USAID/OTI’s Initial Governance Response Program in Colombia

A Final Evaluation

A team from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) evaluated the programs and activities that USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) undertook in Colombia from 2007 to 2011. (CSIS had previously done a mid-term evaluation of OTI’s Colombia work up to 2009.) This final evaluation found that OTI's programs were extremely effective in catalyzing and supporting Colombian efforts to consolidate the state's presence in three areas recently cleared of illegal armed groups. Some important concerns remain about the sustainability of these gains as OTI's successful programs make the transition to other institutions, but otherwise the fast, flexible processes and overall catalytic approach OTI used in Colombia serve as an important model for transition efforts in other post-conflict areas.

Robert D. Lamb, Maria Cristina Olano, Johanna Mendelson Forman and Caroline Hartzell

, and Phillip McLean