​Florencia, 11/10/2021

• Ten associations made up of people in the process of reincorporation in Caquetá and Putumayo participated in the first territorial technical committee on associativity for three days.
• The joint contribution to the consolidation of the productive component of the reincorporation process stands out in both departments, which implement an equal number of collective projects approved and disbursed by the national Government and supported by international cooperation agencies.  

33 people undergoing reincorporation from the department of Putumayo and different municipalities of Caquetá took part, interested in strengthening their associative units during the first meeting held by the Agency for Reincorporation and Normalization (ARN) in Caquetá on cooperatives incorporation and culture and solidarity economy. 

Out of 10 associations made up of people undergoing reincorporation in Caquetá and Putumayo, three cooperatives have implemented three successful collective projects approved and disbursed by the national Government for 274 people who are advancing in their reincorporation process.

“Because peace comes with facts, from the Agency for Reincorporation and Normalization, we support the individual and collective dreams of the people who follow their path to legality and we highlight the perseverance of the ten cooperatives of people undergoing reincorporation of these two departments that continue to commit to the policy of Peace with Legality and strive to have a better future for their associates, families and community in general", stressed Andrés Stapper, Director General of ARN. 

The institutional offerings of different agencies such as SENA (National Learning Service, from its name in Spanish), the Ministerio de Agricultura (Ministry of Agriculture), the Agencia de Desarrollo Rural (Rural Development Agency) and the Unidad Administrativa Especial de Organizaciones Solidarias (Special Administrative Unit for Solidarity Organizations), inter alia, were promoted at the associativity committees held in Caquetá.  As well as the policy of productive rural associativity.

Lenin Gómez, a person undergoing reincorporation and President of the Semillas de Paz Foundation, who participated in the first territorial technical committee on associative forms in Caquetá, said: “this associativity training is very important because we have come to learn and share ideas among our colleagues; now we have to put these exercises into practice". 

There was also a participatory dialogue and exchange of knowledge about the associative processes, the independent construction for the definition of actions to strengthen their cooperatives in these training spaces, including work plans and business diagnostics to implement the organizational strengthening plan of their associations.

Interesting facts:  

• The Semillas de Paz Foundation, made up of 50 people undergoing reincorporation, victims, and community, received support from Caritas Norway and Pastoral Social for the purchase of the land where they develop associative projects in livestock, fish farming and agroforestry.
•  The financial resources provided by the national Government amounted to 1.5 billion Colombian pesos in Caquetá, disbursed to two collective projects led by two cooperatives: one in the former ETCR Agua Bonita, in the municipality of La Montañita, and the other in the former ETCR Miravalle, in San Vicente del Caguán.