5. Emergency and Permanent Phases

And, the president of this FOREC council, he adopted a certain institutional model which has an objectives, one is eliminate intermediate officers because corruption is an important priority so that when the moment you are eliminating the intermediate offices you are eliminating the whole procedure itself, guarantee the transparency the decisions, reinforce democratic systems and social organization.

The president of the FOREC (a council focused on reconstruction) implemented a new institutional model aimed at improving transparency and reducing corruption. By eliminating intermediate officers in decision-making processes, they intended to simplify procedures while fostering democratic practices and enhancing social organization.

Imagine a school principal who decides to communicate directly with students and teachers instead of going through several layers of administration. This direct approach can lead to quicker decisions and clearer communication, similar to how FOREC aims to improve transparency.

And what they did was, they, in order to meet this kind of process they adopted a decentralized approach so for each of the municipality, so the many NGOs came forward to support for this reconstruction activity and then what they did was at least they have given each NGO a particular task and then each one NGO was assigned in charge of the municipality.

The FOREC took a decentralized approach by collaborating with various NGOs. Each NGO was assigned a specific municipality to focus on during the reconstruction efforts. This strategy allowed for a more localized response, where NGOs could tailor their efforts to meet the unique needs of each community.

Think of it like a community organizing a neighborhood cleanup. Instead of one person trying to clean the whole area, different groups take responsibility for different streets. This allows for better management and makes sure all parts of the neighborhood are covered.

And under the FOREC responsibilities, temporary shelters was not been a part in the initial process but then, people have started building their temporary units whatever the resources they had so, this is where the temporary shelters and building new temporary units have already started, in whatever the lands they are not available. The management of the more than 6,000 temporary units was assigned to publicly owned national university of Bogota.

Initially, temporary shelters were not a planned part of the reconstruction process, but as people began to construct temporary units on available land, the management of over 6,000 of these units was handed over to the National University of Bogotá. This shows a responsive approach where local needs dictated the actions taken.

It's akin to a community responding to a sudden influx of people after a disaster. As various families set up tents or makeshift homes, a local university steps in to help manage this new, spontaneous neighborhood, ensuring that everyone has access to basic needs like food and sanitation.

So, this is where the coffee growers organizations, they actually aim to favour the development of the local coffee industry through the improvement of efficiency of and international competitiveness and procuring at the same time the integral development of the coffee grower his/her family and the region.

The coffee growers' organizations focused on strengthening the local coffee industry by enhancing productivity and competitiveness. Additionally, they aimed to support the holistic development of coffee growers and their families, which would contribute to regional economic stability.

Imagine a local bakery that not only aims to sell bread but also helps local farmers by sourcing their ingredients directly. By doing this, the bakery supports the farmers’ livelihoods while also ensuring they have the best products to sell, demonstrating a mutual benefit to both sides.

So, there is two phases of the emergency phase and as well as the permanent phase. And here, in the emergency phase, we talk about what is the role of this CGOs, they actually worked as a kind of fund managers, how to distribute the external aid, reactivating the industry and re-establishing conditions for collection of seasons harvest and preventing migration to main urban areas.

The emergency phase involved the coffee growers’ organizations (CGOs) acting like fund managers to distribute external aid. Their tasks included revitalizing the local industry and facilitating conditions for farmers to collect their seasonal harvests, while also preventing people from migrating to urban areas in search of better opportunities.

Think of a sports team’s management that brings in resources and organizes training to help players improve during a tough season. By ensuring players have the right support, the management helps them perform better and stay focused on their goals.

In the permanent reconstruction, there is also the hard and soft needs. The hard needs, which talks about the funding, housing reconstruction and reconstruction of infrastructure related to coffee industry, general infrastructure, community services and educational technical whereas, here it talks about the soft needs community organization how to build this and participation, education, decision-making capacities and information channelling, employment opportunities and economic reactive.

During the permanent reconstruction phase, both hard and soft needs are addressed. Hard needs refer to physical reconstruction such as housing and infrastructure, while soft needs focus on community organization, education, and employment opportunities, highlighting the importance of developing both physical and social structures.

It's similar to reforming a school. A school needs new buildings (hard needs) but also requires strong programs for student engagement, training for teachers, and community involvement (soft needs) to truly thrive.

So, when they make this assessment of the early stage the census says 6,648 houses need to be reconstructed or repaired and 2,972 coffee industry infrastructures registered with the CGO need to be repaired. Following upon this assessments, a fund has been created called FORECAFE fund which has been created with the savings of the CGOs, resources transferred from FOREC and private donations.

An assessment revealed that thousands of houses and coffee industry infrastructures required repairs. In response, the FORECAFE fund was established using various sources like savings from CGOs and donations. This funding aims to address the identified needs effectively.

This can be compared to a community raising funds after a disaster. Neighbors gather donations and use them to repair homes and public areas affected by the crisis, showing a proactive collective effort to restore their community.

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