A technological alternative for Healthcare in the

post-conflict phase in Colombia.

Nazly J. Zapata Molina2016

Contents

Introduction _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 3

Project Details _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 4 Research Questions Hypothesis Objectives and Goals

Significance _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 5 Succesfull Factors

Methods of Investigation _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _5

Background _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 6

Timeline _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 8

References _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _9

Throughout the years, Colombia has been known for its armed conflict since the second half of the twentieth century with the emergence of armed groups such as ELN, AUC, M-19 and the largest guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or FARC.

For around 50 years, the government of this country has attempted a bilateral peace with these groups, which have affected lives of million people, sustainable develop-ment, and the international image of Colombia. Currently, the government of Colom-bia reached a deal whose name is Colombian Peace Process, under which the mili-tants promise to disarm and join the political system, building a remarkable chance to realize the potential of a nation that has suffered decades of violence. This pro-cess supported by different international organisms: the United Nations Security Coun-cil (UNSC), the Union of South American Nations (USAN, the Organization of American States (OAS or OEA), the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, the Euro-pean Union (EU), The Andean Community (Spanish: Comunidad Andina, CAN), and The United Nations (UN), relies on a content of agreements considering a variety of aspects in its development and execution, summarised in comprehensive rural devel-opment, political participation, illicit drugs, and victims.

An app or online platform can be a proposal considered to be a tool which could facili-tate and support the execution of the agreement regarding the victims of the con-flict, keeping in mind the comprehensive repair programs for peacebuilding in terms of healthcare for civil and demobilized people with attention in rural zones where nowa-days the State is not present.

Villages and rural areas in Colombia present a lack of access to healthcare, but the expansion and the increasing of consumption in technology suggest an opportunity which allows a start-up to be a mechanism to get and assist the progress of defined objectives by the government related to the victims of the conflict with a satisfactory, productive and efficient health service.

Otherwise, considering the significance of the UN in the Colombian Peace Process Devel-opment, it is important to bear in mind its Sustainable Development Goals known as SDGs, which have 17 objectives to work in its different member countries where Colombia takes part. This project would be an approach to the goal #3 `Goal Health and Well-being, ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages.

The main idea with this project as an app is to be part of the change in Colombia, and this start-up is a support to make the difference, focusing its services on a vulnerable popula-tion affected by a conflict of 50 years, helping to create a new path to their own ant their community wellbeing.

Introduction

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How the proportion of money invested by different sources for reparation of the victims of armed conflict may have a reach to the multiple psychological and physical difficulties?

Project Details

What are some of the factors that occur in rural areas and villages in Colombia which cause in their population barriers to access to healthcare?

Does Colombia have the necessary IT infrastructure that allows the development of tools to facilitate the implementation of the peace agreements?

Research Questions

An online platform as an app is a technological measure to deal with one of the difficulties that Colombia has been presenting on healthcare issues

for the phase Post-conflict of Colombian Peace Process to face any chal-lenge, and psychological and/or physical difficulty that victims can present

into the next two years after the beginning of this process with an efficient and productive system

Hypothesis

Examine a technological resource useful in the phase Post—conflict within the framework of Colombian Peace Process.

Contribute to the sustainable development of Colombia in the change that cur-rently is about to arrive.

Analyse the effectiveness of a technological resource in the development of the phase post-conflict in terms of money, reach, and infrastructure required.

Promote the healthcare as a barrier-free right in vulnerable areas as villages and rural zones in Colombia affected by the armed conflict.

Know the psychological and physical difficulties of victims which would be treated by the service efficiently through the technological tool to propose.

Objectives and Goals

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Leveraging the technology to make the healthcare a general welfare in vulnerable areas in Colombia where the State has not been present in the last five decades, it worth it.

Significance

This project would take the challenge to change the reality of the public health in Colombia, starting with the post-conflict phase which involves thousand people from rural areas through the technology. According to the Ministry of Health and Protection, the major challenge for the health sector in the post-conflict will be closing gaps between urban and rural areas from Colombia. "The challenge of peace will be to take the State to where it has never been and where its absence

exacerbated the conflict". (lanacion.com.co, 2016)

An online platform with the health care team in Colombia available to solve different difficulties presented by people from Antioquia and Meta will be the challenge for the digital field as a supporter of the Colombi-

an government in this phase.

Successful factors

Data acquisition from the government figures. Researching in The National Administrative Department of Statistics -DANE- the entity responsible for the planning, collection, processing, analysis, and dissemination of Colombias official statistics. Researching in Social Network as Linkedin and Facebook about the capi-tal work in the healthcare field. Interdisciplinary collaboration (expert in programming and expert in health-care)

An exclusive domain online Laptop Platform for building apps CRM or BBDD (at least sample)

Methods of investigation

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In Colombia, the lack of access to rural areas is a direct impact to the normal func-tioning of the healthcare system. The little information available in public health, existing limitations in team networks at the first level of care, and the limited inputs and medical staff willing to practice in these risk areas, are part of this reality.

Nowadays, Colombia is living a historic moment. The peace talks that the gov-ernment is doing with the FARC in Havana, Cuba are a great opportunity and a challenge to build a different country. In this process are involved a variety of organisms and nations with the desire to be part of the change.

The UK, for instance, is going to help through mobile and permanent health-care solutions to remote conflict-affected areas: however, they have not de-veloped or found tools or tactics to support this process. . The Rt Hon Greg Hands MP, Minister of State for Trade and Investment emphasize: The UK has significant experience providing a high standard of healthcare across the world. We want to understand how the UK government and industry can best support the vital development of Colombias healthcare system post-conflict. The range of exciting, innovative companies here today sees great potential in Colombia and stand ready to contribute to Colombias healthcare requirements in the coming months and years (Healthcare UK, 2016).

