Last week, the 27th and 28th
of June, the national diaconal ministry of IELCO held a mid-year evaluation retreat where all the projects looked back on
how the year has gone so far and what goals have been met, what improvements
can be made, etc.
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| Here is the Diakonia team at the Playa Blanca (white beach) at the Tota Lake in Boyaca region of Colombia. During the retreat we also had some time together to relax and have fun. Photo by Pastor Jairo Suarez |
In all of the evaluations, the coordinators
and other project professionals receive training in a specific area of
expertise of one of their co-workers. In this evaluation it was the
responsibility of the Justice and Life project to plan the training. This meant
Sara Lara, the coordinator of the project, and me. We put together a Human Rights-Based Approach
to the project evaluation. This meant that all the various projects were
evaluated from the point of view of how they are protecting and promoting human
rights, and how they could be strengthened in order to better protect and
promote human rights.
The principles of a Human Rights-Based Approach
are: empowerment, non-discrimination, participation and accountability. These
were the areas in which we evaluated the projects. How is the project empowering,
for example, all of the participants of the project to take their own action?
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| The Diakonia team visiting one of the families of the EcoVida project, an environmental and food security project of IELCO. Photo by Pastor Sergio Talero. |
We looked at, for example, the EcoVida
project, an environmental and food security project which works with farmers in
the Boyacá region of Colombia. The project also works to protect a water
source, which feeds into the streams and rivers which the farmers all depend
on. While the project has many connections to human rights, such as the right
to food, and a clean environment, articulating the work of the project with a human
rights approach would strengthen its role in empowering the families, making
sure no one is left out, and holding to account those responsible for guaranteeing
these rights.
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| The Diakonia team after lunch together. Photo by Pastor Jairo Suarez. |