UNICEF COLOMBIA ANNUAL REPORT 2019

UNICEF Colombia Annual Report 2019

@UNICEFColombia / LaSocial / Cumbal / Nariño / 2019

@UNICEFColombia/ Uribia / LaGuajira / J. Mejía / 2019

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Contents

Message from the Representative . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 UNICEF and its work in Colombia in 2019. . . . . . .6 UNICEF in action in 2019. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Inclusive education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Child survival and development. . . . . . . . 18 Child protection and humanitarian action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Social inclusion and monitoring children’s rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22 Gender equity and the empowerment of girls and adolescents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Gender equity and the empowerment of girls and adolescents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Resource mobilization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Agradecimientos a nuestros donantes y aliados 34

Design: Iván Onatra / Ilustrations: @andres.m.felfle

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Message from the Representative

@UNICEFColombia

On the other hand, the country has made progress in guaranteeing the right to education through transformations in the institutional environment and policies that have substantially raised enrollment and retention rates.

Aida Oliver UNICEF Colombia Representative

2019 marked the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history. In the years since its approval, the CRC has inspired the transformation of laws, policies, and budgets in favor of children and adolescents’ survival, development, protection, and participation. Colombia ratified the CRC in 1991, and since then, it has made significant progress in its implementation and has given its provisions a constitutional status. Nowadays, Colombia has extensive legislative and public policy frameworks to provide comprehensive care to children and adolescents, including during their early years, and different coordination bodies at the national and territorial level to guarantee children’s rights. In these three decades, Colombia has achieved substantial progress across several key indicators: for example, the infant mortality rate, which reflects a wide range of social and economic conditions, fell by almost half, from 27 to 14 deaths of children under one for every thousand live births.

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Similarly, UNICEF has witnessed spectacular milestones in other areas, enabling millions of children and adolescents to increase their survival odds, improve their nutritional status and learn what they need to develop their full potential. Despite these victories, Colombia continues to be one of the most unequal countries in the world and the region, and there are large population groups that have been left behind from economic and social development. Rural populations, indigenous and Afro-descendant communities, and displaced and migrant populations are exposed to poverty, exclusion, and rights violations. Income concentration and the persistence of historical inequality have prevented children’s rights from becoming a reality throughout the national territory.

The Peace Agreement opened a unique window of opportunity to address these structural challenges.

During 2019, Colombia continued to make progress in peacebuilding, despite persistent problems and the emergence of new armed violence dynamics, evidencing the fragile social, economic and security situation in previous conflict-affected areas. Furthermore, Colombia continued to experience the influx of Venezuelan refugees and migrants and remained the

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country with the highest number of Venezuelan migrants, many of whom are children and adolescents.

In this context, UNICEF worked strategically with its partners and allies to implement its cooperation program, while providing a rapid and effective response to crises and emergencies resulting from armed conflict, migratory flows, and natural disasters. During 2019, UNICEF’s cooperation unfolded both at the national level, through technical support, mobilization, and advocacy strategies, and in the regions where children and adolescents suffer the greatest rights violations and exclusion.

At the local level, UNICEF supported governments and local actors to guarantee children’s rights and their equitable access to health services, nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene, education, culture, recreation, protection, and justice, thereby making progress towards the SDGs. As part of its response to the migratory influx, UNICEF worked with IOM and UNHCR in advocacy and technical assistance activities to support the State’s measure to ensure that children born in the country to Venezuelan parents are granted Colombian nationality. This is a critical step to prevent the risk of statelessness.

Likewise, UNICEF implemented comprehensive and complementary actions for migrant families and host communities with its partners and allies, including preventing discrimination and xenophobia. It is important to note that UNICEF’s response to the migration crisis 5

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included rapid humanitarian action interventions aimed at providing life-saving supplies and services, as well as longer-term development initiatives aimed at overcoming structural barriers jeopardizing children’s rights, both in migrant and local communities. UNICEF Colombia’s Annual Report presents our main cooperation activities and results achieved in 2019. We take this opportunity to thank everyone who somehow supported our work and children’s rights in the country.

The national and local governments, international cooperation actors, non-governmental organizations, civil society, the media, the academic sector, donors, and our Goodwill Ambassadors made it possible for us to fulfill our commitments and respond to the challenges faced in 2019. We hope you continue supporting UNICEF to ensure children are acknowledged as critical actors in all territories.

This will help us break the cycle of poverty and eradicate norms and patterns that justify actions contrary to the spirit of the Convention.

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UNICEF and its work in Colombia in 2019 ¿What is UNICEF? The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund was created in 1946 to assist children affected by the Second World War in Europe. Although initially created as a temporary fund, in 1953, its mandate was broadened and became a permanent part of the United Nations. It was renamed that year, although it kept its original acronym. UNICEF currently works in 190 countries around the world. UNICEF is mandated by the United Nations General Assembly to advocate for protecting children’s rights, help meet their basic needs, and expand their opportunities to reach their full potential.

UNICEF began its operations in Colombia in 1950. Since then, it has permanently worked in favor of children and adolescents, influencing public policies and the legal and regulatory framework related to children’s rights. Throughout these seven decades, UNICEF has been widely present across the national territory and has worked closely with the government and many partners to fulfill its missionary mandate.

