This article has been written by Confederación Colombiana de ONG (the Colombian Confederation of NGOs)- CCONG, as part of the capacity development process it is carrying out with the support Forus in cooperation with the French Development Agency.   

By Luz Ángela Ramírez Ruiz.  

The Strategic Plan - SP (2025-2022) adopted and implemented by the CCONG was developed in a changing and critical context for the enabling environment and political and economic conditions, which required the organisation to be innovative, without changing its projected course. The COVID-19 pandemic imposed new challenges, as it had to enhance the use of ICTs in a country with low levels of connectivity and digital literacy among CSO social leaders.   

But every cloud has a silver lining, as the popular adage goes. This is because the CCONG achieved its goals both in terms of objectives  (in scenarios, pedagogical tools and methodologies) and impact (actions of value that facilitated the transformation or creation of new realities). As a result, the Pedagogical Balance of its value offer was significantly increased and recognised through this process.  

Using the concept of "self-assessment", which motivates critical reflection, the internal team of the CCONG was able to recognise, through the traffic light methodology, the progress (goals), achievements (pedagogical scenarios and instruments) and impacts (transformation of realities). At the same time, external actors, through the Appreciative Inquiry methodology - AIA, were able to share the assessment of the balance of the articulated action and the recognition as a co-responsible actor of development. Among the most significant results are:

• Creation and promotion of the first cohort of CSOs in the Accreditation System, as a set of voluntary processes of self-recognition and self-strengthening. 
• Strengthening of the training cycle - educational project - in order to comply, in particular, with the legislation restricting an Enabling Environment for civil society. 
• Advocacy and visibility in the public sphere, consolidating national and territorial advocacy agendas related to an enabling environment and participatory planning.  
• Construction of knowledge and information on the sector, with the sector, and aimed at development actors; highlighting the joint construction of the "Statistical Note: Contribution of NGOs to the fulfilment of the development agenda - Sustainable Development Goals: so that no one is left behind”, with the National Department of Statistics - DANE. 
• Pedagogical communication - "Infographics" that provide information and motivate the participation of citizens, regardless of their location, in recognising the composition of the sector, in favouring the narrative of what CSOs are and what they do, and for advocacy and political and social dialogue, especially in those processes that limit the enabling environment.   

With these achievements and advances, and with the demands of the different development actors, the construction of the new SP 2022-2025 will move forward.