Otherwise, a similar support is held in Huffington Post by Jay T. Snyder, Chairman of Open Hands Initiative. In January 2016 in the USA and Colombia, there was an initiative whose name was Post-Conflict Colombia and Public Health proposed by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative in collaboration with the University of Antioquia from Colombia under a project of the Open Hands Initiative de-fined in an academic and cultural exchange where 16 students through a program of theoretical concepts and methodologies assessed the needs of vulnerable populations and generated ways to treat these needs, contrib-uting to the engagement and reintegration of displaced people and demobil-ised into civil society.

This group of selected master's students in public health and emergency medicine from Harvard and the University of Antioquia worked together to develop initiatives aimed at improving the health of the Granizal community (one of the zones affected by the armed conflict). In this case, a census was proposed in order

Background

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to determine the current status of the population which led on the common welfare with decisions about issues such as health system affiliation; special treatment for the elderly, women and indigenous groups; people who need critical atten-tion; and how to build more accessible routes, among others (Snyder, 2016). A community health center was the result of this initiative which wanted to pro-vide this community primary healthcare services.

There will be four challenges within the framework of healthcare in the post-conflict according to the Minister of Health and Protection (2014): mental and psycho-social health, decreasing of consumption of psychoactive substances, affiliation to health system to whom lay down the arms, and reintegration of former com-batants to civilian life, especially in rural areas of Colombia, affected by the armed conflict.

Primarily, departments as Antioquia and Meta will present roughly 13.000 demobi-lized people, being the places with the higher quantity of victims affected by the conflict. Infobae (2016), an Argentine digital journal describes how they will be distributed in 7 different camps planned and located in Meta: Macarena, Ma-piripán, Mesetas, Vistahermosa; and Antioquia: Remedios, Ituango, Dabeiba.

In this final agreement treated with the FARC, there are six points which include subjects as ceasefire and disarmament, justice for victims, drug trafficking, rebels in politics, land reform, and ratifying the accord. The document suggests a comprehensive rural reform which includes the transformation of the rural reality in Colombia, eradicating poverty, promoting the equality, and ensuring the fulfillment of basic human rights. In terms of healthcare, the proposal is approaching the health-services offering to vulnerable communities with the creation of the National Rural Health Plan to start the building and improvement of health cen-ters, with appropriate technological infrastructure getting a greater coverage, quality, continuity and follow-up of the attention.

According to the Ministry of Health and Protection, it will be a great opportuni-ty to show Colombia that the right to health is a reality for all the Colombians as a result of the Peace Agreement.

However, despite having international support for infrastructure, diagnostic equipment, and medical personnel, the current concern is to train Colombian medical staff because at this moment the working capital could not be enough to face this process according to Ferrero (2013), but some people think that the barriers are presented under Colombian laws and conditions which do not allow professional and trained people to work and support this new phase.

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Timeline

Febrel, S. F. (2013, October 21). 'Colombia: conflicto armado, salud y paz' .Semana.com. Retrieved on 3th December 201, from: http://www.semana.com/opinion/articulo/conflic-

to-armado-reforma-salud-opinion-sergio-ferrero/361874-3

Gómez Isa, Felipe. (2013, April). Justice, truth and reparation in the Colombian peace process. Retrieved on 24thNovember 2016 from: http://noref.no/var/ezflow_site/storage/original/applica-

tion/5e7c839d7cf77846086b6065c72d13c5.pdf

Healthcare UK, D. f. (2016, November 30). 'Healthcare for post-conflict Colombia'. Retrieved on 7th December 2016 from Government Digital Service: https://www.gov.uk/govern-

ment/news/healthcare-for-post-conflict-colombia

Infobae. (2016, June 29). El mapa del proceso de paz en Colombia: dónde reubicarán a las FARC durante la desmovilización. Retrieved on 15th November 2016 from Infobae: http://www.in-

fobae.com/america/america-lati-na/2016/06/29/el-mapa-del-proceso-de-paz-en-colombia-donde-reubicaran-a-las-farc-durante-la-desmovilizacion/ Lanacion.com.co. (2016, September 26). Los cuatro grandes retos de la salud

en el postconflicto. Retrieved on 25th October 2016 from: http://www.lanacion.com.co/index-.php/actualidad-lanacion/item/277167-los-cuatro-grandes-retos-de-la-salud-en-el-postconflicto

Salud, M. d. (2014, October 24). MinSalud presenta bases de la propuesta sectorial del Plan Nacio-nal de Desarrollo. Retrieved on 4th September 2016 from : https://www.minsalud.gov.co/Pagi-nas/MinSalud-presenta-bases-de-la-propuesta-sectorial-del-Plan-Nacional-de-Desarrollo.aspx

Snyder, J. T. (2016, January 22). Planning for a Post-Conflict Colombia: Emerging Public Health Leaders Develop Health Interventions for IDPs. Retrieved on 24th October 2016 from The Huffing-

ton Post:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/postconflict-colom-bia-and-public-health/planning-for-a-post-confl_b_9039096.html

The Office of the High Commissioner for Peace (2016). What we have achieved so far in the Colombian Peace Process. Retrieved on 5th October

2016 from: http://www.altocomisionadoparalapaz.gov.co/herramientas/Docu-ments/peace-process.pdf

The United Nations (2015). Ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages. Retrieved on 2th December 2016 from:http://www.who.int/topics/sustainable-development-goals/-

targets/en/

References

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