UNICEF in Colombia UNICEF’s work in Colombia is carried out within the framework of the Basic Cooperation Agreement signed with the national government and through cooperation programs designed with the government and other partners. This is the second to last year of the current cooperation program, which was extended to end in 2020. UNICEF’s work in Colombia focuses on the national level and the territories and aims to ensure that children and adolescents enjoy their rights through equitable access to social services, improve their learning outcomes and enjoy effective protection against violence, thus contributing to peacebuilding and reconciliation. The program promotes a favorable change in children’s environments, ensuring 7

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that their rights are prioritized, and progress is made towards gender equality. From a strategic point of view, the program aims to help strengthen national capacities to fulfill children’s rights in the postconflict scenario, with particular attention to innovative approaches in territories with greater vulnerability, including indigenous and Afrodescendant communities. UNICEF is firmly committed to peacebuilding at the local level, and its actions intend that all children and adolescents across Colombia enjoy the same opportunities. Likewise, the rights of migrant children are a priority for UNICEF in Colombia and over the last year, it has allocated increased efforts and resources to address the migratory crisis from a human rights perspective.

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@UNICEFColombia / LaSocial / Cumbal / Nariño / 2019

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UNICEF and its work in Colombia in 2019 The current cooperation program comprises four program areas: Child Protection, Inclusive Education, Child Survival and Development, and Social Inclusion and Monitoring Child Rights. The program also has a cross-sectoral gender equity component that seeks to address scenarios of inequality or genderbased discrimination against children.

At the local level, UNICEF prioritizes departments where children and adolescents face greater barriers to exercise their rights: Chocó, Cauca, Nariño, Antioquia, Córdoba, Amazonas, Putumayo, La Guajira and Caquetá. The emergency response to the migratory flow has required increased presence in remote and difficult-to-access areas with a history of limited government interventions. UNICEF’s presence on the ground has enabled monitoring project development, maintaining direct communication with the communities, and timely response to emergencies. During 2019, UNICEF intensified its efforts to articulate its work at the national level, focusing on promoting, advocating, and developing policies and programs while strengthening local programming, prioritizing the regions where children and adolescents suffer more significant deprivation and exclusion. This process was essential to ensure that interventions at the national level impacted the conditions of the children in the territories and that learning derived from local programs and projects, in turn, fed 9

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technical assistance, mobilization, and advocacy processes with the national government.

During this second to last year of its cooperation program, UNICEF ensured greater coordination of the humanitarian-development nexus. Through “bridge” initiatives adapted to local contexts and partnership with local and national governments, UNICEF focused on linking emergency interventions with longer-term development work, including integrating the migrant population into host communities.

Inter-institutional coordination was crucial to ensure complementarity in the response and avoid duplication or overlapping of interventions. The following section describes the main results achieved in our main areas of work.

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UNICEF in action in 2019 Inclusive education Education was one of UNICEF’s key intervention areas in 2019. The efforts of this programmatic component were aimed at strengthening the capacities of the Ministry of National Education and territorial authorities to formulate, implement and coordinate equitable policies and budgets. UNICEF’s cooperation also focused on improving access to education and ensuring its relevance for children and adolescents at risk of dropping out of school, and providing better educational opportunities for those who live in areas affected by the conflict, thereby contributing to sustainable peace and effective reconciliation.

UNICEF worked with the Secretaries of Education to implement the Educational Trajectories project in an effort to close the gap between secondary and high school education. This innovative project seeks to increase school access for traditionally excluded populations, preventing school dropout, avoiding repetition, and seeking a better school experience for each child from the time they enter the educational system. During 2019, this project was implemented in 64 schools -40 in rural areas and 24 in urban areas- reaching 9,096 children and adolescents (4,700 boys and 5,596 girls) and 753 teachers in the departments of Chocó, Meta, Guaviare, Antioquia, Córdoba, Cauca and Valle del Cauca. This project made it possible to strengthen the capacities of teachers and school directors to monitor individualized learning and the context of students and improve the quality of their pedagogical interactions. Based on this program’s favorable results, the Ministry of Education included this approach in its national policy.

In addition, UNICEF dedicated significant efforts and resources to guaranteeing the right of migrant children and adolescents 11

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to education. The Country Office continued to provide technical assistance to implement regulations that allow undocumented children of all grades to access and remain in school. Likewise, UNICEF implemented strategies to integrate migrant children into the Colombian educational sector.

An example of these strategies is the Learning Circles model, implemented in partnership with the Ministry of Education and the New School Foundation (Fundación Escuela Nueva). This model allows children lagging in their education (including migrant children) to be integrated into formal education through a transitional learning system and child-friendly spaces.

This model provides guidance on math, language arts, and science according to children’s age and grade and offers individual support to follow up on their transition to formal educational institutions. In 2019, the program reached 1,245 students through 82 Learning Circles in four regions of Colombia.

In 2019, the World Bank supported the expansion of three additional Learning Circles (42 children) in Bogotá by providing pedagogical guidelines and learning materials.

