U.S. supports links between Colombian private sector and the reintegration process

U.S. supports links between Colombian private sector and the reintegration process

More than 100 Colombian businessmen met today at the Bogota Chamber of Commerce (BCC) to discuss how they can participate in the reintegration process of former combatants into civil society. They participated in the Second Forum organized by the BCC, the Bogota Mayor’s Office, the International Organization for Migrations (IOM), the High Presidential Commission for Reintegration, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

U.S. Ambassador to Colombia, William R. Brownfield, attended the event, along with the High Commissioner for Reintegration, Frank Pearl; the President of the BCC, María Fernanda Campo; the Bogota Secretary of Government, Clara López Obregón, and IOM’s Program Director, Fernando Calado.

During the event, the organizers presented the first Businessmen Perception Poll on reintegration and a new website where businessmen can access updated information on the reintegration process through: the Reintegration Observatory (www.observatoriodereintegración.org.co). These initiatives are results of a multiagency agreement that seeks to promote support the reintegration of demobilized persons in Bogota into private sector companies.

This Forum was the closing event of a project called Entrepreneurial Agenda for Private Sector’s Support of the Reintegration Process, that started in 2006 through an alliance between the CCB, the Bogota Mayor’s Office, IOM, and financed by the US Government, through USAID, and implemented by the Office of the High Commissioner for Reintegration.

As an example of this public-private partnership, the institutions involved joined efforts and resources to create a shoe workshop in a Bogota neighborhood. This project seeks to train 100 former combatants and promote their full social reintegration and employment in one of the private sector companies that supported the initiative.