Attachments
IOM VISION
In partnership with key strategic actors, IOM strengthens institutional and community capacities on preparedness and response to emergency and crisis situations in Colombia, to reduce the risks and vulnerabilities of affected populations (internally displaced persons (IDPs), former combatants, migrants and host communities). Moreover, the mission supports sustainable recovery, community stabilization, peacebuilding and durable solutions at national and local levels. The IOM Colombia Country Strategy for 2021-2024, approved by the Government of Colombia, includes humanitarian, recovery and peacebuilding response strategies covering three strategic areas: i) peacebuilding and stabilization; ii) migration as a factor for development; ii) catalyst Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
CONTEXT ANALYSIS
Despite the signature of the Peace Agreement between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the government in 2016, Colombia is still dealing with the consequences of five decades of violence. There are 9.3 million victims of abuse and violence, survivors of gender-based violence (GBV), and 8.3 million victims of forced displacement, that require reparation and reintegration support (Unit of Victims).
Accordingly, several activities continue to be implemented for the reparation of victims, capacity building, reintegration of former combatants and peacebuilding.
Colombia’s context is highly marked by criminal violence of non-state armed groups which control illegal economies including drug trafficking and illegal mining, thus increasing violence in regions historically affected by conflict. These factors trigger killings of social leaders, unlawful confinements, forced displacements and a high risk of human trafficking and child recruitment (HNO 2023). It is estimated that 5.9 million people will have humanitarian needs, following the influence of non-state armed groups (HNO 2023).
Moreover, the country is also highly prone to a range of natural hazards, particularly floods and landslides. Throughout 2022, 489,835 people have been affected by natural hazards in Colombia and it is estimated that by 2023 there will be 455,949 people with needs related to access to health, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), shelter, and food security (HNO 2023). Colombia is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate variability and change as the country already routinely experiences damaging droughts and floods. Due to a combination of political, geographic and social factors,
Colombia is recognized as vulnerable to climate change impacts, ranked 91 out of 181 countries in the 2022 Notre Dame Global Adaptation Index.
In addition, Colombia hosts an estimated 2.4 million refugees and migrants from the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (Migración Colombia), and an increasing number of migrants in transit - more than 151,000 people (who additionally were reported to enter Panama irregularly through the Darien, according to the National Migration Service Panama). This context has had a significant impact on the country considering that these populations arrived in areas with existing economic needs and institutions with limited capacity for appropriate responses, and since these irregular flows are also associated with illegal armed groups, drug traffickers and smugglers that put migrants at a higher risk. Despite the reopening of the border between Colombia and Venezuela as a result of the reactivation of diplomatic relations, after more than four years of closure, massive returns are not expected in 2023. In fact, IOM and the Interagency Group for Mixed Migration Flows (GIFMM) foresee that by the end of 2023, nearly 3 million Venezuelans will be residing in Colombia.
Furthermore, there is an increasing number of communities with scarce income-generating opportunities, informality in land ownership, reduced livelihoods and limited access to basic social services, exacerbated due to the impact of measures taken to contain the COVID-19 spread between 2020-2021 and the global economic recession.