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Educación inclusiva

UNICEF supported education authorities’ response to violence through sustainable prevention strategies and interventions to promote a culture of peace in school settings. In this regard, UNICEF provided technical assistance to the MEN and local education secretariats to promote the Schools in Peace strategy. This strategy creates opportunities for learning and practicing peace in rural and urban schools affected by various types of violence and armed conflict. Through training, support, and the design of school peace initiatives, students, teachers, families, and local authorities develop knowledge, skills, and attitudes for participation, peaceful conflict resolution, the appreciation of differences and the transformation of discriminatory practices at school. The strategy has reached 155 rural schools in 15 municipalities in five departments: Caquetá, Cauca, Córdoba, Chocó and Tumaco. In terms of coverage, the strategy reached 19,324 people (9,855 women), 952 teachers (592 women) and 6,455 families (4,131 women). The Strategy was carried out with the implementing partners Corporación Región, Corporación Opción Legal, Fundación Restrepo Barco and UOAFROC. On the other hand, considering that the evidence suggests that isolated ethnic communities tend to have the lowest quality of educational services, UNICEF made progress in the implementation of its Ethnoeducation Strategy in 2019.

This strategy responds to the educational needs of indigenous

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and Afro-descendant students.

It includes a community-based approach and helps children and adolescents develop the skills to participate in their communities. In 2019, the UNICEF Ethnoeducation Strategy reached a total of 8,157 students (4,141 men and 4,016 women) with training actions and provided pedagogical materials to ethno-pedagogical initiatives; 459 teachers received expert training in reading, writing and gender, as well as training in planning, implementing and evaluating the curriculum with an ethnic focus.

On the other hand, as part of its missionary work to close gender gaps, UNICEF initiated a program to promote girls’ and adolescents’ empowerment, participation, and learning, emphasizing science, technology, and mathematics (STEM). The project prioritized two municipalities with mostly Afro-Colombian rural communities affected by armed violence, socioeconomic vulnerability, structural discrimination, and women’s exclusion. The project improves the capacities of girls and adolescents, teachers, schoolchildren, families, and children who address existing gender inequalities in schools. At the end of the year, 100 girls and adolescents had learned to defend their rights, participate effectively in school settings and generate initiatives to fulfill their aspirations.

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@UNICEFColombia / J.Mejía / Cumbal / Nariño / 2019

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@UNICEFColombia / N.Santander / S.Arcos / 2019

Child survival and development The child health and survival component aims to ensure that children living in mainly indigenous and Afro-descendant rural communities have equal opportunities to health and nutrition and can develop their full potential and live a life free from violence. The actions are carried out in coordination with national and local government authorities and institutions, families, and communities through different integrative strategies, including strengthening the capacities of professionals and community-based education agents, implementing demonstration projects, carrying out advocacy and mobilization, and making significant efforts to produce better information.

During 2019, UNICEF worked to address previously identified bottlenecks and consolidate ongoing processes. These are some of the main results achieved: • UNICEF continued working to address the nutritional problems of children nationwide. During the year, 323 health and nutrition professionals were trained in the guidelines for caring for acutely malnourished children in five departments with the highest malnutrition prevalence. Seven hundred parents and professionals participated in the event “Let’s

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open the lunch box” carried out jointly with RedPapaz and were sensitized about healthy eating for schoolchildren. The second phase of the Healthy Lifestyles strategy began in eight territories and 24 schools, reaching more than 16,020 children. This second phase successfully identified the factors that influence children’s diet, physical activity, and key

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hygiene practices and defined the methodology to identify obesogenic environments. Likewise, progress was made in raising awareness and strengthening capacities for breastfeeding, working with health professionals in 14 cities to promote this practice.

• In water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), UNICEF provided technical assistance to the departmental governments of Chocó, Guaviare, Meta, and La Guajira for the implementation of resolution 884 of 2018 on alternative schemes for the provision of services in water and sanitation. These actions made it possible to directly benefit 1,400 people affected by armed conflict in rural areas. Likewise, UNICEF supported several WASH demonstration projects. In one of these projects, UNICEF improved timely and quality access to water, sanitation, and hygiene services for populations in the Territorial Training and Reincorporation Spaces of Tumaco and Puerto Asís. The project reached 3,987 children and adults and more than 7,000 indirect beneficiaries. On the other hand, within the framework of the Territorial Trust and Peace Program implemented in the departments of Meta, Guaviare, and Chocó, 778 families improved their care and parenting practices, 887 people received extramural medical assistance, and 2,000 people had access to drinking water at home.

In addition, under the new public policy scheme for dispersed rural areas, UNICEF provided filters for water consumption, promoted practices to guarantee safe water transport and storage techniques, 15

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helped build water storage systems and collected rainwater.

• During 2019, UNICEF made progress in implementing comprehensive early childhood care and development strategies in family and community settings.

Families and communities were strengthened in the municipalities of Uribia and Quibdó, through the Caregivers strategy, which helped achieve significant improvements in the health and nutrition status of children and pregnant women.

After almost a year of receiving permanent support during 2019, these 1,180 families from 18 communities in Uribia and 4 in Quibdo experienced changes in childhood care. Regarding the process with adolescents, 20 initiatives were developed to promote adolescent health and the key practices of the Caregivers strategy in the municipalities of Uribía and Quibdó. These initiatives address issues such as learning about the body and caring for it, sexual and reproductive rights, emotions and resilience.

• As part of its support to the peace process, UNICEF worked with UNDP and FAO in the framework of the Trust and Peace Joint Program in the departments of Chocó, Meta and Guaviare to deliver health, water and sanitation services in PDET zones. UNICEF also worked in five ETCRs to consolidate care and parenting practices, in line with the UN Women’s care economy, FARC’s Care and good living strategy, and community care plans.

