GNDR members in Colombia drive grassroots governance

Colombia National Disaster Risk Management Platform 2026

GNDR members take their seat at the table

GNDR members in Colombia were in Bogota recently for the National Platform for Disaster Risk Management 2026. Their participation has brought greater visibility for the role of civil society in building more participatory, inclusive, and territorially grounded risk governance.

This year’s National Disaster Risk Management Platform was a milestone: it’s the first national DRM platform in Colombia to be run along the same lines as the regional and global disaster risk reduction platforms. And in fact, the first national DRR platform in the world. This format made it possible to open up broader, more participatory, and multi-stakeholder spaces for dialogue, strengthening the connection between national priorities, territorial voices, and international commitments on resilience and risk management.

The space, facilitated by the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD), reaffirmed that resilience is built when communities are seen not merely as beneficiaries, but as political, technical, and social actors with the capacity to propose, decide, and transform.

In a national context marked by the convergence of the climate crisis, structural inequality, territorial conflict, environmental degradation, and human displacement, GNDR members in Colombia underlined the importance of strengthening local action, community leadership, and the coordination of civil society organisations.

Governance from the grassroots

During the platform, GNDR members in Colombia led the workshop Governance from the Grassroots, aimed at strengthening community participation and the leadership of civil society organisations in disaster risk management.

The workshop fostered dialogue between diverse actors and made space to reflect on how to strengthen participation from the territories, the exchange of knowledge, partnerships for resilience, and the collective construction of solutions to an inclusive disaster risk management. It featured conversations on:

• Grassroots participation and community leadership
• Dialogue and collective construction between organisations, communities, private companies and institutions
• Communities at the centre of risk management
• Civil society coordination to strengthen territorial resilience

Beyond the workshop, GNDR members’ participation in the PN26 was linked to other strategic spaces approved by the UNGRD, designed to broaden civil society’s perspective on risk management:

• Gender Observatory: monitoring and observation of 47 in-person spaces and 15 virtual spaces over the three days of the Platform, with the aim of contributing a perspective on participation, inclusion and gender
• Session “Governance from the grassroots: the transformative role of civil society organisations in disaster risk management in Colombia”
• Session “Animals and disasters: a civil society perspective”.
• Complementary dialogue spaces on animals and risk management, in coordination with the UNGRD, to continue positioning integrated approaches such as One Health, livelihoods and animal welfare within risk management
• Laboratory on weaving resilience organised by the Youth Network for Disaster Risk Reduction in Colombia RJRDD

These spaces helped to give visibility to the diversity of agendas advanced by civil society and to reinforce the need for risk governance that is more open, inclusive, and connected to territorial realities.

In addition, GNDR members in Colombia developed the position paper Towards a Resilient Colombia: The Power of Local and Systemic Action, which sets out a call to transform risk governance through local action, climate justice, the comprehensive protection of rights, and territorial sustainability.

Who took part

The process drew on the participation of GNDR member organisations in Colombia, civil society representatives, technical bodies, community organisations and actors involved in disaster risk management.

The organisations and bodies recognised for their contribution include:

• National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD)
• Colombian Geological Society (SCG)
• Colombian Red Cross, Antioquia Branch
• Grupo HTM
• Colombian Association of Energy Geologists and Geophysicists
• Fundación Amigos del Sol
• Proyecto ALA Animales
• Fundación para la Gestión del Riesgo (FGR)
• Red de Jóvenes para la Reducción del Riesgo de Desastres en Colombia RJRDD_COL
• Cáritas
• Nariño Joven

GNDR particularly recognises the leadership of the National Focal Points, Carolina García Londoño and Didier Ferney Pedreros Vega, along with all the organisations and individuals who made this space for coordination possible.

Our key messages

• Resilience must be built from the territories, recognising local knowledge and the leadership of communities on the front line of risk
• Civil society must have stronger, more permanent and more influential spaces in risk governance, at both national and territorial level
• Risk management must address the structural drivers of vulnerability, such as social inequality, unplanned urbanisation, environmental degradation, climate change, armed conflict and human mobility
• Local action, climate justice and the comprehensive protection of life must guide public policy, territorial planning and financing mechanisms for resilience

Download our position paper in Spanish >

Download our position paper in English >

What next?

Building on this, GNDR members in Colombia will continue to promote coordination between civil society organisations, communities, public institutions, such as the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD), academia, and other key actors in order to strengthen risk management from a local, inclusive, and systemic perspective.

Next steps include:

• Share and disseminate the position paper developed by GNDR members in Colombia
• Keep on building and collaborating closely with the UNGRD to ensure civil society representation in actions and policy development in Colombia
• Strengthen national coordination between member organisations and national focal points
• Identify opportunities to position civil society’s recommendations in national and territorial spaces
• Explore new joint actions to strengthen the presence of GNDR and its members in Colombia

This process represents an important step in giving visibility to civil society’s contribution to disaster risk management and in continuing to build a more resilient Colombia through local action, locally-led resilience building, and community leadership.