The Barometer Initiative in Colombia: Engaging and Inclusive Monitoring of Peace Agreement Implementation
Borja Paladini Adell, Colombia Representative, Kroc Institute
Manor Road Building, Seminar Room E
The Peace Accords signed in November 2016 between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) are being implemented along the national territory. Since then, the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, and a team of engaged peace builders, have had the responsibility of monitoring and supporting technically the verification of the implementation. The Barometer Initiative, following the invitation of the Government of Colombia and the FARC, provides decision makers in Colombia with regular comprehensive reports measuring the implementation, and targeted policy briefs highlighting progress, difficulties, and concerns. Stronger and more engaged monitoring mechanisms can help to help translate peace agreements from pieces of paper into practice. Monitoring mechanisms should help to ‘sustain peace’ by navigating the complexity of the implementation phase, responding to constructive and destructive ‘emergent patterns’, and enhancing the inclusiveness and legitimacy of signatories’ efforts to honour their commitments. The Barometer Initiative to monitor implementation of the 2016 Colombia Peace Agreement provides an innovative example of the roles that monitoring mechanisms can play to promote inclusion and peace-oriented transformation in a highly dynamic and ever-changing environment.
More info: https://kroc.nd.edu/research/peace-processes-accords/pam-colombia/
Borja Paladini Adell is a peace builder with 20 years of professional experience sustaining and building peace, particularly in Colombia and Latin America. He has an extensive experience facilitation inclusive dialogue processes as a means of transforming conflict. He has worked with or advised organizations such us UNDP Colombia, UN Honduras, Colombian Government, GIZ, USIP, Norwegian Peace Alliance, among others. He supported the Colombian Government in the peacebuilding planning process in 2015 and 2016 mainly in two initiatives. Advising the early peacebuilding implementation planning process (including the post-agreement needs assessments); and, mainstreaming dialogue and conflict transformation in the National Development Plan 2014-2018.