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Supervivencia y desarrollo infantil

in preparing technical guidelines for the intercultural adaptation of indigenous maternal and perinatal services, in the framework of the different existing guidelines and routes, as in the case of Uribia’s ESE delivery room.

@UNICEFColombia/ N.Santander / Villa del Rosario / J.Mejía / 2019

• In coordination with three UN system agencies and the Ministry of Health, UNICEF made progress in drafting and reviewing the “guidelines for the sociocultural adaptation of maternal and perinatal health services for indigenous peoples”, to be implemented at the territorial level. Likewise, it supported training to 250 midwives from Choco, Guajira and Cesar in the early identification of risks in pregnant women, newborns, referral to the health service, hand washing and nutrition of pregnant women and infants. Sixty professionals from the health teams of Guajira and Cesar were trained to improve their capacities for care during childbirth. UNICEF continued to advance with its partners and allies 16

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• UNICEF Colombia’s actions to address the mixed migratory flow from Venezuela were carried out in six departments requiring integrated local responses to strengthen institutional, family and community capacities and to support access to basic health services, nutrition, early childhood development and WASH, through specific strategies coordinated with national and local governments. Eight health teams were created, reaching 114,894 people; nine child-friendly spaces were organized, benefiting 72,942 children between the ages of 6 and 10; 45,624 adolescents, 27,027 youth, and 93,533 caregivers received information on early childhood development. UNICEF supported water, sanitation, and hygiene initiatives to improve access to safe water and basic sanitation and promote hygiene practices. This included providing support to territorial authorities in the preparation of contingency plans.

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a/ 2020

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Child protection and humanitarian action During 2019, Colombian children and adolescents continued to suffer different types of violence and exploitation. Likewise, other dynamics inherent to the national context, such as the mixed migratory flow and emergencies caused by natural disasters, increased children and adolescents’ vulnerability to sexual violence, recruitment, and displacement.

UNICEF’s child protection and humanitarian action component continued working to prevent and protect children and adolescents from different forms of violence, strengthen the capacities of various actors to create and maintain protective environments, and ensure the protection of migrant children.

The roll-out of the National Alliance Against Child Violence was an important event this year. This high-level commitment represented a significant step towards a culture of zero tolerance of violence against children and will be essential for strengthening intersectoral coordination and expanding prevention and response programs to reduce violence against children. In close collaboration with a wide range of public institutions, UN agencies and civil society organizations, UNICEF Colombia mobilized and facilitated intersectoral alliances and coordination mechanisms, both at the national and local levels, to prevent and respond to violence against children, including genderbased violence (GBV). In addition, UNICEF helped build awareness and public officials’ capacities to prevent and respond to gender-based violence against children, especially in the context of migratory flows.

In collaboration with international experts, universities, the Attorney General’s Office, the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the judiciary, ICBF, UN agencies and the NGO Renacer, UNICEF contributed to the training of more than 1,000 public servants on gender and children’s rights, human trafficking, sexual 19

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exploitation and the protection of children on the move. Together with UNHCR and PANDI, 153 journalists were trained on migration, children’s rights and non-discrimination.

Together with public and private counterparts, UNICEF contributed to the prevention of violence against children and adolescents in prioritized highrisk areas and communities, who are exposed to armed violence and presence of antipersonnel mines, unexploded ordnance, and improvised explosive devices (APM/UXO/IED) and face increased risks of recruitment by armed groups and sexual trafficking and exploitation. In 2019, UNICEF and its partners trained 164 community leaders and teachers in mine risk education, who in turn promoted safe behaviors, reaching 72,569 people, including 33,841 children, in these high-risk communities. In 2019, UNICEF Colombia provided technical assistance and advocacy to key government partners and cooperation agencies to help formulate the new national policy on preventing new forms of organized violence and armed groups’ use and recruitment of children. Additionally, 6,553 children and adolescents, 493 parents and caregivers

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@UNICEFColombia / N.Santander / Punto Caminantes / S.Arcos / 2019

and 474 teachers participated in activities to prevent child recruitment as part of a binational Protective Communities project jointly implemented by UNICEF, UNHCR and UN Women along the Ecuador border. In 2019, UNICEF Colombia continued implementing the We are Peace peacebuilding strategy. Approximately 13,500 children and adolescents from seven departments (Antioquia, Cauca, Putumayo, Córdoba, Chocó, Caquetá and Nariño) participated in the process, developing and leading initiatives to promote peace and reconciliation in their communities.

As a result, families, communities, and local institutions strengthened their capacities to mitigate the risks of violence and the recruitment of children in rural and remote areas affected by armed conflict.

The strategy was successfully transferred to three civil society organizations on the field level and 24 municipalities to ensure the sustainability of initiatives led by children and adolescents.

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UNICEF Colombia also helped place children and adolescents’ trafficking and sexual exploitation on the public agenda. UNICEF Colombia provided technical and financial assistance to the Public Hearings of the Office of the Attorney General to make this issue visible, facilitate dialogue, promote public policies, and generate support networks and co-responsibility.

UNICEF Colombia continued providing technical and financial support to the #EsoEsCuento Campaign, which aims to prevent human trafficking and child sexual exploitation. Together with the Prosecutor’s Office’s Future Colombia program and UNICEF’s goodwill ambassadors, awareness events were held in seven schools in Riohacha, Cali, Bogotá, Pasto, Cúcuta, Barranquilla, and Cartagena.

