Government Response Grossly Inadequate

In 1997, the government passed a law that outlined the many services to be provided for the displaced, but did little toward implementation. The government shifted assistance to the displaced from agency to agency, resulting in confusion, false starts, and bureaucratic entanglements.

Finally, in 1999, the government transferred responsibility for helping the displaced to the Red de Solidaridad Social (Social Solidarity Network, hereafter the Red). A national public entity directly under the administration of the Office of the President, the Red has delegations in Bogotá and 32 departmental capitals. While governmental response to the emergency needs of displaced persons has improved, attention to post-emergency services is still virtually non-existent. The Red has formulated plans for projects aimed at helping longer-term displaced persons to support themselves, but says it lacks funds for implementation.

A January 2001 report by the Theme Group on Displacement (TGD), a body comprised of UN agencies and other international organizations working in Colombia under the coordination of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is scathing: "The action of the State has been limited and sporadic compared to the seriousness of the phenomenon of displacement. Moreover, most of the [government] agencies mandated to provide assistance to displaced populations have shirked their responsibilities." In its 2001 "Annual Report on Human Rights Practices," the U.S. State Department found that "The Government has no systematic program or budget to make adequate provisions for humanitarian assistance to the displaced."

Regional and local authorities are also strapped for resources. A May 2001 report by the Brookings-CUNY Project on Internal Displacement describes conditions in Cartagena that are typical of those in major cities around the country: "In Barrio Nelson Mandela...home to almost 50,000 displaced persons, many of African descent, there are no basic services such as plumbing, electricity, and sewage.... The local government has 'turned its back on the barrio."

According to CODHES (Consultancy for Human Rights and Displacement), a respected Colombian NGO that documents the situation of displaced persons, 66 percent of displaced Colombians lack all access to health services.

What help there is comes from Colombian nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), the Catholic Church, and other religious organizations, many of which have funding from the European Union. Until the late 1990s, all of the international NGOs assisting displaced Colombians (mostly working through local implementing partners) were European but, more recently, U.S. NGOs have also begun to help. The International Committee of the Red Cross provides emergency assistance, and the World Food Program provides food aid to some 230,000 displaced persons. UNHCR provides technical support and coordination mechanisms between the Colombian government, NGOs, and displaced persons' associations. UNHCR also trains the armed forces on the prevention of displacement and protection of displaced persons.