Seven lessons learned from the Charter of Human Responsibilities’ process in Colombia in 2006

Evaluation

The Colombian team of the Charter worked in 2006 on an internal reflection analysis on the concept of responsibility and the importance to put it in practice in the Colombian context, and on the dissemination of the Charter and the development of processes emphasising three sectors in three regions of the country: the youth, citizen leaders and women.
Thanks to a collaboration with other instances, we could improve our capacity to raise alternatives in responsibility taking. We can raise from this experience useful lessons for the following of the process:

 We must go beyond the Charter dissemination, offering elements that facilitate responsibility taking and the switch from motivation to action.

 Tools, instruments, methodologies must be improved to implement processes.

 It was important to work with sectors that have little participation in the power structure. Now we must work with sectors having more power focusing a power control and a responsible practice of it.

 There is a double relationship between power and responsibilities: with more power, more potential responsibilities, but also, with more responsibilities, more power. From there the importance to work with relegated sectors as well.

 The question of the connection between individual responsibility and collective responsibility must be deepened, in relation with the practice of responsibility.

 The notion of responsibility goes beyond that of duty. From there our focus in the construction and follow-up of pacts with strategies of action related to individual and collective civic responsibility, in specific contexts.

 We must work with interdependence between the types of actors per sector and level of responsibilities, taking into account the linking acts.

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