Sustainability and disengagement strategies : WASH interventions in vulnerable contexts : Colombia with a focus on insecure contexts, management models, income generation and additional research on disaster risk reduction and gender and equity : fieldwork

The ‘Sustainability and disengagement strategies; WASH in vulnerable contexts’ research is being undertaken by an external consultant with the contributions of a wide range of staff members from within the ACF international network (ACF-IN). It aims to learn from ACF-IN programmes as to current good practice and challenges and to learn from communities and other sector actors from around the world on good practice in relation to achieving sustainability in vulnerable contexts. The main outputs will be a manual and accompanying CD which will be produced near the end of 2007. Colombia is a country in the north of Latin America which has a population of 44.9 million people and ranks 70 out of 177 in the UNDP Human Development Index (reasonably near the top of the Medium Development grouping). Within Colombia there however are large disparities between rich and poor and between urban and rural and approximately 7% of the population are noted to be living on less than 1USD (approx 3.14 Million people, approximately the size of Liberia). The longstanding war in Colombia, which has lasted over 30 years, has made many people vulnerable and continues to do so. In 2000, it was noted that there were 28,780 homicides, 111 massacres, 1,358 forcibly disappeared and 373,020 were internally displaced. The severe complexity of the war is a acknowledged with the various armed groups having different reasons for their part in the conflict, which may include reasons related to the gain of territorial power, political control, control of drugs, offering a different way of life, an opposition to the focus on the urban and neglect of the rural, or in opposition to the violence and the development of a form of self defence. The main armed actors in
Colombia include: the State; the guerrilla soldiers from the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC), and Paramilitaries from the United Self-Defence of Colombia (AUC). [authors abstract]