Monday, April 16, 2012
Final presentation: Business and trade
This week we will post one team's final presentation each day. First up: IEDP's business and trade team members discuss their research on government efforts to prepare small and medium enterprises for implementation of the U.S.-Colombian free trade agreement.
Friday, April 6, 2012
Sunday, March 11, 2012
One last hurrah
FROM MARCH 2
Dispatch from the environment team
We eventually were able to drag ourselves away to the site
of our actual meeting, the Granitos de Paz office, run by the lovely and lively
Diana Peña. There, we learned a bit more about the amazing work of Granitos de
Paz, a non-profit that is leading micro-finance investment and urban
agriculture development in the neighborhood. They have built 42 houses in
Rafael Nuñez in the last eight years, and they teach families to grow crops in
the narrow, sunny spaces behind their homes. Urban farmers of the neighborhood
sell spearmint (for mojitos), basil, red pepper, eggplant, and cucumber to some
of the fanciest hotels in Cartagena, and Granitos de Paz also offers cooking
classes for growers to learn how to incorporate their fresh produce into meals
at home.
Dispatch from the environment team
Al fin, Cartagena. While other policy teams were suiting up
for meetings with the DEA, etc., the environment team was in a taxi in the
midst of the other side of
Cartagena—one that tourists rarely see. Rafael Nuñez is home to 13,000 of the
poorest people in the city, which has one of the most extreme income
disparities in the world. By 8 a.m. the heat was already settling heavy on the
neighborhood, and we drove past a trash-covered shore and bustling fish market
before finding what we thought was our final destination.
It turns out that
there are two sites for the non-profit Granitos de Paz in Rafael Nuñez, and we
happened to have stumbled first upon the cuter one: a daycare center for
hundreds of infants and pre-schoolers. The center had a nursery, a ‘dance
studio’ with a full-wall mirror, an open-air cafeteria that served fresh meals,
and lots of singing, clapping children. We were smitten.
We eventually were able to drag ourselves away to the site
of our actual meeting, the Granitos de Paz office, run by the lovely and lively
Diana Peña. There, we learned a bit more about the amazing work of Granitos de
Paz, a non-profit that is leading micro-finance investment and urban
agriculture development in the neighborhood. They have built 42 houses in
Rafael Nuñez in the last eight years, and they teach families to grow crops in
the narrow, sunny spaces behind their homes. Urban farmers of the neighborhood
sell spearmint (for mojitos), basil, red pepper, eggplant, and cucumber to some
of the fanciest hotels in Cartagena, and Granitos de Paz also offers cooking
classes for growers to learn how to incorporate their fresh produce into meals
at home.
Off to the side of the office was a ‘senior center’ which might more
accurately be described as a ‘dance club’ given all the boogying that was going
down at 9 a.m. We ended our visit with a walk around the neighborhood to visit
some of the neighborhood gardens and take in the luscious smells. Though
tangential to our research topic on biofuels, the visit to Granitos de Paz
certainly renewed our faith in the possibility for grassroots, environmentally
inspiring economic development in Colombia. We were also all grateful to have
found a place to retire/get down with some Latin beats in a few years.
- Allie
Friday, March 9, 2012
Some dispatches we didn't get to post earlier...
FROM MARCH 1:
Dispatch from the business and trade team
Dispatch from the business and trade team
Our last morning in Bogota started with a meeting at our hotel with Carlos Ocampo from the Centro Integral de Servicios Empresariales (CREAME). CREAME is an incubator that was founded in 1996 by 29 academic, business and governmental institutions. It serves to increase capacity of small and medium businesses by educating owners in order to increase their competitiveness on the global market. To accomplish that goal, CREAME provides training and resources for small businesses. Their services are in high demand in regions with few alternative economic development initiatives. They also connect businesses in similar industries, which allows for the sharing of best practices. CREAME gets its funding from the Ministry of Commerce and multinational corporations.
