The National Victims Board will meet in Cali until March 25

The delegates' agenda will address issues such as the socialization of their work plan for this year and the presentation of the event for the commemoration of Victims Day, on April 9

From Wednesday, March 23 to Friday 25, at the Garden Inn Hotel in Cali, the National Participation Table of the Victims Unit will be held, whose 59 members represent the 9.2 million victims of the conflict in the country.

During the three days, the Bureau's work agenda will focus on the elaboration of a document that demonstrates the design, implementation and monitoring of victims' public policies during the period 2018-2022. In the same way, topics such as the socialization of its work plan for this year will be addressed, as well as the presentation and approval of the event for the commemoration of April 9, Victims Day.

Ramón Rodríguez Andrade, director of the Victims Unit, stressed that during these days of the plenary session representatives of this population at the national level will have space to work in a particular way with the victims' tables of Cali and Valle del Cauca to review some of the problems that arise in this territory national.

“This session begins a cycle of preparatory dialogues to build the balance sheet for the period 2018-2022, its visibility, impact and preparation in the transition of government and the approach and coordination with the new legislature,” added the director.

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At the opening of the event held at 8am this Wednesday morning, Aura Helena Acevedo, director of Territorial Management of the Unit, recalled the “permanent commitment to those affected by the conflict and the need to consolidate results to ensure the restoration of the rights of that population. We are going to strengthen the territories, the departmental tables and their work plans,” he noted.

According to information from the Victims Unit, since 2012 and cut to January 31, 2022, the entity has placed 9,930,569 transfers of humanitarian assistance to homes victims of forced displacement, with an investment of more than 6 billion pesos.

While in humanitarian aid, I have made a total of 52,584 transfers, thus representing an investment of more than 65 billion pesos. With regard to individual reparation, as part of administrative compensation for victims, 1,265,783 drafts for more than 8 billion pesos have been carried out to date, benefiting 1,198,535 people.

The Roundtables for the Effective Participation of Victims are part of the spaces that the Colombian State offers to the population affected by armed conflict to ensure impact on policies that affect them.

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They are also the institutional spaces for the representation of the population for dialogue with the State, at all territorial levels (municipal, departmental, district and national), and their purpose is the impact on the construction, execution and control of public policies for victims.

According to Eucaris Salas, coordinator of the Executive Committee of the National Board, “we work from Cali because it is necessary to coordinate actions with the bureaux of this department in order to process them before the different entities. Here we are going to draw up a document of proposals to consolidate public policy on victims,” he said.

During the first session of the National Victims Board, Wilfredo Grajales, delegate advocate for victims, asked the delegates of the Bureau and state entities to continue working on building the peace that the country requires.

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