How International NGOs work with Internally Displaced Persons - A Minor Field Study of the Colombian Case

Abstract: Ever since its independence from Panamá, Colombia has suffered internal conflicts. This has posed a threat to the country’s stability and has produced much internal displacement in the country. After Sudan, Colombia has the largest amount of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the world. There are many NGOs active in Colombia that work to attend this crisis and in comparison to other countries with severe internal-displacement problems; Colombia has the most advanced system to attend it. In spite of this seemingly beneficial situation, the IDPs belong to the poorest of Colombian society and to this day hundreds of thousands of people get displaced every year. The aim of this thesis was to investigate the work of International NGOs active in Colombia in this area, through a theoretical perspective that views NGOs as gap-fillers to weak governments, and to look at their relationship to the Colombian government - this in order to explain the contradictions that exist in the Colombian case regarding attention to the IDP. Given the perspectives brought up in the theoretical approach, this thesis concludes that the two main difficulties of the INGOs are the strained relationship with the Colombian government and the lack of inter-INGO cooperation.