EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
IMPACT EVALUATION MOBILE PUBLIC LIBRARIES OF COLOMBIA
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
IMPACT EVALUATION MOBILE PUBLIC LIBRARIES OF COLOMBIA GOVERNMENT OF COLOMBIA
Introduction Colombia is a multicultural and multiethnic country whose diversity is an essential part of its identity. Therefore, institutions capable of including and celebrating different voices, such as public libraries, are essential to strengthening its communities. Following the signing of the Peace Agreement between the Government of Colombia and the FARC, the Ministry of Culture and the National Library of Colombia installed twenty (20) Mobile Public Libraries (MPL) in the surrounding communities of the temporary settlements in which ex-combatants of the FARC concentrated to lay down their weapons and return to the Colombian social life as citizens. This rapid-response1 and low-cost2 strategy meant to kick-start a deep process of transformation in these communities.
1 The MPL project was one of the first interventions to arrive to the so-called Temporary Rural Normalization Zones where the FARC ex-combatants concentrated, in March 2017 2 The cost of the entire project was two million dollars, including the infrastructure and the operation costs for the 20 MPL for one year. The latter included a Librarian, an Assistant Librarian and a team of iterating specialists for each library, among others.
The MPL create spaces that facilitate meetings, dialogue and community participation. Their services strengthen the social capital of communities; a fundamental factor for reconciliation and peacebuilding in Colombia. These libraries operate as multimedia centers through four modules – i) a library module, ii) a cinema module, iii) an IT module and iv) an administration module. This infrastructure allows them to provide access to technological resources, inprint and digital books, and high quality educational contents in multiple formats. In essence, access to the vital tools to offer the best possible library experience to its users.
Meeting space where everyone finds the way to learn and share with the community. Conejo, La Guajira
The following are some of the core services that MPL offer communities: 1. Reading and writing promotion: practice in reading or writing adapted to different level of literacy. This includes read-aloud activities, reading clubs, literary circles, and reading and writing workshops. 2. Access to and lending of bibliographic materials: access to books, audiovisual material and technological resources such as tablets, e-readers and computers. 3. Education and training: pedagogical workshops that i) promote the best possible use of the library; and ii) develop complementary skills in areas such as the visual arts, music, painting, dance, and pedagogy for peace. 4. Digital literacy and access to IT: training to learn how to use the technological devises and tools available at the library, including Introduction to IT workshops, use of programs and apps and other hands-on activities to appropriate technology. 5. Other cultural events: activities that facilitate access to, and the enjoyment of, diverse expressions of the local culture. These include artistic presentations, visits by experienced writers, art exhibitions, conferences, and local handcraft or cultural fairs, among others. 6. Photography and Memory: workshops designed to help recover local memory collecting historical photographs and encouraging community engagement through collectively writing stories and digitizing photographs. 7. Movie clubs: public screenings that allow the communities to enjoy cinema as an artistic and cultural expression, and promote dialogue about some of the cultural and social issues addressed by films.
Thanks to the broad range of activities they offer and the safe spaces they create, the MPL have the potential of strengthening social capital at the community level (Varheim, 2007; Fergusson, 2012) both for users who reside in the host rural villages and the community of FARC ex-combatants.
Community receiving for the first time a library. TIierralta, Cรณrdoba
MPL activities and uses Between March 1st and December 15th 2017, 3,107 people registered as users of the MPL. Each user received a membership card, and their profiles were registered in the LLave del saber [Key of Knowledge]; the information system used bt the National Network of Public Libraries of Colombia. Sixty-two percent of registered users were women and users of all age ranges acquired a membership card, predominantly children between the ages of 7 and 12 (33.6%); and adults between the ages of 26 and 60 (30.4%) During this same period 247,253 visits to the MPL were registered, 5,459 of which were exclusive visits of FARC ex-combatants to outreach activities performed in their settlement. The total number of visits also captured the users served through special outreach trips to neighboring villages: the 20 MPL reached 176 surrounding villages.
MPL Visits and Registrations Results as of December 15, 2017
Indicator 1. Number of users registered in the Llave del saber National Information System 2. Number of people attending activities developed in the MPLs 3. Number of people attending activities developed in the FARC camps
3.107 247.253 7.733
Source: National Library of Colombia
Once MPL were properly installed in the communities, each of them participated in a call for proposals. Every library had the opportunity to present up to three social and cultural projects with a rural approach. These projects included, developing radio programs, painting murals, doing video documentaries and working with musical ensembles. These initiatives opened complementary channels for enabling the librarians to get the communities involved with the MPL and to expand the opportunities available for users to actively participate. Furthermore, the MPL received visits from 16 renowned writers and 5 photographers, who offered special events and talks for villagers and FARC ex-combatants. All of these actions enriched and gave vitality to library services, and empowered MPL to strengthen local social capital.
