Investigation Project

paz alto cauca

What is Paz Alto Cauca?

Paz Alto Cauca is an innovative research project that started out with the aim to understand the process of state building while strengthening community capacities for territorial planning in the context of the implementation of the 2016 Peace Agreement.

The project is connected to social organization processes of Afro–descendant, indigenous, and mestizo peasant communities in the northern Cauca region, is based on political science, pedagogy and human geography and proposes a set of complementary methodologies for participatory research.

DIPLOMA COURSE ON PEACE AND TERRITORIAL PLANNING IN THE UPPER CAUCA REGION

Innovation, research and intervention in inter-ethnic communities in the department of Cauca.

About the diploma course

Closing video

We invite you to watch the closing video of the Paz Alto Cauca research project. This final documentary summarizes our achievements, challenges overcome and the positive impact generated in the region. Join us in this visual journey that celebrates the commitment and resilience of the communities of Alto Cauca.

Watch closing video

“Promoting peace and sustainable development in the territories of Cauca.”

Trocha de Paz Project

Trocha de Paz is a project where academia and civil society join forces to make visible, analyze and make possible the construction of peace in Colombia. We seek to foster connections, visualizations and reflections between academics, communities, entrepreneurs, activists and public institutions at local, national and international levels.

PAZ ALTO CAUCA

In the upper Cauca region, located south of the department of Valle del Cauca in the northern part of the department of Cauca, the social and political transition process after the signing of the Peace Agreement presents enormous complexities given (i) the regional physical and economic geography (including coca and marijuana plantations and illegal gold mining); (ii) the dispersion of institutional actions across different agencies, programs, and territorial planning instruments; and (iii) the so-called intercultural conflicts between Afro-descendant, indigenous, and mestizo peasant communities.

The PAZ ALTO CAUCA project aimed at understanding state-building and strengthening community capacities for territorial planning in the context of the implementation of the Peace Agreement in three prioritized municipalities: Corinto, Miranda, and Buenos Aires. Academically, the project is situated in an innovative articulation between political science, critical pedagogy, and human geography, proposing a set of complementary methodologies for participatory research.

From its intervention component, the project is linked to the social organization processes of Afro-descendant and mestizo peasant communities, developing various methodologies, including a diploma course as a strategy for community training and (re)creation of bonds of trust between the government and the citizenry, and the production of a series of videos co-produced with members of the various communities.

The PAZ ALTO CAUCA project, and the diploma course ‘Peace and Territorial Planning in the Upper Cauca’ as part of it, were developed and executed by the Universidad del Valle in association with Loughborough University (UK) and were supported by the Newton Found (UK) and Colciencias (Colombia).

DIPLOMA COURSE ON PEACE AND TERRITORIAL PLANNING IN THE UPPER CAUCA REGION

On Saturday 21 September 2019, the Diploma Course ‘Peace and Territorial Planning in the Upper Cauca’, presented by the University of Valle in association with Loughborough University (UK), was completed. The course was aimed at 90 members of various social organisations of the priority municipalities of the PAZ ALTO CAUCA project: Miranda, Corinto and Buenos Aires, under aquota designation based on criteria of gender representation, inter–ethnicity and inclusion of ex–combatants.

The main objective of the course was to strengthen capacities for territorial planning with a local approach and the (re)construction of bonds of trust between communities, and to strengthen knowledge of governmental and state institutions in three zones.