- Kyasha
Dispatch from the environment team
The environment team spent our last morning in Bogotá
with the first Minister of Environment and now a professor at Universidad de los Andes. We
met with him at the beautiful U of A business school building and chatted
about biofuels and environmental decision-making in Colombia. Our host is
skeptical of the trickle-down effect of wealth in Colombia, noting that “for
the last 50 years, we are the same.” He worries that Colombia’s agricultural
policy—along with its promotion of mining and other industries—are contributing
more to the concentration of wealth than its distribution. He also said
that adequate environmental protections are elusive under a weak state and
that, as of now, Colombia doesn’t have the minimum conditions to protect the
environment vis-à-vis mining.
However, when it came to palm, the professor said that is was
possible for the industry to go in the “environmentally right direction.”
Though the environmental performance of the palm industry was atrocious in the
90s, when there was no water treatment, methodologies have improved
significantly since then. Palm is planted in previously deforested areas but is
not a driver of deforestation, and
Colombia has enough arable land that palm is not competing with food crops.
The
major
challenge in protecting Colombia’s unique ecosystems, the professor
said, is not money, but political will. “In order to protect the Amazon
Basin, you don’t need economic incentives,” he said, citing one example.
“It’s
a political decision about what the future of that region should be.”
His recent
book
lays out an environmental vision for the agriculture frontier of
Colombia.
Meeting him left us with a sense of the importance of this kind of
envisioning
to environmental policy-making.
- Allie
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Homeward bound...
... but with lots left to do! We have many more pictures and stories to share in the coming weeks. And check back for our final reports in the last part of March.
Friday, March 2, 2012
Day 7: Group meetings and Universidad Technologica de Bolivar
IEDPers woke up to a much warmer, more humid climate this morning, having arrived in coastal Cartagena last night for our final day of meetings. Each group attended separate meetings in the morning but reconvened around mid-afternoon for a final hurrah at Universidad Technologica de Bolivar.
Back when the university was founded in 1970 as a technological institute, Cartagena was a city of fewer than 350,000 inhabitants. Today, it is home to more than 1 million, and the university has grown along with it. In 2011 it joined a list of 20 other accredited universities in the country (a distinguished accomplishment). It is continually forming relationships with other universities and pushing to be a research institution.
Among the research being conducted at the Universidad Technologica de Bolivar currently are studies of the various development plans that are being designed and enacted nationwide. There are 1,133 such plans -- 1 at the national level, 32 in the departments and 1,103 in municipalities. There appears to be considerable lack of coordination between the various plans, making for ineffective implementation.
Our guests at the university shared some yummy banana cake with us while we admired their beautiful campus -- comprising colorful buildings, tropical trees that danced in the wind, and lots and lots of sun. It made for a pleasant grande finale!
- Lindsay
Dispatch from the security team
Today was a strong finish for the security team as we wrapped up our investigation on the Colombian Bacrims at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency office in Cartagena. After passing through tight security checkpoints, we met with the Special Agent-In-Charge of the office who has been with the agency for more than 20 years, much of which he had served in Latin America. He explained the importance and the severity of the Bacrims to security in Colombia. He also explained to us how the Bacrims smuggle illicit narcotics out of the country, including the use of submersibles or "drug subs." These makeshift submarines can submerge up to 60 feet underwater carrying tons of illicit drugs on just one trip. The use of these submarines make it exceptionally difficult for law enforcement and military forces to detect and intercept drug trafficking in the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean.
Our host also described the extremely fragmented organization of some of the main Bacrim groups and how they can buy off entire communities in order to operate. After our meeting, we rode to lunch in an armored SUV courtesy of the DEA. That, ladies and gentlemen, is your tax dollars being put to good use!
