Jaquelin is a defender of human, territorial and environmental rights in the Colombian Guajira region. She has been displaced from her community for several years after having received death threats for denouncing mining companies that have contaminated her land and the violence of the armed actors who control the region. Photo: Pablo Tosco/Oxfam
Colombia ranks 2nd in Latin America for economic inequality. It also faces significant gender inequality and wide gaps between urban and rural zones.
The implementation of the Peace Accord with the FARC-EP is one of the biggest challenges to be addressed in the country: guaranteeing access to justice for victims and creating social and economic conditions to break the historical cycle which perpetuates inequality, violence, internal displacement and conflict.
Recently, migration from Venezuela has deepened the national crisis due to the lack of a clear response or assistance from the Colombian government. In this context, non-governmental organizations and Colombian civil society have taken on the challenge of responding to the situation.
Oxfam in Colombia
For Oxfam Colombia, women are at the core of our work. We are committed to working with victims of the armed conflict, and with women from working class and diverse backgrounds, including rural, urban and migrant populations – particularly with indigenous, afro-descendent, smallholder farming, and youth populations.
We work with grassroots organizations with a focus on human rights and gender justice, who work tirelessly to exercise their full citizenship. Working together with these groups, we promote an influencing agenda that seeks to transform popular consciousness and to consolidate effective public policy to combat the various inequalities that affect Colombia.
We contribute to a more equal and socially just Colombia, strengthening both peacebuilding in peripheral regions of the country, and the participation of women and of women’s organizations in democratic spaces, to promote the rights of victims of the conflict, both urban and rural, and migrants.
We have the following objectives:
Empower women in the exercise of their active citizenship to demand their right to peace, justice, and a life free of violence.
Influence and advocacy in decision-making spaces to reduce inequalities, promote inclusive and sustainable development processes, and guarantee of human rights and peacebuilding.
Capacity building with stakeholders responsible for risk management and humanitarian assistance to consolidate practices with positive impacts on the wellbeing of the communities.
Our approach
Oxfam Colombia’s work is guided by 5 key focusses, which, through a practice of active citizenship, seek to ensure that most marginalized and excluded groups and communities can access power and resources, along with the guarantee of their rights and an effective reduction of the vulnerabilities they face. This approach also allows us to campaign at a national and international level to transform elements of public policy that promote and perpetuate injustice and inequalities.
- Equality
- Human Rights
- Gender and Transformative Leadership of Women
- Intersectional & Differential approach
- Knowledge Management
