CAF approves US$200 million for peace projects in Colombia

In what constitutes another act of support of the peace process in Colombia, the Andean Development Corporation (CAF) has appoved a loan for US$200 million to the government of this country, to execute works which benefit the rural population in area of conflict. This loan is part of the Second Program for Tansportation Highways for Peace and Complementary Investments.

The executive president of CAF, Enrique García, underlined that one of this institution’s priorities is to stimulate programs that lead to the establishment of normality, economic, political and social, in the shareholder countries.

In this context, García pointed out that this phase of the Second Program seeks to improve the transportation infrastructure, as much for highways as for waterways, serving the poorest communities; to generate temporary employment by means of utilizing local labor; and to encourage a sense of ownership of these works such that the communities will actively and solidly commit to their execution and to sustaining their maintenance.

The Program forms part of the component, Colombian Plan for Economic and Social Recuperation, the US$900 million financing of which is in the process of being consolidated between the Interamerican Development Bank, the World Bank and other international agencies.

For the execution of this project, consideration has been given to the improvement of the transportation infrastructure to permit the adequate transport of agricultural products and livestock to consumer centers, making viable productive activities in zones of conflict. In the same way, it will improve the levels of access to State services to rural communities in matters of health, education, recreation, environmental health, and justice.

It is important to point out that the investment projects are located in regions of the country that are characterized by the presence of widely dispersed settlements, with a high level of Unsatisfied Basic Needs (NBI), which are manifest in the definciency of the transportation infrastructure, economic and social conflict, disruption of public order, and the presence of illicit crops.

The Program will also contribute to the reduction of the economic cost of the armed conflict, the cost of protection and in lives lost by homicide, and the negative impact of the violence in the levels of private investment.

In addition, the Program will reduce the impact on the environment and the cost caused by the dislocation of the rural population as a result of the conflict, and at the same time will generate more than 100,000 temporary rural jobs.

The Program forms part of the project Hands to the Work of the Emergency Social Fund (FES), created by the authorities to attend to the most vulnerable families, to correct severe social inequalities, and to obtain better rates of growth and employment in the short and medium term.

CAF and peace in Colombia CAF’s support of the Program for Peace has as an antecedent a loan first made in October, 2000 for US$162 million. This loan was included in the National Development Plan Change for the Building of Peace that is now in full operation and whos fundamental objective is the seeking of peace with the object of putting the country on a path of sustainable growth and social cohesion.

The Development Plan promotes the execution of infrastructure projects that permit the viability of productive economic and social activities, the improvement of the quality of life of the population and the breaking down of the socioeconomic factors that lead to violence. The government of Colombia considers that there exists a high correlation between the areas of greatest socio-political conflict and the deficit of highway development. It is for this reason that in the transportation sector need has been identified for construction, rehabilitation and maintenance of highways in the trunkline,secondary and terciary networks, in areas labeled critical as to the public order.