Strengthening Decentralization and Local Self-Governance in Colombia (FOINCIDE)

The local level government in Colombia is weak, and there is often miscommunication and distrust between the local and national level. The FOINCIDE-project was designed to support the decentralisation process and strengthen local governments in Colombia.

Local authorities play a decisive role in Colombia’s peacebuilding process. Due to their proximity to citizens, their legitimacy, and their permanent presence in the territories, municipalities have a direct impact on whether tensions escalate into conflict or are managed through dialogue and democratic means.

In post-conflict areas, however, local institutional capacity is often weak, and trust in public institutions is low. When citizens lose trust in institutions, those institutions also lose legitimacy—undermining their ability to govern and increasing the risk of renewed conflict. Trust and legitimacy are therefore not abstract concepts; they are central conditions for maintaining peace.

Local Governance as a Foundation for Peace

For trust to be rebuilt, communities must play an active role in shaping the future of their territories. This requires not only participatory mechanisms, but credible guarantees that participation leads to tangible results. Since 2016 SALAR International has addressed these challenges through FOINCIDE—working closely with local and national partners to strengthen democratic local governance as a cornerstone for peace, inclusion, and equitable development.

FOINCIDE was a Swedish-supported initiative implemented by SALAR International from 2016 to 2023, with funding from Sida. The project supported municipalities in Colombia’s PDET territories—170 municipalities identified as particularly affected by armed conflict, poverty, and institutional fragility.

FOINCIDE was aligned with Colombia’s Peace Accord and the concept of paz territorial, emphasizing that peace is built locally through everyday governance: service delivery, dialogue, conflict prevention, and citizen participation.

The project was implemented in two phases:

• FOINCIDE I (2016–2022): Development, adaptation, and piloting of tools and methods in eight municipalities, combined with collaboration with national institutions.
• FOINCIDE II (2022–2023): Consolidation, expansion to additional municipalities, and institutionalization of tools and learning through national partners and digital platforms.

A core principle of FOINCIDE was working with, not for, local authorities and communities. The project was built on long-term partnerships characterized by mutual trust, openness, and shared responsibility for results. A learning-by-doing approach were applied, where municipal teams were supported to apply new methods directly in real governance processes—planning public investments, managing social conflicts, designing gender policies, or improving environmental management. These processes were iterative and cyclical: plan, implement, reflect, adapt, and improve and fostered ownership, strengthened institutional confidence, and enabled practices to be embedded beyond individual projects or political terms, as noted in the independent evaluation:

FOINCIDE’s learning-by-doing methodology has been particularly effective in fostering ownership and lasting changes in municipal practices.”
(FOINCIDE Evaluation Report, 2022)

Why a Multi-Level Governance Approach Matters

While municipalities were at the heart of FOINCIDE, the project consistently applied a multi-level governance approach. Sustainable local change requires alignment and trust not only between citizens and institutions, but also between institutions across levels of government. By strengthening institutional relationships and shared ways of working, FOINCIDE contributed to rebuilding trust within the state itself—an often overlooked but critical dimension of peacebuilding.

The evaluation highlights this clearly:

While the municipal level has been key to project successes, national and regional strategic partnerships remain essential for sustainability.”
(FOINCIDE Evaluation Report, 2022)

What We Worked On

FOINCIDE focused on four interlinked thematic areas, implemented through close collaboration with partners at multiple levels:

• Public Participation and Citizen Dialogue
  Practical tools and training enabled municipalities to design participatory processes linked to real decisions and visible outcomes, moving participation from formal compliance to effective governance.
• Social Dialogue and Conflict Management
  Municipal teams were trained to use structured tools—such as the Dialogue Triage—to analyze tensions, prevent escalation, and manage conflicts through dialogue rather than force.
• Territorial Management and Planning (TerriData)
  In collaboration with Departamento Nacional de Planeación (DNP) and the the Territorial Renewal Agency (ART), SALAR supported the use of TerriData, Colombia’s official territorial statistics platform inspired by Sweden’s KOLADA, strengthening evidence-based decision-making at both local and national levels.
• Gender Equality
  Gender perspectives were mainstreamed across governance processes, with tools and training supporting municipalities to translate gender commitments into concrete policies, budgets, and services.

