Country
Colombia

Local project partner
--

German project partner
--

Donor
GIZ

Duration
01.12.2025 - 30.06.2027

Due to 50 years of armed conflict in its territory, Colombia has now one of the largest groups of internally displaced people (IDP) worldwide, standing at 9.6 million at the end of April 2024. A majority of the internally displaced population groups reside in poor settlements on the outskirts of urban areas, where access to basic public services is limited. Many of these individuals have endured traumatic experiences in the context of the armed conflict. Additionally, due to a lack of education, economic resources, opportunities in the local job market, most of the displaced individuals resort to small and informal businesses, including street vending or informal employment. The provision of financial and business education for micro and small entrepreneurs, as well as access to the formal financial sector, can be important drivers to reduce persisting vulnerability, economic exclusion, and poverty of displaced people in Colombia.

The project aims to improve the formal financial inclusion of internally displaced people with small or medium-sized businesses by strengthening institutions, providing access to financial and business education, and creating a target group-oriented financial vehicle that enables financing in the southwest of Colombia. The project shall have a particular focus on women and members of the LGBTQIA+ community.

Tasks
DSIK intends to mitigate the vulnerability of IDPs by implementing project activities focused on the financial and economic inclusion in selected municipalities in the target region of the southwest of Colombia – one of the geographical focus areas of German bilateral cooperation. The project will focus on the persisting challenges for IDP with a special focus on women and members of the LGBTQIA+ community. By providing technical assistance to both the supply and demand side sustainable perspectives shall be created for IDPs. In that context, close collaboration with civil society organizations (CSOs) and a local financial institution will occur, and direct capacity-development activities with the target group shall be at the center of the project intervention.