01/30/2008

Colombia’s second-largest city, Medellín, is also home to at least 110,000 displaced people. In recent years, it has been looked to as a model of how to address the needs of displaced communities. Despite the creation of innovative systems by the local government, many of the displaced still report difficulty in accessing services. The fact that the metropolitan area is also divided between multiple municipalities also means that only residents of Medellín properly benefit from these progressive policies; residents of other municipalities, such as Bello, suffer from inattentive bureaucracies and mismanagement.

• Medellín is using an integrated and publicly accessible model for working with IDPs. The local UAO (Unidad de Atención y Orentación, or Center for Attention and Orientation), which is responsible for registering displaced people and connecting them with service providers, has representatives from a wide range of municipal and federal agencies on the premises, and conducts both orientations for the displaced as well as individual case interviews. They are then matched directly with relevant service providers during their first visit. The UAO also has mobile teams that go into the community to register individuals who would otherwise not visit the UAO’s headquarter facilities. This model should be replicated throughout Colombia, and immediately expanded to other municipalities in the metropolitan area of Medellín.
  
  Medellín has dedicated significant municipal budget resources to addressing IDP needs. At the time of Refugees International’s visit, the Municipal Council had just approved a comprehensive policy document outlining strategies on prevention of displacement and protection and assistance for displaced people.
  
  
• IDP leaders in Medellín feel isolated from governmental structures, and need support in developing organizational capacity. Though the official committee to develop Single Integrated Plans include IDP leaders, a growing number are resigning or distancing themselves from the process, feeling that they are just rubber stamps. The Municipal IDP Committees, which are representative community-based organizations, receive scant funding or technical support in their attempts to document the needs of their communities.
  
  IDP leaders have also received multiple death threats. New illegal armed groups have increased their presence in neighborhoods where the displaced congregate, aiming at social control through extortion and intimidation. Police presence is minimal and greater insecurity and targeting of IDP leadership have led to a sharp rise in secondary displacement within the city.



• Conditions in IDP communities are poor. Many IDP communities are marginalized at the fringes of the urban area, and live in precarious hillside shacks that are prone to mudslides. While some basic services reach these communities, such as electricity, education, and informal transportation, housing is still inadequate, and often lacks running water and sanitation. Alarmingly, conditions are only marginally better than those found in IDP communities in areas without resources, such as in Quibdó, Chocó.



• Corruption and mismanagement mar the provision of services to the displaced. Refugees International received constant complaints from displaced people that services such as job training and the provision of emergency services were poorly implemented. IDP leaders are able to identify multiple contractors, funded by both Acción Social and USAID contractors, that have misappropriated or otherwise abused resources destined for displaced people based on community surveys. Medellín’s Inspector General was often aware of these claims, and has subpoenaed information from local contractors on multiple occasions. Despite the seriousness of these problems, neither Acción Social or USAID’s local implementing partner had yet taken disciplinary measures at the time of RI’s visit.