE EXPERIENCE OF

Empowered lives.

Resilient nations.