Violence transformation during the post conflict period in Cauca, Colombia

This report is the first deliverable from the project Food for Security: Evidence from Cauca, Colombia (SEGURA) funded by the Research Council of Norway 2020–2023. The SEGURA project is an interdisciplinary study of how conflict shapes, and is shaped by, food security by choosing the Cauca region of Colombia as a case study. During preparation of this project, one of the major stakeholders of our research proposal asked: “We see a lot of grave things happening down in Cauca that we do not understand. It doesn’t make sense to us. What is going on, really?” Indeed, Cauca is unique in its history, ethnic composition, power structures, agricultural topography, biological diversity, food traditions, etc. Our basic idea, however, is that by understanding what is going on in the Cauca region of Colombia, we will also be able to comprehend the complexities of the food security and conflict, not only in Cauca and in Colombia, but also in other similar conflict-affected settings. The objective of this report is twofold. First, we will provide an updated state of the art on the knowledge of food security and conflict in Cauca. We review existing and available literature describing the food security situation, key actors, divisions and alliances in the conflict, and issues that are being raised on the public and political agendas in Colombia. This will provide a crucial knowledge base and input to further activities in this project, including data collection, interpretation, and disseminatio