-Neal
Dispatch from the social policy team
The morning began with the Observatorio del Caribe, a think tank in Cartagena that focused on generating information on development issues and policies in the Caribbean Coast. Their biggest effort at the moment is launching their information system to collect data from various stakeholders and archive it in a central, accessible location online. They are also working with the government on a large food security program. Their work is important because the Caribbean coast of Colombia has been disconnected from the interior, and there are huge gaps in knowledge about the region for policymakers.
The next meeting was one of our more interesting ones. We had a roundtable discussion with several community organizers, UNDP workers, and municipal government representatives who work specifically on issues of Afro-descendants. Everyone had a lot to say about the challenges for Afro-descendants. People had different ideas on the politics of racial identification and its role in mobilizing. A Palenque student stood out among the activists explained the daily experience of racial discrimination and micro-aggressions Afro-descendants faced.
- Ine
Dispatch from the business and trade team
After a lovely lunch in the sun our group headed to
the Universidad Technologica de Bolivar for our very last IEDP meeting
with the entire group.
- Kyasha
 |
| Our host explaining the history of the university. |
Among the research being conducted at the Universidad Technologica de Bolivar currently are studies of the various development plans that are being designed and enacted nationwide. There are 1,133 such plans -- 1 at the national level, 32 in the departments and 1,103 in municipalities. There appears to be considerable lack of coordination between the various plans, making for ineffective implementation.
Our guests at the university shared some yummy banana cake with us while we admired their beautiful campus -- comprising colorful buildings, tropical trees that danced in the wind, and lots and lots of sun. It made for a pleasant grande finale!
- Lindsay
Dispatch from the security team
Today was a strong finish for the security team as we wrapped up our investigation on the Colombian Bacrims at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency office in Cartagena. After passing through tight security checkpoints, we met with the Special Agent-In-Charge of the office who has been with the agency for more than 20 years, much of which he had served in Latin America. He explained the importance and the severity of the Bacrims to security in Colombia. He also explained to us how the Bacrims smuggle illicit narcotics out of the country, including the use of submersibles or "drug subs." These makeshift submarines can submerge up to 60 feet underwater carrying tons of illicit drugs on just one trip. The use of these submarines make it exceptionally difficult for law enforcement and military forces to detect and intercept drug trafficking in the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean.
Our host also described the extremely fragmented organization of some of the main Bacrim groups and how they can buy off entire communities in order to operate. After our meeting, we rode to lunch in an armored SUV courtesy of the DEA. That, ladies and gentlemen, is your tax dollars being put to good use!
-Neal
Dispatch from the social policy team
The morning began with the Observatorio del Caribe, a think tank in Cartagena that focused on generating information on development issues and policies in the Caribbean Coast. Their biggest effort at the moment is launching their information system to collect data from various stakeholders and archive it in a central, accessible location online. They are also working with the government on a large food security program. Their work is important because the Caribbean coast of Colombia has been disconnected from the interior, and there are huge gaps in knowledge about the region for policymakers.
The next meeting was one of our more interesting ones. We had a roundtable discussion with several community organizers, UNDP workers, and municipal government representatives who work specifically on issues of Afro-descendants. Everyone had a lot to say about the challenges for Afro-descendants. People had different ideas on the politics of racial identification and its role in mobilizing. A Palenque student stood out among the activists explained the daily experience of racial discrimination and micro-aggressions Afro-descendants faced.
- Ine
Dispatch from the business and trade team
This morning the Business and Trade team accompanied the Social
Policy group to the Observatorio del Caribe Colombiano. This think tank
develops strategies for regional development by creating public
knowledge. To that end they have created an online database on their
website (www.ocaribe.org.sid). This system is called the Sistema de
Indicadores de Desarrollo del Caribe (SID) which features indicators
that chart the rates of development in the Caribbean region of Colombia.
- Kyasha
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Day 6: Department of Planning and group meetings
The groups spent the morning finishing their rounds of meetings in
Bogota, visiting such sites as the Ministry of Defense and the National
Planning Department. Around lunchtime, everyone gathered for a meeting at the Department of Evaluation of Public Policies.