These events and the campaign were widely shared on social networks and mass media, reaching 11,932,941 people. Likewise, UNICEF continued its work with the Global Action to Prevent and Address Trafficking in Persons (Glo.

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Child protection and humanitarian action ACT), emphasizing prevention and response to trafficking in persons and the sexual exploitation of children in the Amazon triple border region. (Colombia-Brazil-Peru), including indigenous communities.

The project, which was initially considered a local initiative, became a national priority for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was supported

by ICBF through a prevention project in the same region.

UNICEF’s response is specific and addresses the local and migrant population’s needs. Considering migrant children’s and adolescents’ risks of forced recruitment, UNICEF Colombia also launched the ‘I care for myself and others’ strategy.

This strategy includes recruitment prevention and mine risk education for children, adolescents, and migrant families. More than 180,000 children and adolescents benefited from programs to prevent and address violence, abuse, and exploitation. To address the migrant population’s vulnerability to gender-based violence and human trafficking, UNICEF partnered with local governments to strengthen partners’ capacities for implementing the IASC guidelines on the minimum standards of gender-based violence against women in the departments of Norte de Santander, La Guajira and Atlántico. Through an alliance with a university in La Guajira and a local foundation, UNICEF strengthened the capacities of 45 front-line local workers in preventing and responding to children and adolescents’ sexual exploitation.

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On the other hand, UNICEF continued supporting the implementation of the Peace Process in Colombia. UNICEF supported children’s and adolescents’ reintegration and provided technical assistance to the Comprehensive System of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Non-Repetition to promote child participation and include an approach that considers children’s rights in the system’s procedures and actions. Interview guides and protocols were developed to receive testimonies from children, and they were delivered to the Truth Commission as part of primary information for its final report.

Dialogues were promoted between commissioners, civil society, the academic world, government authorities, and child victims of the armed conflict to understand its impact on children and identify recommendations to prevent their recurrence. More than 200 Special Jurisdiction for Peace officials received training on children’s rights and protection standards.

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Social inclusion and monitoring children’s rights This programmatic component helps strengthen national and territorial public management to ensure that policy and budget decisions consider children’s rights. In this sense, UNICEF works so that the social protection system is sensitive to the needs of children and adolescents, and public policies are focused on guaranteeing rights and promoting children’s effective participation.

Taking into account Colombia’s advanced decentralization and considering that local elections took place during 2019, UNICEF worked in alliance with the Attorney General’s Office and the ICBF to strengthen the capacities of current and new local governments, by improving children’s rights accountability mechanisms. This initiative also focused on promoting transparency and discipline in disclosing and defending public results for children and adolescents, as well as monitoring and evaluating their rights and the specific investments allocated to these population groups in their jurisdictions. In the framework of this initiative, UNICEF provided support to the four phases of the process: increasing awareness and preparing territorial teams; generating and analyzing information; supporting dialogues with community members, children and adolescents, and holding public hearings; and preparing management reports and improvement plans referring to the 54 indicators prioritized by the nation to monitor children’s rights in 8 departments, involving 281 of its municipalities. UNICEF was also asked to provide technical inputs to the national child-centered accountability guidelines used by the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation to assess local

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authorities’ compliance with child rights indicators.

In association with the Directorate of the National Family Welfare System (SNBF) of the Colombian Family Welfare Institute (ICBF), UNICEF implemented the first version of the Child-Friendly Territories Strategy, with the purpose of strengthening the capacities of national public institutions and premises to improve planning, implementation, followup, and evaluation of interventions in favor of children’s rights.

UNICEF Colombia made significant contributions at the local and national levels: at the local level, by directly supporting 15 territorial governments of the 43 entities invited, in the identification and self-evaluation of local priorities and replicable good practices; and by providing technical assistance to its Social Policy Councils, Children and Adolescents and Participation Working Groups. This made it possible to stimulate or reactivate the Children and Adolescents’ Participation Working Groups in 42 territories (25 municipalities and 16 Departments).

These actions indirectly benefited more than 4 million children and adolescents living in these territories. At the national level, UNICEF helped strengthen articulation and coordination

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@UNICEFColombia / N.Santander / Villa del Rosario / S.Arcos / 2019

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Social inclusion and monitoring children’s rights between more than 20 central government and civil society organizations and supported efforts to develop tools, methodologies and technical contents to manage the Strategy. It also played a key role in supporting dissemination and technical assistance processes and evaluating the 2019 version, as well as engaging the country in the Child-Friendly Cities initiative.

UNICEF’s work helped reinforce mechanisms and strategies for children’s and adolescents’ participation in the context of public social policies and helped ensure that their ideas and interests were considered in the communities’ public affairs. As a result, more than 1,500 children and adolescents shared their opinions regarding their needs and proposals to address problems in their territories.

Considering this, UNICEF Colombia technically assisted the national government in updating participatory methodologies with children and adolescents to prepare the guidelines and the toolbox for the Third Territorial Public Accountability Event on Children and promoting their participation as agents of change. UNICEF also supported training on these methodologies for work teams in eight departments and 280 municipalities. At the territorial level, in the context of public accountability, UNICEF Colombia technically guided the implementation of participatory exercises with children and adolescents in five territories: Inzá, Páez, Barranquilla, Turbana and Quibdó. This helped make progress in inter-institutional dialogues to establish training processes for 25

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children’s public participation, in an effort to expand the territorial teams’ management capacities.

