Ford Foundation returns to Colombia

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The Ford Foundation’s presence in Colombia goes back longer than the nation’s conflict with FARC. “Bogotá was one of the first offices of the Ford Foundation overseas,” said Javier Ciurlizza, the top official in the Andean region for the U.S. non-governmental organization (NGO).

Javier only entered his new office in the capital last month, but the Ford Foundation’s presence dates back to 1962. It may as well have been a different country. This was before the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) and the government started a war that — during 52 years of fighting — would kill 260,000 and displace some seven million.

The foundation’s work in the 1960s focused on agrarian reform. Unequal land distribution was, and remains, a scourge in Colombia. The organization is proud of the early service it provided, but within a decade, the conflict was spiraling out of control. The NGO decided to leave in 1972. It closed up shop and relocated the regional office to Santiago, Chile.

Ford’s work in Colombia didn’t end. Programs were still supported. Grants were issued to fund invaluable initiatives. In recent years, the organization has granted more money to Colombia than anywhere else in Latin America. But the foundation’s physical presence was gone. Until now.

About three years ago, Darren Walker became the president of the New York-based charity that has an endowment of around US$12 billion. “He firmly believed that it was important to be located in the places where more opportunities were open to discuss and work on inequality,” said Javier.

Few countries in the world have worse economic inequality than Colombia. Only Haiti, Honduras, and a handful of African nations rank lower, according to the “Gini Coefficient” the World Bank uses to measures income distribution across the globe. “We didn’t come because the plebiscite was about to happen,” said Javier. “We would have been here even if there was no peace process.”

The country, especially the capital, has been safe enough to operate in for at least a decade, and this is where the organization does the bulk of its work in Latin America. Some 60% of its grant-making process, or US$15 million allocated annually to about 90 projects, is done in Colombia. Ford Foundation had to get back. It was only matter of time.

The same week that Colombians were watching the Final Accord peace ceremony, however, employees in the Bogotá office were still waiting on their business cards to get printed. So it is early days. But as they get settled in, the goal is to advance the discourse about the connections between peace and equality.

Specifically, the Bogotá office will focus on three topics: giving a louder voice to the indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities, advocating for a fairer distribution of the proceeds of natural re- sources, and raising accountability within the nation’s fiscal system.

Within all these areas — whether it is ensuring the government listens to those fighting against oil companies for land rights or that the looming tax reform doesn’t overburden the most vulnerable — the goal is to bring the issues to the national agenda.

On top of the opportunities for change in today’s Colombia, Javier sees the country as an epicenter for many of the current problems facing the region. The boom days of high-commodity prices are over. Governments must fund their budgets by other means. This will squeeze social spending and create the potential for those with the least power to be exploited by big-money interests.

There is reason for optimism. “Colombia is a very good example, in a positive way, of how to grant legal rights to indigenous communities and Afro-Colombia communities,” said Javier. “You have a very active constitutional court. You have a legal community that, in general, is extremely well trained in how to defend and uphold collective rights. You have social organizations that have been empowered for years. You have a vibrant community of NGOs. You have everything here.”

But there is also need for much, much more to be done. He cites the “huge tensions in terms of discrimination and racism” as well as bitter fight in Colombia between land rights and economic development. Some examples include issues related to the Pan-American Highway going through Chocó, coca crop substitution in Putumayo, and illegal gold mining all over the nation.

As Javier says though, Colombia has the institutions and momentum to address these correctly. And he is eager to get to work.

The Ford Foundation has come back to do its part, and Javier believes that the nation can not only make major progress but also set an example for how the entire region strives to overcome these challenges.

“Peruvians, Ecuadorians, and Bolivians should learn what is going to hap- pen here in the next few years,” said Javier. “There is a very powerful reason to be here even if there isn’t any peace … This is a critical moment.”

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