The director of the General Royalties System, Álvaro Ávila and the Vice Minister of the Interior, Carlos Alberto Baena, explain the details of the adjustments that the royalty law will have as of January 1, 2021.
The policies on the distribution of royalties will, a priori , have a greater scope and budget for the next two years, as stipulated by Law 2056 of 2020. The General System of Royalties (SGR), in addition to giving priority to investments in tertiary roads, rural electrification, the agricultural sector and everything related to basic sanitation and access to drinking water in all regions of the country, will have the challenge of promoting investment projects within the different ethnic groups settled throughout the national territory.
Although the investment directed at this population is not new, for the 2021-2022 biennium the SGR will seek to establish itself in this matter. If reference is made to indigenous peoples and communities, the Roma-gypsy people and the black, Afro-Colombian, Raizales and Palenqueras communities (NARP), the investments transferred there by planning, since 2012, amount in 872 projects approved to $ 1.1 trillions.
Ethnic groups in the country will have $ 348,000 million in royalties
for the 2021-2022 biennium. Projects to give them greater autonomy and
participation head the projections of the SGR.
Now, in terms of autonomy, a new regulation is also planned within Law 2056. According to the norm, initiated from the offices of the Ministry of the Interior, from next year there will be three ethnic decision-making bodies, which will have a decisive role in Local Assignment projects and, in turn, their representatives are the ones who will have the last word to approve Direct Assignment projects.
Another novelty, which is particularly important, is that for the first time the ethnic peoples will have a voice and vote on the issues of Title V within the Governing Commission, in charge of defining the policies of the SGR.
New resource allocation
Before Law 2056 of 2020, the resources for the allocation of local investment to ethnic communities were $ 157,623 million. Now, of the total direct social investment ($ 17.3 billion), there will be 15% that will go directly to the coffers of the local investment allocation.
This will be divided into two parts: 12.68% will go to municipalities with unsatisfied basic needs (NBI) greater than the national average and to municipalities in the fourth, fifth and sixth categories. On the other hand, the remaining 2.32% will go to a specific national exchange aimed at indigenous peoples ($ 150,000 million), NARP communities ($ 165,000 million) and Pueblo Rrom ($ 33,000 million). Its total for ethnic issues, $ 348 billion, is an increase of more than double what the country saw until 2020 in the scenario of local royalties for ethnic communities.
Follow the news of El Espectador on Google NewsÁlvaro Ávila Silva, director of the SGR, in addition to detailing the aforementioned figures, highlights that the new royalties law will be fully capable of “increasing the autonomy of ethnic groups, because now they will not only present, but will also be able to approve and execute projects that will be financed with royalty resources for the benefit of their communities ”. In addition, in terms of articulation with the territorial entities, the director Ávila assures that “the new law establishes that all the producing municipalities must now allocate 4.5% and the governments 2% in the biennium, in investment projects that they approve these ethnic groups ”.
Within the SGR, they are aware of the lessons that the past biennium left and of how they can implement the lessons learned so that in the period 2021-2022, royalty policies continue to be focused according to the needs of each region. In line with this, Ávila says that the royalty system is now more agile and flexible than before, among other things, because it has “the highest approval of resources in the history of the system, seen in more than 10 billion pesos in more than 3,000 projects in a year, which were projects with high social impact and many of which are now a reality ”, he comments.
In other figures, the director Ávila asserts that in this biennium to end, “I can say that to date we have financed 4,533 projects worth $ 14.2 billion pesos and in the OCAD PAZ more than 1.5 billion pesos have been approved” .
“We managed to make ethnic groups visible in the new Royalties law”
Despite the limitations in different sectors that the pandemic has left, the powers of the new royalty law present good signs to start the new year. One evidence of this is its speed with consultation processes when it comes to articulating with ethnic communities.
The Vice Minister of the Interior, Carlos Alberto Baena, told this newspaper that these processes have been enriching for the autonomy of ancestral peoples.
The official added that “Law 2056 of 2020 was the first Law in Colombia that was consulted in a virtual way, at the time the socialization process in the national territory had an advance of more than 90% and in this way we continue in the process consultation with nationals of each community spaces, the process of prior consultation allowed for the first time you consult indigenous peoples and the people Rrom, this fact was an enriching exercise for autonomy and participation ethnic groups in this new Royalties Law. Thanks to this work, we achieved 99% agreement between the National Government and the ethnic populations, making them more visible ”.
Regarding what has happened in the last eight years in terms of royalties, Carlos Alberto Baena affirms that “the balance since 2012 shows that in this area 872 projects have been developed via royalties that are distributed as follows: 518 for indigenous peoples, seven for black, Afro-Colombian, Raizales and Palenqueras communities, and seven for Roma-gypsy communities ”.
In addition, Vice Minister Baena suggests that since the current government they have placed special emphasis on the timely implementation of projects for the more than 5 million Colombians within these population groups. “It should be noted that through royalties so far this government has approved resources for projects for more than $ 225,000 million,” sums up the deputy minister.
Within the projections that his portfolio has for royalty projects, Carlos Baena understands that in order to be successful in this new stage with Law 2056 of 2020, “technical support must be provided and guarantee that ethnic communities have planning effective, allowing them to identify and prioritize investment initiatives or projects that can be financed with royalty resources. Especially that they meet the principles of competitive and productive development of the territory and those of planning with a participatory, democratic and concerted approach ”.
Baena concludes that with the leadership of the Minister of the Interior, Alicia Arango and coordination with the management of the General Royalties System, “all the technical assistance required so that this new challenge can be met” will be guaranteed.