For UNICEF, evaluations are powerful and credible tools that play a critical role in creating empirical knowledge that can drive change and influence national or sub-national policies, strategies and programs. During 2019, UNICEF Colombia worked with the Administrative Department of Social Prosperity to design, implement and use a formative evaluation of the conditional cash transfers programmatic component and its relation to children and adolescents with disabilities. The evaluation focused on effectiveness and relevance criteria and the successful inclusion of a gender and equity approach. The results helped adjust the child disability component of the national conditional cash transfer program, both conceptually and operationally. On the other hand, UNICEF and the Social Prosperity Department (DPS) funded and implemented the evaluation of the Families in Action program (Familias en Acción), particularly regarding its contribution to the inclusion of children with disabilities. The results and recommendations of the evaluation have influenced the program’s redesign.

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@UNICEFColombia / J.Mejía / Cumbal / Nariño / 2019

Gender equity and the empowerment of girls and adolescents Gender equity and girls’ empowerment is one of UNICEF’s primary objectives and is implicitly contained in all activities carried out as part of its cooperation program in Colombia. During 2019 UNICEF continued working with its partners and allies, including children and adolescents, strengthening their capacities to build a more equal country for all.

• During 2019, UNICEF intensified its efforts to address child marriage and early unions. In collaboration with UN Women and UNFPA, a study was conducted to examine the determinants and effects of early and forced marriage and unions, and the most effective mechanisms to eradicate these practices. This analysis is an essential tool to understand the trends and magnitude of this problem in Colombia and was shared with the members of the 26

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National Board on Child Marriage and Early Unions comprising government entities, civil society, and UN agencies among others.

A bill seeking to eliminate all exceptions for underage marriage is being discussed.

• The Schools in Peace strategy described above has a strong gender equity component. This strategy focuses on promoting girls’ and adolescents’ participation and leadership in school initiatives,

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and strengthening pedagogical practices through teacher training and the application of classroom methodologies on coexistence, peace, citizenship, and gender. As a result of efforts in the context of this strategy, schools adopted alternative methods for peaceful conflict resolution, strengthened their coexistence committees and developed initiatives to transform gender roles.

• UNICEF also focuses on promoting gender equality during the early stages of the lives of girls and their families. The Caregivers Strategy seeks changes at the family and community levels in parenting practices and childcare during the early years.

During 2019, UNICEF Colombia made progress in its work in the communities of Uribia and Quibdó and included a greater emphasis on violence prevention. UNICEF and its implementing partners’ technical assistance to families and communities enabled strengthening families’ care and parenting practices and promoted men’s involvement in parenting and caring for children under 5.

• In the context of its work in ethnoeducation, UNICEF continued supporting gender equity through flexible education models with a gender-based approach adapted to communities’ cultural conditions.

UNICEF’s efforts in this area include training students on issues related to citizenship, peacebuilding, discriminatory practices, gender roles and participation, as well as the design and implementation of ethno-pedagogical initiatives that respond to students’ interests and needs.

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• Gender equity is one of the crosscutting approaches of the We are Peace strategy previously described.

The strategy empowers children and adolescents in conflict-affected areas to develop and lead local peacebuilding and reconciliation initiatives. Three in ten of these initiatives were led by girls and included a gender-based approach.

For example, adolescent groups were created to promote social awareness against gender violence or women’s participation. The We are Peace strategy was also adapted and implemented in the context of migratory flow in regions particularly affected by migration and armed conflict. The model includes the promotion of community initiatives led by girls and adolescents to promote gender equality and non-discrimination. Women’s participation in peacebuilding processes at the local and community level was also strongly promoted and supported.

• UNICEF Colombia also contributed to raising awareness and developing the capacities of public officials in preventing and responding to gender-based violence against children, especially in the context of migratory flows. Public servants and journalists were trained on gender and children’s rights, human trafficking, sexual exploitation and protection and migrant adolescents.

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Adolescents’ rights The adolescent years offer a privileged opportunity to build human and social capital since fundamental capacities for life and peaceful coexistence develop during these years.

Throughout 2019, UNICEF maintained a firm commitment to the rights of adolescents in Colombia and continued to support initiatives to guarantee their rights to health, education, participation and protection against all forms of violence and exploitation.

The promotion and protection of the rights of adolescents are included as a cross-cutting component in different UNICEFsupported activities across the country. During 2019, emphasis was placed on supporting adolescents’ permanence in school, protecting them from violence and exploitation, offering them opportunities for meaningful participation, and ensuring their good health and nutrition.

In adolescents’ right to education, UNICEF sought to protect the continuity of the school process, namely quality of education and school permanence, as well as supporting adolescents’ sociooccupational skills and access to information on local academic and work opportunities. UNICEF continued supporting the Educational Trajectories program, which addresses factors affecting school retention, such as motivation, participation, individual monitoring of student performance and wellbeing, pedagogical quality, and recognition of achievements.

The program also aims to ensure closer coordination between schools, university education and the productive sector in an effort to improve adolescents’ socioemotional and employment skills.

