For emergencies and humanitarian aid, especially in four departments, the United Nations has arranged 8 million dollars through the humanitarian fund CERTF. These, and possibly other resources that are being managed, will be distributed among prevention and protection, collective reparation, stabilization in 170 prioritized municipalities and lasting solutions for the inhabitants of those areas. Everything, under the leadership of the national government of Colombia.

With the aim of exchanging information on the resources required to attend, assist and repair the victims of armed conflict in Colombia, and consider the possibilities of contributions from the United Nations system for that purpose in 2019, the first meeting between the director of Victims Unit, Ramón Rodríguez, and the resident coordinator of United Nations in Colombia, Martín Santiago Herrero.

The meeting was also attended by the Deputy Director of the Unit, Viviana Ferro, and two other senior officials of the multilateral organization: Gerard Gómez, coordinator of humanitarian affairs in our country and Pontus Ohrstedt, manager of United Nations Multi-Donor Fund for support of peace (MPTF).

After a review of what has been working together in previous years, it was clear UN willingness to continue contributing to the victims of conflict during 2019 and the priorities of both the Unit and the multilateral organization were raised, that will be specified in a work plan to be finalized in the coming weeks.

The director of Unit, Ramón Rodríguez, emphasized that the priority for 2019 is the collective reparation of victims of onflict and asked the UN representatives to cross-reference information on the 170 priority municipalities in the application of Development Plans with Focus Territorial (PDET).

The objective, he said, is to decide what resources can be leveraged for collective reparation and how much resources budgeted by the entity for that purpose could be reoriented towards individual reparation, especially in the payment of administrative compensation. In the 170 prioritized municipalities, revealed, about 40% of population is displaced by the conflict.

Deputy Director Viviana Ferro explained that the Unit wants to clarify how many victims of the municipalities with PDET have benefited or could do so through the various programs of national government directed to those areas, to determine with more accuracy the priorities in terms of individual reparation. The official recalled that, under the leadership of the Presidency of the Republic, the commitment of the entity is to strengthen projects that provide sustainable solutions to victims.

Ferro also requested support to the UN spokespersons in Colombia for the processes of returns and relocations because they are an important part of reparation to victims, adding that another line that is beginning to develop the Unit is the prevention and protection in the territories. In that sense, progress is already being made in an exercise related to children and adolescents in the Pacific of Nariño and in Catatumbo, where the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare will be working.

The United Nations coordinator in Colombia, Martín Santiago, referred to the challenges of this year to channel aid to the victims of conflict, which have to do with the new scenarios raised after the authorship admitted by the ELN guerrilla of the car bomb that exploded in the School of General Police Cadets Francisco de Paula Santander, with the outcome of the crisis in Venezuela "that can change everything" and with the new map of the presence of illegal armed groups in the country.

According to the UN coordinator in Colombia, 8 million dollars from the Central Fund for Action in Cases of Emergency (CERF, in English) are already available, which will be mainly dedicated to emergencies and humanitarian aid in Nariño, Chocó, Arauca and Norte de Santander (Catatumbo area).

These resources, and possibly others that are being managed, will be distributed among prevention and protection of areas affected by armed conflict, reparation of victims, stabilization of the 170 Colombian municipalities prioritized with PDET and Durable Solutions that allow the self-sustainability of the inhabitants of these regions.

The CERF is a humanitarian fund established by United Nations General Assembly in 2006 to provide humanitarian assistance to people affected by natural disasters and armed conflicts and is provisioned through contributions from governments and the private sector.

With the word "use us", that Martin Santiago said to the director of Unit, he made clear the firm will to continue contributing with the victims of country and to coordinate for that purpose the diverse cooperating agencies that have to do with the United Nations, and insisted that this year they will intensify the work of strengthening the "links between humanitarian aid, peace building and development".

Gerard Gómez, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Colombia, expressed concern about the difficulty of accessing the territories due to the fragmentation of illegal armed groups. "There are areas where we can not enter," he said. At the same time, he asked the Unit for support to get the cooperative agencies that left after the signing of the Peace Agreement with the Farc back to the regions.

From his side, Pontus Ohrstedt, manager of United Nations Multi-donor Fund for the Sustainability of Peace (MPTF, acronym in English), said that it is very important for the Fund to stabilize the regions affected by the violence "because the lack of Confidence can generate violence again "and said that collective reparation is a fundamental aspect that could be articulated with support for returns and relocations.

With the Multi-Donor Fund, the Unit has worked for several years. At this moment he is implementing two projects worth 7.3 million dollars. One is related to collective reparation for 26 subjects of collective reparation in 12 departments, for a value of three million dollars. The other with individual repair, for 4.3 million dollars in 51 municipalities.