Beginning with the announcement of the public phase of the conversations between the Colombian government and the FARC-EP (2012-2016), different initiatives were put forward to provide Colombian society with a deeper, more detailed understanding of the vision, characteristics, advancements and challenges of the negotiations and the general notion of peace that frames them. In addition to the available mechanisms for communication and dissemination that the parties had for broadcasting the progress of the conversations, it was important to reach a wider audience and to provide a deeper explanation of the objectives and opportunities behind this new effort at political negotiation.
For the government, educational initiatives were developed that concentrated on a few entities and work teams, and they included the work of different Negotiating Table delegates who used their time in Colombia—during breaks between rounds of conversations—to engage in these activities. These educational initiatives had both a national and regional dimension, differentiated among populations and audiences (students, political representatives, ethnic communities, social leaders, public servants from various government agencies, etc.), adapted their pedagogical formats and instruments for each audience, and relied on local partners in different sectors to repeat their narrative and messaging about the peace process. On the other hand, as an insurgent organization, the FARC-EP could not interact directly with civil society, since there was no space for armed proselytizing. Nonetheless, as part of the confidence building measures, certain members were authorized to conduct educational sessions in their guerrilla camps. Through a mutual agreement, the government also joined with civil society organizations to provide educational sessions for imprisoned persons who had been processed as members of the FARC-EP and would eventually be protected by legal measures that the agreement would address in its juridical dimension.
Educating the public about the conversations was also important because the agreement between parties would be subject to citizen ratification, which meant it was fundamental for complete information on the negotiations, their developments and the agreements to reach different social sectors.
In this section, you can find explanations and reflections on the pedagogical activities that were developed during the peace conversations, as well as the times when they took place, the challenges they faced and the lessons learned from what was put forward over four years of public conversations.