During 2019, UNICEF partnered

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with Millicom-Tigo (mobile phone/ internet provider) and implemented School of Influencers, an innovative initiative to protect adolescents and promote the safe, responsible, and creative use of the Internet.

The strategy involved 10-19-year-old children and adolescents to develop skills for proper Internet use.

Through the Cyber-Conscious Peer Network, children exchange online information on critical thinking, decision-making, conflict resolution, innovation, and risk prevention, including cyberbullying and sexual harassment. The UNICEF ColombiaTigo joint strategy is based on a ‘learning by doing’ methodology and a set of tools for safe Internet use.

An important aspect of this strategy was adolescents’ empowerment as they worked alongside their peers in a training-of-trainers approach focusing on leadership skills. Adolescents also developed materials for a content platform to interact with their peers regarding safe Internet use and leadership.

This initiative reached 4,436 adolescents (52% girls and 48% boys) in 2019.

On the other hand, during 2019, UNICEF Colombia strengthened its efforts to ensure the sustainability of actions carried out with entities of the National System for Comprehensive Victim Support

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@UNICEFColombia/ Uribia / LaGUajira / J. Mejía / 2019

and Reparation, to support the reintegration of children and adolescents demobilized from FARC-EP and provide assistance to mine accident victims. During the year, UNICEF concluded its technical, financial, and operational support to the ‘A Different Life Path’ reincorporation program for adolescents demobilized from FARC-EP. Many of these adolescents attained their majority and transferred to the adult program. Therefore, to support this transition, UNICEF provided technical assistance to the Agency for Reincorporation and Standardization (ARN) to develop a model with strong youth and gender approaches to be included in the adult reintegration program, in an effort to ensure it responds to the specific needs of this population, particularly in terms of psychosocial support. Finally, UNICEF Colombia, together with the Ombudsperson’s Office, carried out a study to understand the dynamics of being an adolescent woman in the context of the reintegration process. This research highlighted the voices of

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girls demobilized from FARC-EP and provided gender-sensitive inputs and lessons learned for adolescent reintegration programs.

UNICEF’s response to the migratory flow included interventions in health, nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene, education, participation, and protection. All these interventions include a differential approach that aims to respond to the needs of children and adolescents according to their life cycle stage and specific context.

In this sense, UNICEF supported actions to address issues related to menstrual hygiene, gender violence, adolescent pregnancy and child marriage, as well as the forced recruitment of migrant children and adolescents.

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Communication

@UNICEFColombia

During 2019, UNICEF strengthened its collaboration with a wide range of stakeholders and partners, continued strengthening journalists’ capacities, and expanded its base of committed collaborators, offering them meaningful ways to engage in favour of children’s rights.

During the year, UNICEF Colombia worked in the context of its updated communications strategy for 20192021, which aims to increase the visibility of the most marginalized and excluded children’s rights and ensure they are included in the social and political agenda. The strategy also aims to strengthen UNICEF’s position in Colombia to support its advocacy and fundraising efforts. UNICEF’s updated global communication and advocacy strategy for 2019-2020 featured critical strategic changes. One of these changes consists in transitioning from advocating for children’s rights to empowering others to advocate for children’s rights.

In line with this, UNICEF Colombia conducted workshops on children’s rights and xenophobia with 153 journalists from 27 of the 32 Colombian departments. 1,407

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news items were analyzed after the workshops; 10% mentioned a specific law or treaty and 25% presented a child rights context.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child was featured in 33.3% of the news; the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees in 66.6% and the Declaration of Human Rights in 45.4%.

Media partnerships are crucial to expand UNICEF’s reach, and they are equally important in engaging people to take action for children. In this sense, in 2019, an initiative was carried out with ‘Shock’ (a digital magazine for adolescents, part of Caracol Group) to support mine risk education and the schools in peace strategy in two territories. The objective of the association with Shock is to raise awareness and empower youth and adolescents to advocate for children’s rights, which will help UNICEF’s brand reach and

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@UNICEFColombia / N.Santander / S.Arcos / 2019

positioning in 2020. Furthermore, this alliance and others with Caracol Televisión, Señal Colombia (National public channel), and Semana magazine enabled UNICEF Colombia’s communications area to support programming messages, strengthen relationships with the media, and expand their knowledge of children’s rights.

UNICEF Colombia achieved the proposed communication objectives, with more than 500 million positive views of messages in traditional and digital media advocating for the rights of children and supported programme strategies with its primary audiences while maintaining neutrality. The 2019 communications results reaffirm that communication and advocacy are essential elements to achieve programmatic goals, fundraising, and partnerships for UNICEF.

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Seven UNICEF National Goodwill Ambassadors in Colombia participated in sharing messages to prevent human trafficking in prioritized Colombian regions in the framework of the migratory flow from Venezuela. This initiative reached 1,000 children directly and 11 million people through media interviews. It is another example that illustrates the changes to UNICEF Colombia’s strategy.

Together with its partners and young people, UNICEF Colombia created communication initiatives to support Our UNICEF. It also worked with UNCHR to design a campaign against xenophobia, Super Panas, which received 5.8 million visits in digital media and reached 4,000 children through an association with Colombian Scouts. Together with UNHCR and IOM and in coordination with the Presidency of the Republic and Migracion Colombia, UNICEF

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Communication

Colombia launched the ‘Children First’ campaign on national radio and Bogotá’s public transport system. This campaign aimed to disseminate essential information on the measures adopted by the Colombian government against statelessness for children born in Colombia to Venezuelan parents.

