Reseña

Resources to nance eorts against climate change in the
Colombian Amazon come from dierent sources. An
important part comes from and/or is channeled through the
Colombian state, and the rest is from other entities. is is an
important distinction to understand the set of structures
involved in the function of the funds, their mechanisms for
territorial distribution, disclosure on how to access resources,
and the mechanisms to monitor and evaluate use. ere is a
serious lack of transparency when funds are handled by the
state, much like the general handling of public nances in the
country. When resources are channeled through
non-governmental entities, they tend to have distinct
operational, monitoring, and evaluation mechanisms, and
relevant information gets fragmented, favoring funding access
among those who are familiar with the donor ecosystem.
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at is to say, access to these funds requires either strong
territorial or national political connections, the social capital
characteristic of highly educated citizens and of international
contacts, or both. It should not be assumed that these elements
are present in communities requiring the funds. Rather,
communities seem to depend on the goodwill of those with
strategic contacts.
is document is part of a consultancy contracted by
Ambiente y Sociedad and executed by Capital and Trabajo S.A.S.
to analyze the function, territorial distribution, information
available to citizens and regional governments on access to
cooperation funds, as well as their monitoring and evaluation.
e conclusions are based on a survey of resources available
online for dierent funds, data available through the National
Planning Department’s Measurement, Reporting, and
Verication System (MRV in Spanish) on Climate Financing,
brief digital and telephone communications with personnel at
nancing bodies, and semi-structured interviews with
representatives of the aforementioned entities and those in
charge of funds, as well as with stakeholders from regional
governments and civil society in the Colombian Amazon.
e document is divided into six sections, this is the rst. e
second explains the operating structures of climate funds; the
third describes the data available on the funds to analyze the
territorial distribution of these resources; the fourth section
focuses on the transparency of information circulated on these
funds, especially among civil society and territorial actors; the
h analyzes the monitoring and evaluation of how these
resources are used; and the sixth concludes with key messages,
ndings, and proposals to improve how climate funds operate in
Colombia, in general, and in the Amazon specically.