Accountability Research Center

Nuevo Documento de Trabajo: Incidencia para la protección colectiva de comunidades y personas defensoras de derechos en riesgo. Los defensores de derechos humanos de todo el mundo se enfrentan a incesantes agresiones por su trabajo de protección de las comunidades marginadas y sus territorios. https://bit.ly/4aSd3LB Este nuevo estudio desde Colombia muestra la innovadora incidencia desarrollada por una organización étnico-territorial de base para lograr un conjunto de medidas de protección colectiva con enfoque integral. ACADESAN, un consejo comunitario de la región del río San Juan, en el Pacífico colombiano, defiende los derechos de 72 comunidades afrocolombianas en una zona afectada por el conflicto armado. ACADESAN ha exigido una protección construida de abajo hacia arriba, mediante un diálogo intercultural respetuoso y equilibrado, con medidas colectivas para salvaguardar a las comunidades que representa y para defender el territorio que determina su existencia como población étnica. En 2023, tras años de exigencia en varios niveles y de trabajo con numerosos organismos gubernamentales, consiguieron que el gobierno se comprometiera a implementar 50 medidas de protección colectiva para las comunidades del río San Juan. Ahora trabajan para que estos compromisos se lleven a la práctica. En nuestro nuevo documento de trabajo, Tejiendo vínculos entre autoprotección y protección colectiva: la experiencia de ACADESAN en Colombia, Mauricio Parra Bayona y Elizabeth Moreno Barco cuentan la historia de la emblemática campaña de exigencia de protección colectiva de ACADESAN. En el documento se muestra una concepción concreta y detallada de protección colectiva, que sirve de insumo para la reflexión sobre las políticas públicas diseñadas para la garantía de los derechos a la vida, libertad e integridad. Se propone que la protección colectiva se configura con tres tipos de medidas orientadas a: 1.     El fortalecimiento organizativo: a mayor fortaleza en la organización, menor serán los niveles de riesgo.   2.     La garantía parcial urgente de los derechos económicos, sociales, culturales y ambientales (DESCA), para impactar en las vulnerabilidades que implican una mayor exposición al peligro y, por lo tanto, un mayor nivel de riesgo.   3.     Mitigar algunos riesgos específicos propios de la confrontación armada: por ejemplo, la construcción de infraestructura física para que las comunidades puedan refugiarse cuando haya enfrentamientos armados. Reflexionan sobre la importancia de un proceso institucional coordinado que debe involucrar a la mayoría de las instituciones gubernamentales nacionales, y sobre cómo las políticas públicas deben ajustarse aún más para servir a las comunidades y organizaciones en situación de riesgo que carecen de algunos de los recursos de ACADESAN. https://bit.ly/4aSd3LB Próximamente publicaremos una versión resumida en inglés.   #defensoresderechoshumanos

"As researchers interested in health and social justice, we need to learn two very different languages: the language of communities, and the language of Western academia. By developing the skill of moving between those two languages, our role as researchers is to mediate between ways of knowing and learning in communities, and how that can be translated into the language of academia, which influences public policy and public services." Walter Flores in conversation with Lorenda Belone and Rebecca Rae for the Connecting Citizens to Science Podcast from The SCL Agency Listen here or where you usually get your podcasts: https://lnkd.in/eSwwXEVA

Great to hear this podcast episode with our Walter Flores sharing his experience with indigenous rights to health care in Guatemala

Sobering infographic on changes in the landscape of development

Health rights activists learning exchange In 2024, our partners CEGSS, Observatorio de Mortalidad Materna en México, and the Comité Promotor por una Maternidad Segura y Voluntaria convened a gathering in Chiapas, Mexico to nurture trust, solidarity, and relationships between health rights advocates, midwives, and researchers from Mexico and Guatemala. They exchanged knowledge and experiences, reflected on challenges and opportunities, and found collective strength in the diversity and similarity of experiences and capabilities. In one session, for example, the Mexican midwives learned first-hand about the experience of registering extemporaneous births carried out by indigenous midwives in rural areas of Guatemala. In another, participants learned from OMM's experience of creating audiovisual materials to target indigenous populations. Find out more by reading the workshop report in Spanish https://bit.ly/3R45xp6 or English https://bit.ly/41GM4zJ

Anyone at #CIES2025 - this roundtable on civil society strategies to influence education policy will be well worth your time on Wednesday:

Women’s rights are under attack as authoritarianism grows. We need to defend the rights of women and girls in the face of democratic erosion. Washington DC friends and colleagues, save the date to join this critical conversation convened by Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), Human Rights Watch, and American University Washington College of Law 👇 📅Tuesday, April 8 🕛12:00 pm 📍American University, Washington DC Register: https://lnkd.in/ef8j7fd6

Fellowship for Equity and Accountability Supporting Climate Justice Activists Just shy of two years since ARC launched the Sandra N. Smithey Fellowship for Equity and Accountability in International Development, all eight fellowships have been awarded to activist-scholars from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Cameroon, Colombia, Haiti, Nepal, Peru, and Tanzania. For fellows Mayra Tenjo Hurtado (Colombia) and Prekkshya Bimali (Nepal), promoting climate justice is at the heart of their self-created programs.   Mayra has dedicated her fellowship to learning about and promoting Amazonian indigenous and Afro-descendant women’s strategies to fight climate change. She is more than halfway through her in-person and virtual research, which aspires to reach women’s networks across the Amazon regions of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Guyana, Suriname, and Venezuela. She plans to take her findings to World Bank country offices in these countries and, if possible, to World Bank headquarters in the US.   Prekkshya's fellowship aims to strengthen civic engagement and accountability in Nepal’s World Bank-supported Green, Resilient, and Inclusive Development (GRID) approach. Working with Accountability Lab (AL-Nepal), she is investigating GRID’s impact on climate finance in Nepal, assessing whether and how it contributes to climate justice, or to informing the World Bank’s climate agenda. She also is exploring how the World Bank and other development actors can proactively bolster community management of natural resources. More on the fellowship: https://lnkd.in/deedpnUV Rachel Nadelman Accountability Lab Mott Foundation

For decades, the Inter-American Foundation showed that a US government agency could consistently support locally-led development. The IAF deftly preserved its independence, directly funding hundreds of grassroots organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean. Their founding motto: “They know how.” Check out this news from The Guardian:

Our director Jonathan Fox speaks on Mexican TV about the impact of the suspension of US development aid, particularly for Colombia: https://lnkd.in/ezTm4dZA Find more on his earlier research on USAID with Jeffrey Hallock here: https://lnkd.in/errVtSab