Peacebuilders: Afro-descendent youth and women's strategies for sustainable peace in urban Colombia

This project strives to make sustainable interventions in the uncertain context of the post-peace accord with the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) in Colombia. It will identify patterns of vulnerability and inform policies to curb homicidal and everyday violence against Afro-descendent youth and women in the cities of Cali, Puerto Tejada, and Buenaventura.

While the government and other stakeholders have their own priorities for peace, urban youth and women — for whom the line between wartime/peacetime is blurred — may have their own solutions. Therefore, the project also seeks to facilitate the participation of predominantly Afro-descendent youth and poor women from marginalized communities in the three cities as key social actors in the process of peacebuilding. It will provide them with technical skills in data collection/analysis, and design, monitoring, and evaluation of public policies to enhance interventions against femicide, homicide, and structural violence in their communities. The project will also facilitate networking and collaboration at the regional level with community organizations, universities, policymakers, legislators, and government, with the aim of replicating this approach.

The project will be implemented by Universidad ICESI, a leading research and higher education institution in Cali, Columbia. It has established partnerships with local grassroots organizations to identify local solutions to intra-community violence. The three partner organizations, Casa Cultural El Chontaduro (Cali), Rostros y Huellas (Buenaventura), and DAF (Porto Tejada), are politically active in their respective contexts and work with Afro-descendent youth and women in the marginal areas of these cities.