Creative writing project with FARC ex-combatants. San Vicente del Caguรกn, Caquetรก.
Methodology and data collection In order to understand the impact Mobile Public Libraries had on the social capital of the communities they served, the Ministry of Culture and the National Library of Colombia hired a team of consultants from the Centro Nacional de ConsultorĂa3 [National Consulting Center] to evaluate the Project. The point of departure of the evaluation was a Social Capital Index, specially designed to quantify and classify the effects that Mobile Public Libraries had on their users and communities. The index was divided in the following six socioemotional components: 1. Peaceful conflict resolution 2. Leadership and empowerment 3. Expectations about the future 4. Participation 5. Sense of belonging 6. Empathy
The data was collected in 9 of the 20 areas of influence of the MPL - called treatment villages- and in neighboring villages with similar characteristics -called control villages- which allowed to contrast the changes observed in the treated population with villagers from communities that were not influenced by public libraries. The evaluation was conducted applying a difference-in-differences methodology4, which allowed to rigorously identifying the changes observed in the communities that could be credited to the intervention of the MPL.
3 Colombia 4
The difference-in-differences methodology captures information from the treatment and control groups at two points in time: prior to and subsequent to the intervention. This methodology controls for all preexisting differences that are invariable over time. It is based on the assumption that the control and treatment groups would have maintained these differences in the absence of the intervention, and it estimates the impact by calculating the differences between treatment and control groups after the treatment, subtracting the preexisting differences.
The baseline data was collected in February 2017, before the arrival of the MPL. A subsequent data collection, to capture the impact of the intervention, was conducted in September 2017, six months after the arrival of the MPL to the communities. The survey was answered by inhabitants of the treatment villages and of the control villages5, both before and after the intervention. The quantitative evaluation was accompanied with a qualitative study, whose design included i) five focus groups with frequent users of the MPL, ii) one focus group with FARC ex-combatants and iii) five in-depth interviews to librarians. This approach brought a much better understanding of the context in which people live and the paths through which MPL impacted their lives.
5 In the base line data collection 541 people were surveyed in treatment villages and 633 in control villages. Given that the evaluation was designed as a pannel (i.e. the same individuals would answer the surveys before and after the intervention in both control ans treatement groups) it is worth noting that in the second data collection, after the intervention, 65% of the sample was successfuly surveyed again.
Impact of the Project The impact the MPLs had on the social capital index of communities, calculated aggregating the results of each of the six components of the Social Capital Index, all equally weighted, was estimated both for young people (under 18 years old) and adults (over 18 years old). Also, the econometric estimates captured the effects of i) living in the treated village, as well as ii) having attended at least to one MPL activity per month. All results mentioned in this document revealed a significant impact, with a level of statistical significance greater than 90% with respect to the control group.
Social Capital The core message of this impact evaluation is that six months after the beginning of the Project, there was a statistically significant change in the Social Capital Index of Mobil Public Libraries users, relative to those who did not visit the MPL. After the intervention the Social Capital Index of young library users was 14 percentage points above the control group and in the case of adult users, 8 percentage points higher than the control group. Estimated impact on the Social Capital Index with respect to the control group Young MPL users
+14 percentage points
Adults MPL users
+8 percentage points
As was mentioned previously, this Index was calculated adding up the changes observed in the six socio-emotional dimensions evaluated, all equally weighted in an aggregated Social Capital Index6. In the next sections the most relevant findings will be discussed for each of the corresponding socio-emotional dimensions: 6 In other words, the same significance was assigned to each one of the six skills.
