Colombian civil servants learning Citizen Dialogue and Participation methods
On 21-21 February SALAR International conducted a three-day training workshop on citizen dialogue and participation in Montería, Colombia. The target audience of the workshop consisted of 40 civil servants working in seven post-conflict municipalities affected by the armed conflict in Colombia.
Civil servants from the municipalities of Fonseca and Necoclí analysing specific challenges within the capacity building program.
These municipalities, namely Necoclí, Chigorodó and San Pedro de Urabá from the Urabá Antioqueño region, Tierralta and Puerto Libertador from Sur de Córdoba and Fonseca and La Jagua de Ibirico from Sierra Nevada – Perijá, have high levels of poverty, especially extreme poverty.
Citizen Dialogue and Participation methods
This workshop is the beginning of a five months capacity building training program where the participants will learn new tools and methods on citizen dialogue that they will apply in their respective municipalities. Each municipality has identified a specific topic or challenge on which a citizen dialogue process will be carried out with support and guidance by Colombian and Swedish experts forming part of SALAR International’s team. The topics range from noise pollution in Necoclí, youth drug abuse in La Jagua de Ibirico and market place in Fonseca.
The capacity building program is part of the project FOINCIDE II - Strengthening decentralization and local self-governance in Colombia (Fortalecimiento Institucional y Ciudadano para el Desarrollo Territorial). Sida, through the Swedish Embassy in Colombia, finances this project. The tools and methods applied are based on SALAR’s experience with citizen dialogue in Sweden but adjusted to the local context in Colombia. The project’s objective is to enhance the capacity of local governments to plan, implement, and follow-up participatory, gender-sensitive and accountable local politics throughout the public policy cycle.
Civil servants in workshop.