Capacity building for civil servants

Since 2016, SALAR International has provided capacity building to over 400 civil servants in municipalities and national agencies.

• Together with DNP and ART, approximately 300 public servants from 40 municipalities were trained in the use of TerriData.
• Through training, workshops, and learning-by-doing, over 100 civil servants in 15 pilot municipalities strengthened their capacity to design, implement, and evaluate participatory processes.
• Five municipalities received targeted training in social mediation and conflict management.

Partnership with a shared vision

In 2023, SALAR entered into a strategic partnership with the Territorial Renewal Agency (ART), recognizing a shared vision: that inclusive, democratic, and capable local governments are essential for sustainable peace and development. ART leads the Territorial Capacities Strengthening Plan, a four-year national framework aimed at strengthening public management, accountability, and citizen participation in all 170 PDET municipalities, with an ethnic, territorial, and gender-sensitive approach.

Through this partnership:

• SALAR supported ART in delivering a certified online course during 2023, reaching approximately 120 participants from ART and PDET municipalities.
• A community of learning was established with over 350 participants, where tools, recorded seminars, and materials are continuously shared through digital channels.
• A structured handover and institutionalization process was initiated to ensure long-term ownership of FOINCIDE tools and methods within national systems.

As emphasized in project reporting:

Systemising of information and processes is critical, particularly in a context of high staff turnover at both municipal and national levels.”
(FOINCIDE Evaluation Report, 2022)

Digital platform for knowledge sharing and training

To support sustainability and scale, FOINCIDE developed "aprenderparagobernar.com", a digital platform hosting tools, online courses, case studies, and practical guidance from Colombia and Sweden. The platform is fully integrated into ART’s official systems and constitutes a core element of the Territorial Capacities Strengthening Plan. Through ART, the platform is accessible to all PDET municipalities and supports continuous learning, replication, and peer exchange across the country. In parallel, foincide.org documents the project’s methodologies, results, and reflections from the full implementation period, ensuring transparency and access to knowledge for municipalities, national actors, and international partners. All tools, materials, and training resources are openly available and actively disseminated.

Strategic Relevance: Local Governance and a 360-Degree Approach

FOINCIDE was designed and implemented in line with Sida’s results logic, addressing structural drivers of fragility through long-term capacity development, institutional strengthening, and trust-building at the local level. The project demonstrates how local governance functions as a critical transmission belt between national reforms, international cooperation, and citizens’ everyday realities.

In Colombia’s post-conflict context, political violence and instability are closely linked to structural conditions such as weak local institutions, limited participation, unequal access to opportunities, and low trust in public authorities. SALAR International’s results logic emphasizes addressing these root causes through systemic change rather than short-term outputs.

FOINCIDE responded to this by focusing on:

• Inputs: Long-term technical assistance, trust-based partnerships, and adapted tools and methods.
• Outputs: Strengthened municipal capacities in participation, social dialogue, conflict management, gender equality, and data-driven planning.
• Outcomes: Improved quality of governance processes, increased citizen trust, reduced conflict escalation, and more inclusive decision-making.
• Impact: Enhanced local legitimacy of the state, contributing to peace, social cohesion, and inclusive territorial development.

As highlighted in the evaluation:

The project addresses underlying causes of conflict by strengthening institutional capacity and trust between citizens and local authorities, rather than focusing on isolated activities.”
(FOINCIDE Evaluation Report, 2022)

Local Level as a Strategic Entry Point in a 360-Degree Approach

The international donor community increasingly emphasize the need for integrated, whole-of-system approaches—often referred to as a 360-degree approach—that connect policy, institutions, finance, and local implementation across governance levels.

FOINCIDE operationalized this approach by working simultaneously at:

• Local level: Supporting municipalities to implement their mandate in an accountable, participatory, and conflict-sensitive manner.
• National level: Collaborating with institutions such as DNP and ART to embed local practices into national systems, platforms, and capacity-strengthening frameworks.
• Horizontal level: Facilitating peer learning, communities of practice, and knowledge platforms that connect municipalities with each other and with national actors.

This multi-level governance approach recognizes that trust must be built both vertically (between citizens and institutions) and horizontally (between institutions themselves). Without institutional trust and coordination, local gains risk remaining fragmented and unsustainable.

Foincide

Recursos foincide

aprenderparagobernar.com