Conejo´s community celebrates the library construction. Fonseca, La Guajira
A. Participation
The arrival of the MPL to remote areas of Colombia, whose basic needs have been largely unattended, created a tangible increase in the opportunities to participate people had in these villages. In the cases studied, the communities engagement with libraries lead to constructive community participation processes that had not been seen in the villages before. The process to build the Public Library of Conejo, for example, illustrates how the MPL implemented robust community participation processes. Local authorities, the Community Action Board, pool halls, cockfighting pit managers and restaurants, among others, increasingly gave funds to build the library. Neighbors donated bricks; FARC ex-combatants gave paint and those who could not contribute money provided labor. And so this library was born as a collective project where all kinds of social actors engaged and had the opportunity to participate. The impact of these participatory processes was captured by the changes observed in the sub-index of Participation. The level of participation of young users was 20.2 percentage points higher than the control group and the equivalent difference in the case of adult users was 26.1 percentage points. Estimated impact on the Participation sub-index with respect to the control group Young MPL users
+20.2 percentage points
Adults MPL users
+26.1 percentage points
B. Leadership and empowerment
The MPL awoke latent community leaders. Having access to the resources available at the MPL enabled some users to engage in creative processes that were socially productive. A good example of this kind of results is the comeback of the musical band “La Dinastía Vallenata” in the village of Conejo (Department of La Guajira). After 20 years of silence, the band came together again thanks to the influence of the public library. It is also noteworthy the case of a painter who, in this same village, despite having abandoned his art for years, decided to paint the libraries’ murals and to teach his techniques to young library users. Similarly, the Santa María Theater Group in Riosucio (Department of Choco) was a project that youth in the village had been thinking about for a while but could not put it into action until they saw new possibilities in the MPL. The public library provided access to key resources and space to give shape to their ideas. There is also the case of the young filmmakers that emerged in Gallo (Department of Cordoba) thanks to the MPL workshops focused on digital content creation. Thus, leadership emerged in the MPL in singular and unexpected ways. The impact on the Leadership and empowerment sub-index was 31.9 percentage points for young library users relative to the control group. This shows that this was one of the dimensions more capable of explaining the improvement of social capital in youth through the MPL. The leadership skills were already present in
Ex-combatans participating in the workshop “Gallo, hagamos cine”. Tierralta, Córdoba
the communities, but the MPL awakened it and empowered users to exploit their talent and positively influence the community. Estimated impact on the Leadership and empowerment sub-index with respect to the control group7 Young MPL users
+31.9 percentage points
C. Sense of belonging
Reading extension activity with the neighbor villages. Riosucio, Chocó
Geographic isolation and lack of public services are common in the areas of influence of the MPL. Local history has often been forgotten and youth project their future elsewhere. However, the MPL enabled the inhabitants to gain back their sense of self-worth and pride. For example, the project “El abuelo con su cuento encanta” [“Grandpa charms with his tales”] was set into motion in Riosucio (Department of Choco) as an effort to restore local stories about the community and show users ways to praise their past and strengthen their identity. People knew little of their history, which, despite not having been written, stays alive in the oral tradition of elders through storytelling and traditional songs. Different generations – children, youth, adults and the elderly – joined the public library in this local project and found a vehicle to strengthen their common purpose as a community. 7 While there was a significant impact on this dimension for young library users, the quantitative impact for adult users was less so.
The estimated impact the MPL had on the Sense of belonging sub-index was 26 percentage point for young library users relative to the control group. Estimated impact on the Sense of belonging sub-index with respect to the control group8 Young MPL users
+26 percentage points
D. Expectations about the future
As a result of the improvement in the security conditions of many rural distant areas, attributed to the short-term effects of the Peace Agreement between the Government of Colombia and the FARC, the communities could now start to imagine their future through a more positive light, even while fear and uncertainty persist. When people find themselves immersed in violence, they can hardly foresee a future beyond their harsh day to day. Some of the initiatives of MPL created opportunities for users to successfully undertake collective projects, which helped them shape a possible future without violent conflict. For example, the project “Cuentos al vientoâ€? [Tales in the wind] developed in San Vicente del CaguĂĄn (Department of Caqueta) aimed at recovering the life stories of FARC ex-combatants and members of the community, allowing the participants to discuss their vision of the world and their own accounts of events, and to imagine a better future together. The MPL in Caldono (Department of Cauca) made an effort to recover traditional practices, part of the collective identity of Nasa people who inhabit the region, through storytelling. These conversations allowed users to connect their remote, and even mythic, past (who they have been) with a positive imagined future (who they want to be). The estimated impact on Expectations about the future for young users was 20-percentage point higher than the control group. These results corroborate the fact that culture is instrumental for youth to widen their imagination and anticipate a
8 While there was a significant impact on this dimension for young library users, the quantitative impact for adult users was less so.
Mural project, painting the library. Caldono, Cauca
more positive future. One in which they, their families and their communities enjoy of more and better opportunities. Estimated impact on the Expectations about the future sub-index with respect to the control group9 Young MPL users
+20 percentage points
E. Peaceful conflict resolution
All of the villages the MPL served, with no exception, had suffered the consequences of violent conflict for decades. In some cases, the communities had deeply held labels of who were friends and enemies, which tended to dehumanize people with different opinions. As an alternative, the MPL opened their doors as safe spaces that could bring people together, without stereotypes, enabling them to recognize that all share similar feelings. For example, in the “clown group� activity in the village of Conejo (Department of La Guajira), ex-combatants of the FARC prepared a clown show in the MPL, through which they took on the challenge of playing different social roles as a way of developing a relationship with the community. Reconciliation occurs by changing the subjective framework with which we relate with each other, and develop the ability to appreciate the perceptions and feelings
9 While there was a significant impact on this dimension for young library users, the quantitative impact for adult users was less so.
