Magdalena Medio is one of the poorestand most violent areas of Colombia and a microcosm of theactors and issues underlying Colombia's armed conflictwith guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries, with the armybattling for control while the civilian population strugglesto survive. The region contains great natural and productivewealth with unequal access.The Program for Development andPeace in Magdalena Medio (PDPMM) seeks solutions to thepersistent poverty and increasing violence. Its guidingprinciples were the need to involve and reflect the concernsof all the region's citizens, and the belief thatpoverty and violence are complex, interrelated problemswhich must be tackled simultaneously. The Program, whichbegan in 1995 with a diagnostic phase, embodies a long-termvision for community-led, comprehensive development of theregion. It aims to increase living standards and reduceviolence by creating the conditions necessary forrelationships to develop among communities, NGOs, thebusiness sector, various levels of government and, asappropriate, the armed actors. The project was one of thefirst Bank lending operations in a new area: peace anddevelopment.The project demonstrated that, for aparticipatory approach to succeed in such a complex andchallenging environment, there is no substitute for a designwhich explicitly incorporates flexibility, close monitoringand analysis of the socio-political situation and amechanism for feeding this back into the program.
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