AMPLIFYING THE VOICES OF COLOMBIA’S LOCAL
LEADERS AND PEACE BUILDERS
Leadership in Action: Colombia
Discover the local leaders of Colombia
Local leadership is key to addressing the extensive global challenges of our time. Our Leadership in Action programme focuses on creating platforms that amplify the voices of local leaders in underrepresented communities across the globe.
Our first Leadership in Action project is based in the rural community of Nuqui, Colombia, located in the Chocó district between the mountainous area of Baudó and the Pacific Ocean. With global political attention on Colombia waning, providing support to local leaders is ever more imperative during the country’s ongoing peace process. Local leaders from disadvantaged communities across the nation are invited to participate in a collaborative programme in Nuqui, structured around a series of hands-on workshops.
With the Omnis team working directly with local leaders, the workshops are tailored to hone key leadership skills and designed around the needs and interests of the local leaders. The local leaders are also provided the opportunity to share their personal expertise and knowledge, particularly on creating sustainable solutions in their own complex environments, the lessons learned and best practices. Leaders will then highlight their work to wider audiences, including policymakers and the general public.
Objectives
- Through film, traditional media and social media, amplify the work of the local leaders, providing essential increased visibility and recognition of their leadership
- Establish key relationships with local leaders and provide a sustainable support system that enables their development through a series of training workshops to enhance their leadership
- Create a network of local leaders for collaborative learning, future partnerships and sustainable impact
- Inspire local communities throughout Colombia, particularly women and youth, through amplifying the voices of local leaders
Meet one of our local leaders
Josefina is an inspiration of strength and determination to many people, especially young women, in Colombia. She is from Nuqui, a village in the pacific region of Colombia, that has been strongly affected by drug trafficking and violence. She transformed her home town where people “thought too fast about easy money” to show how the locals could work together to defend their rights and create local sustainable jobs. Josefina is the founder of Mano Cambiada, which has implemented sustainable tourism in Nuqui by focusing on helping local people to understand their rights and defend their region and protect their cultural heritage. Her model of sustainable tourism has now been replicated in Quibdó and other regions across Colombia. She has also worked on a new initiative called “Festival de la Migración”, where she promotes local knowledge of whales and birds, and invites young people to work on these issues. She has also been investigating how to improve education in the region with innovative approaches.
Meet our Colombia-based team
Andrea is an economist and political scientist from the University of Sussex, currently serving at the Infrastructure Fund of the Ministry of Education in Colombia. As a 25-year-old woman, she leads the first public-social-private partnership (PSPP) to build and operate schools and is a member of the Global Shaper Community of the World Economic Forum. She previously worked as advisor to the Minister of Education in Colombia and as an intern in the private equity group at Neuberger Berman in London. Andrea is determined to contribute to the alleviation of poverty, and has a strong willingness to explore different ways of creating a sustainable and improved world for future generations.
As a dynamic engineer, graduated from the Swiss Institute of Technology in Material Science, Nicholas obtained his Master’s degree with specialisation in Structural Materials for Transport, Energy and Infrastructure. During his studies, his papers on water sanitation and sustainable construction were published in journals such as Cambridge Materials Research Society and Cement and Concrete Research. Nicholas has worked in the public sector in the Swiss Institute of Technology as scientific collaborator and then in the private sector in TFB SA as laboratory director. He participated with passion in large infrastructure projects such as dams, bridges and tunnels in Switzerland and Europe, acquiring broad experience in cement and concrete research, laboratory dynamics and general management in construction. Nicholas currently lives in Colombia where he works as a consultant for Quantis, a Swiss start-up with promising activities in environmental sustainability. He loves travelling and volunteering in foundations that encourage social entrepreneurship and peace building projects.
“The problem is that while we try to implement communitarian tourism, here comes the drug traffic and sweeps away everything in a matter of seconds. Children grow up with the wrong view that everything can be achieved quickly and effortlessly. It is very difficult for people to understand that we can not only be cheap labor, but also entrepreneurs, innovators and hosts in our own land. And that is difficult for the simple reason that we are selling the concept of sustainable tourism in a territory with unmet basic needs and historically abandoned and with negligent leaders”. Josefina Klinger