Through dialogue and negotiation, Colombia is close to putting an end to more than fifty years of internal armed conflict between the Colombian government and the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia). However, Interpeace’s experience, in more than 20 countries around the world, has shown us that building peace involves a series of challenges that go far beyond signing a political agreement.

That’s why Interpeace’s Programme Development team and the Regional Office for Latin America began an exploration in Colombia in February. The project will seek to connect the different visions of peace with Colombia’s diverse society, and at the same time explore how the Interpeace approach can contribute to building lasting peace in Colombia.

During these visits, the Interpeace team met with representatives of government, civil society and the international community in different regions of the country including Antioquia, Cauca, Nariño, Caldas, Santander, Bolivar and Bogota. This enabled the team to understand the challenges and aspirations of the peace process in Colombia from the point of view of local actors. Proposals were generated which could allow Interpeace’s experience to make a constructive, innovative and complementary contribution to local capacities.

This intervention is based on the principles of the organization, principally that peace cannot be imposed from the outside. Interpeace believes that every society has the necessary capabilities to transform the problems that affect them, and at the same time, that peace can only be achieved when the different sectors of society work together to find participatory solutions to conflict.