Transforming Security Paradigms through Responsiveness Virtuous Feedback Loops

The 2016 Peace Agreement between the Colombian Government and the FARC-EP guerrilla evidence the need to renew the justice and security paradigms operational over six decades of conflict. Building on best practices to support war-to-peace transitions, the U.S. Institute for peace adapted its community-based dialogue methodologies to the Colombian context developing a theory of change to improve relationships among local institutions and communities by measuring frequency and quality of service, performance, and fairness (lack of biases and institutional stereotypes) of justice and security service provision in remote, conflict-affected rural areas.

The Citizen Security activity is a learning activity that fills information gaps with evidence-based qualitative and quantitative data of justice and citizen security service provision in rural areas. Through a rigorous, intentional, and systematic MEL approach, the activity enhances informed decision-making of local communities and local justice and providers while feeding informed findings to national citizen security policy makers, the national government, and international stakeholders. The systematic usage of a structured and intentional MEL approach introduces USIP as a neutral actor that facilitates transformation through evidence-based feedback loops, enhancing ownership and buy-in of local communities and providers, but also, elevates informed findings for national policy-makers adaptive management. The MEL toolbox includes quarterly dashboards, risk assessments, monthly perception surveys of social leaders (subject matter experts), pre and post activities polls, and questionnaires to capture existing institutional biases. Lastly, the activity is frequently sharing findings with internal and external stakeholders and is slowly promoting a community of practice for knowledge management.