UNICEF Colombia, UNHCR, and the National Public Channel pre-launched the television series Friends without Borders, which tells stories of friendship between Venezuelan and Colombian children that explained how they met and show how friendship transcends borders.

The celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child included an external campaign to remind the audience about the children’s rights and share inspiring stories about their importance. As a result, it reached nearly 25 million positive views on traditional and digital media. Moreover, UNICEF Colombia, together with allies and partners, advocated for the publication of a special edition of Semana, the most important magazine in Colombia.

This special edition was dedicated to children’s rights and reached 1.2 million subscribers.

and solutions. Thus, C4D establishes direct dialogues with communities to share ideas and knowledge, using various communication tools and approaches that allow people and communities to become agents of change and transformation in their lives.

The C4D strategies implemented

by UNICEF Colombia go hand in hand with specific protection, health, education, or water and sanitation projects and provide more sustainable results by involving communities as the primary stakeholders responsible for social changes and transformations.

Using the C4D approach, UNICEF Colombia supports the humanitarian response to the Mixed Migratory Flow from Venezuela, providing information required by migrant families through available and reliable communication channels. C4D helps promote community integration and prevent xenophobia. C4D is useful for designing activities that foster integration through art and music with community leaders, migrant and host youth and the community in general.

Through a Communication for Development approach (C4D), UNICEF seeks to understand and transform the beliefs and social norms that negatively affect the lives of children and adolescents.

For this, it identifies the individual and collective causes behind harmful practices and works directly with the communities to find alternatives 33

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Resource mobilization

@UNICEFColombia / N.Santander / Cúcuta / S.Arcos / 2019

2019 was a very positive year for UNICEF in Colombia, as private sector fundraising dynamics evidenced Colombian’s firm and sustained commitment to children’s and adolescents’ rights.

Total income from the private sector fundraising operation amounted to $28.4 million, a 34% increase from the previous year. This was possible thanks to a successful strategy based on donors’ commitment and requiring new and strengthened alliances, events, and legacies.

In 2019, UNICEF gained new donors who made generous contributions, demonstrating their trust and support to the organization and its mission. At the end of the year, UNICEF had 65,655 Friends of Children and Adolescents, who allowed the organization to implement its cooperation program in favor of children’s rights and address emerging problems associated with violence and migration.

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75% of the resources were used to fund the programs and projects described throughout this report, and 25%P were reinvested to continue fundraising for the private sector.

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Private Sector Commitment In 2019, UNICEF established a close working relationship with TIGO in 2019.

This is considered a vital result of the Corporate Social Responsibility line of action during the year. It led to the collaborative design of an intervention to harness the power of technology and digital communications to help protect adolescents online.

The following organizations helped us promote children’s rights in the corporate context during 2019: Superintendency of Industry and Commerce • Mc Kinsey & Co • ACRIP • Great Place to Work • AEQUALES • RS Center

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MANY THANKS TO OUR FRIEND COMPANIES!

WE ARE ALL RUNNERS

Through their work, these organizations strengthened our firm belief in the power of alliances:

A shout out to the 6,000 runners who participated in the eleventh version of the UNICEF 10K race and to our sponsors

Banco de Bogotá • Supermercados Olímpica • Unión de Colegios Bilingües de Bogotá (UCB) • Baby Fresh • TIGO • Expreso Brasilia • Caracol TV • Banco Popular • Banco de Occidente • UPS • Claro • Finsocial

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Liberty Seguros • El Tiempo • Banco de Bogotá • IShop • Baby Fresh • Garmin • Colombina • Banana Boat • Spinning Center • Redeban • Manitoba

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Thanks to our donors and allies From 1950 to date, UNICEF’s work in Colombia has been possible thanks to an evergrowing group of partners, donors and allies who share our firm commitment to children’s rights and our conviction that every life that begins is a new opportunity for peace and development.

We want to express our appreciation to each of our partners, donors and allies for their commitment and generosity and their quick response to the difficult events we faced during 2019.

We thank all our operating partners, civil society members and the academic sector who have supported us, as well as the Colombian government, private companies and individual donors, the United Nations System and donor countries, communication media and social media followers.

We also wish to embrace and highlight the work carried out by our UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors in Colombia. Even though they have many talents and are very successful across a wide range of areas such as music, art, sports, and acting, they all share their commitment to improving children and adolescents’ lives in Colombia.

Our Goodwill Ambassadors have played an influential role, calling attention to children and their rights, and accompanying UNICEF in its work, including visiting field projects and emergency programs.

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We are grateful to TBWA, the strategic and creative agency that for several years has provided creative work that UNICEF requires for various campaigns.

We also wish to thank Publik and the Social Responsibility area of Caracol Televisión, as during 2019 they continued to spread the voice of Colombian children and adolescents.

Many thanks to NetBangers digital agency for its pro bono work handling different digital issues in social media for UNICEF. We wish to publicly acknowledge the great support we received from: UNICEF’s US National Committee (UNICEF USA), USAID, The United States of America Government, UNICEF’s German National Committee, the MDTF, UNODC, the Government of Colombia, UNICEF’s Iceland National Committee and the European Commission (EC).

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