The department is responsible for helping to prepare Colombia's National Development Plan, which is based on programs put forth every four years by candidates running for national office. (According to our host, Colombians vote on programs in national elections, rather than candidates themselves. The candidate who puts forth the program that gets selected is the one who runs it.) The department also monitors numerous indicators for the National Development Plan to assess its progress, output and outcomes.
Under former president
Uribe, our host said, the National Development Plan looked like a house
with three pillars: security, investment and social cohesion. The roof
held up by the pillars was the communitarian state. Uribe's strategy was
the winning Colombia's war would attract investment and build trust in
government institutions. Essentially, decreasing security problems would
boost GDP and reduce poverty. Under President Santos, the NDP looks
like a wheel with three spokes: socioeconomic growth, social equality,
and security and justice.
Unlike Uribe, Santos puts particular focus on justice as a part of the administration's security efforts. He also acknowledges that foreign investment is just a small part of national growth, and narrowing the income gap requires improving the quality of education. All three parts of the wheel must be promoted simultaneously in order for the plan to progress. Although the two plans contain many of the same components, Santos's plan acknowledges developments in Colombian society.
- Lindsay
Dispatch from the social policy team
The morning began especially early with a last-minute meeting with the appointed government representative of Colombian Afro-descendents. He explained how he works as an advocate for Afro-descendant issues trying to get money to Colombia to support programs and projects addressing these issues.
We had the opportunity to meet with two of the former Ministry of Health's assistants who were integral in shaping some of the more recent health reforms. They offered insight into the thought process for some of these policies and gave an economist's perspective of the health care system.
Our next meeting was with the Monitoring and Evaluation team at the Department of National Planning. The team explained step-by-step how they monitored the progress of various policies and their policy evaluation techniques. They offered ongoing examples of monitoring and evaluation projects, including one dealing with Familias en Accion. When asked about how they monitor outcomes of policies by different ethnic groups, it became clear that this wasn't information that there was lot of effort in pursuing. According to some employees, Afro-descendants are not considered a minority in Colombia, and the needs of Afro-descendants are similar to mestizos and white Colombians, unlike indigenous populations.
- Ine
The department is responsible for helping to prepare Colombia's National Development Plan, which is based on programs put forth every four years by candidates running for national office. (According to our host, Colombians vote on programs in national elections, rather than candidates themselves. The candidate who puts forth the program that gets selected is the one who runs it.) The department also monitors numerous indicators for the National Development Plan to assess its progress, output and outcomes.
 |
| Dorado's diagrams of the current and previous plans. |
Unlike Uribe, Santos puts particular focus on justice as a part of the administration's security efforts. He also acknowledges that foreign investment is just a small part of national growth, and narrowing the income gap requires improving the quality of education. All three parts of the wheel must be promoted simultaneously in order for the plan to progress. Although the two plans contain many of the same components, Santos's plan acknowledges developments in Colombian society.
- Lindsay
Dispatch from the social policy team
The morning began especially early with a last-minute meeting with the appointed government representative of Colombian Afro-descendents. He explained how he works as an advocate for Afro-descendant issues trying to get money to Colombia to support programs and projects addressing these issues.
We had the opportunity to meet with two of the former Ministry of Health's assistants who were integral in shaping some of the more recent health reforms. They offered insight into the thought process for some of these policies and gave an economist's perspective of the health care system.
Our next meeting was with the Monitoring and Evaluation team at the Department of National Planning. The team explained step-by-step how they monitored the progress of various policies and their policy evaluation techniques. They offered ongoing examples of monitoring and evaluation projects, including one dealing with Familias en Accion. When asked about how they monitor outcomes of policies by different ethnic groups, it became clear that this wasn't information that there was lot of effort in pursuing. According to some employees, Afro-descendants are not considered a minority in Colombia, and the needs of Afro-descendants are similar to mestizos and white Colombians, unlike indigenous populations.
- Ine
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