Despite the signing of the historic peace agreement with the FARC guerrilla group in November 2016, which ended over 50 years of internal conflict, Colombia continues to face complex challenges. Remaining armed criminal groups compete for control of territories where the FARC left power vacuums and Government of Colombia (GOC) agencies have yet to fully establish their presence. Upsurges in coca cultivation and the Venezuelan migration crisis have impacted Colombians and sparked international concern.

From 2015 to 2019, MSI, A Tetra Tech Company, supported Colombians and their government during the first phase of peace agreement implementation, demonstrating rapid progress during this critical time. Our Transforma program, implemented on behalf of USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives (USAID/OTI), awarded over 650 small grants activities reaching over 600,000 beneficiaries in 26 departments across Colombia.

Due to the success of Transforma’s first phase, we implemented a second phase of the program from 2019 to 2021 that worked with the GOC and citizens in strategic territories and USAID to help ensure the irreversibility of the gains made towards the implementation of the peace process. As part of the second phase, the program has awarded an additional 550 small grant activities with approximately 700,000 beneficiaries.

MSI and USAID/OTI kicked off the third phase of the Transforma program in late 2021 (November). This phase of the program will address emerging challenges to ongoing peace accord implementation, while also increase coordination between GOC and community leaders to implement strategic components of the peace accords in critical geographies of Colombia.

Program activities have included and will continue to support key Colombian actors, such as the Truth Commission, the High Council for Stabilization, and community organizations and municipal governments to advance key components of the peace agreement.

The program will continue to support information campaigns on peace progress, critical small infrastructure in conflict-impacted communities to provide essential services and bring stakeholders together (such as schools, health clinics, and community centers), and local and regional development planning using roundtables to incorporate peace priorities. We will also provide strategic technical support to public agencies aat the local, regional and national levels.

Transforma will work quickly and flexibly to establish linkages that build peace with GOC and community representatives through iterative and collaborative design and implementation.

MSI, and its parent company, Tetra Tech, have been strong development partners of Colombia for many years. Through a series of impactful projects focused on strengthening monitoring and evaluation capacities, local governance and building citizen participation, we used innovative and inclusive approaches with its Colombian partners to support the transition from conflict to peace in Colombia since 2007.