Colombia - IOM Colombia is this week handing over its Monitoring, Support, and Evaluation system (SAME by its Spanish acronym), used to register demobilized ex-combatants, to government counterparts.

Over the past 10 years SAME has registered 56,510 ex-combatants in national government databases. This is seen by the government as a vital step to achieve the successful reintegration of demobilized ex-combatants into the social and economic life of the country.

The government has used the information compiled by SAME to plan its programmes and assistance projects, and to design service routes according to the profile and location of the individuals and their families.

“During the first years of the demobilization and reintegration process of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) everything was done manually. SAME had to handle documents for 40,000 ex-combatants, some two million files and two thousand folders with data on the progress, personal and family history, services received, courses taken, formal education reports, and psychosocial activities – all of which are part of the historical memory needed for reintegration,” says National SAME Coordinator Cristina Alzate.

SAME was created by IOM in 2004 with support from USAID, following the Justice and Peace Process for the Demobilization of the Paramilitary Structures agreement reached between the government and the AUC.  This agreement called for the registration, monitoring and support of all those who laid down their weapons.

Marcelo Pisani, IOM Colombia Chief of Mission, says: “SAME has worked at the national level to monitor and support demobilized people, their families and receiving communities, and has now become a crucial tool for monitoring and supporting the current process of graduation of the demobilized people who are in the state programme.”

Various instruments are being transferred to the government, in addition to statistics on the ex-combatants. They include tools to measure the progress of economic reintegration and business creation by demobilized people; tools that evaluate final competencies needed to graduate from the reintegration process; and a tool that monitors community service conducted to achieve reconciliation.

For more information, please contact

Liliana Arias
IOM Colombia
Email: larias@iom.int
Tel: 6397777 Ext. 1218