Extension activity. Village of Gallo in Tierralta, Córdoba
of others. In the MPL of Gallo (Department of Cordoba) the librarian designed an activity called “Letters to mothers”. It required mothers in the village to exchange letters with ex-combatants, about what being a mother meant to them. In San Vicente del Caguán, (Department of Caqueta), the initiative “Paths of peace” asked members of the community to travel around the territory and build a path amidst a field previously infested with mines and abandoned bombs, through which they could share their stories memories about conflict, and finally, meet with former guerrillas in their camp on the other side of the Pato River bridge. This walk ultimately opened a path for dialogue that did not exist before. Social transformations are based on ideas as well as feelings, but they have greater power when they are triggered by concrete actions. The above cases are specific examples of how the MPL encouraged concrete actions towards reconciliation at the community level. The estimated impact MPL had on the Peaceful conflict resolution dimension was positive and significant for both young and adult users. This sub-index was 18.6 percentage points higher among young users relative to the control group and 16.2 percentage points above the control group in the case of adult users. Culture, through the MPL, reduced the propensity to resort to violence to solve conflicts and allowed people to recognize that others are alike.
Estimated impact on the Peaceful conflict resolution sub-index with respect to the control group Young MPL users
+16.6 percentage points
Adults MPL users
+16.2 percentage points
F. Trust in the State
Although this dimension was not initially considered as part of the Social Capital Index, and thus was not included in the quantitative instrument, the level of Trust in the State emerged as a finding of great qualitative value. The direct experiences of conflict and violence these villages had, eroded their perception of the Colombian government, which has been traditionally regarded as distant and incapable of meeting their needs. However, through the arrival of the MPL, the relations developed between the community and the librarians and the services made available to users it was possible to build a positive and collaborative relationship between a cultural institution and communities that have traditionally been apathetic toward the State. Most of what had been agreed to in the peace process required the design of medium and long-term projects so many villagers
Communiy, Police and Army helping MPL with all the activites. Miranda, Cauca.
felt that the Peace Agreement had not produced real changes. However, the shortterm and concrete impact of the MPL showed new possibilities to the population and gave them confidence on what could come next. The MPL facilitated previously unthinkable meetings between villagers, the Colombian army, FARC ex-combatants and the Police, among others. These exchanges started to change in all parties, little by little, the perception of each other and have shown that culture unites and sheds light on what a common project for Colombians can look like.
Writing activity with the community. Remedios, Antioquia
Recommendations This evaluation assessed the impact the MPL had on some of the villages that had been sunk for a long time in violent conflict, and that at the time of the intervention were playing a crucial role in the sustainability of peace thanks to their proximity to the settlements of FARC ex-combatants. Conflict destroys social relationships and impedes social capital to form. Therefore, assertive public policies are needed to repair the damage of war and enable people to develop the resilience necessary for changing their context in a positive manner. Based on the results described in this document, it can be concluded that, during the first six months, the intervention of the Mobile Public Libraries effectively strengthened the social capital of the communities they served. Traditionally, culture has not played a leading role in collective reparation processes, but this evaluation illustrates the potential of culture to promote the development of communities and to be a catalyst for other peace building projects. The following are for relevant recommendations based of these findings: 1. The MPL project should be replicated in other municipalities (such as those prioritized for the design of Development Programs with a Territorial Approach. PDET - for its initials in Spanish-). These public libraries are powerful instruments to develop collective projects to bringing together people who have been separated from the community by chronic exposure to adverse experiences. Similarly, the purpose of this evaluation was to test the capacity of the MPL to develop important socio-emotional skills for overcoming conditions of vulnerability (Heckman & Kautz, 2012). These results showed that even in remote and highly vulnerable conditions, the MPL promote a structural change in social capital and, therefore, it is possible to conclude that they could help generate a similar transformation in municipalities prioritized for peace building by the Colombian government.
More than books, the library offers a place for meeting and enjoyment of free time. Vista Hermosa, Meta
2. Maintain the rigorous selection and thorough training of librarians. One of the most noteworthy aspects of the MPL was the capacities and extensive community experience of librarians. The qualitative insights showed that librarians were a fundamental piece to explaining the impact of MPL. 3. Maintain the calls for proposals to support social and cultural projects with a territorial approach. The assistance and support provided by the MPL to locallydesigned projects added a great deal of value, because they accommodate initiatives that are relevant to each context and promote community work. This document mentioned some of the projects that were developed under this approach (there were 40 in total). These local initiatives would not have materialized in the absence of the MPL, because although they were dormant in the communities, people needed a place where they could be heard and offered support, even when this was only symbolic. 4. Develop strategies to publicize the impact of the MPL. It is important to continue attracting strategic partners in order to incorporate the MPL to public policies that can expand the scale of this initiative, and to shed light on the fundamental role culture plays as an instrument of integration in collective reparation processes. It is recommended to work to enhance the interinstitutional coordination within the Colombian government, including institutions like the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Post-Conflict. All of them can take advantage of the catalytic nature of the MPL integrating them to other crosscutting strategies, esential to develop the Peace Agreementss.
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