In anticipation of this conference, earlier in the week I received a report from Refugees International that outlines three key measures recommended to improve conditions of Colombia's internally displaced people. Refugees International will present these recommendations to delegates during the conference.
According to the United Nations, displacement in Colombia remains the largest humanitarian crisis in the Western Hemisphere. For over four decades, millions of Colombians have been forcibly displaced because of violence and conflict. While all of Colombian society is affected, displacement is mainly hitting campesino, indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities living in rural areas. Cities are often the final destination of the displaced, who search for safety through anonymity. Upon arrival the displaced face the grim prospect of being unemployed and becoming dependents on outside assistance. Their future is often one of destitution.
In its December 2007 report, "Striving for Better Days: Improving the Lives of Internally Displaced People in Colombia", Refugees International urges the Government of Colombia to take three concrete steps to address the humanitarian crisis of internal displacement in the country. One of these three steps is a call for the Government of Colombia, "to create durable and sustainable livelihoods for displaced communites". This recommendation especially resonates with me since it ties in with my research of how international organizations can most effectively serve and assist Colombia's internal refugees.
Another interesting point that caught my attention in the report is a comment by Refugees International that, "some of the current handout and welfare-based programs carried out by the [Colombian] government are not financially sustainable, and risk quashing the self-initiative of the displaced."
I know from my research on social enterprises, that financial sustainability and self-empowerment are critical for a project's success. Delancey Street Foundation in San Francisco, one of the most successful residential drug rehabilitation programs in the United States, provides a strong example: its success is a result of financial sustainability derived from its seven for-profit businesses, as well as a "staff" made up entirely by the residents it exists to help.
In its report, Refugees International suggests that
"The government of Colombia should redesign programs to invest in income generating activities and vocational training courses to provide skills required by the urban labor market. And, [international] donors must evaluate current interventions in skill training and income generation to offer sustainable livelihoods for displaced households."When you teach someone to fish, rather than giving a hand-out, you empower them and give them back their dignity. With the millions of displaced people in Colombia, the only sustainable way to improve conditions and to alleviate dependence on outside assistance in the long run is to teach the displaced how to fish.
A vocational training/business model like Delancey Street, combined with access to technology, would greatly benefit internally displaced people in Colombia and provide them with the tools and knowledge needed to play a more active role in an urban, globalized economy.
Aside from this, it seems evident that the only other way to assist displaced people in Colombia is to focus also on the root cause of why they are being displaced in the first place. But I'll save - that - topic for another post.
Today's international conference in Bogota is a positive step, since it keeps Colombia's often overlooked humanitarian crisis of internal refugees on the world's stage.
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