- In Colombia, local community organizations known as Community Action Boards (Juntas de Acción Comunal) are strengthening governance from the ground up through a new IDB-supported training experience.
- A 2025 hybrid training program developed by the IDB and the Cartagena City Government helped community leaders strengthen their knowledge of governance, participation, and project design by more than 20%.
- The experience is helping local communities to better engage with local governments to address their needs, offering a scalable model for strengthening community governance in Colombia and across Latin America, with examples ranging from inclusive transport in island districts to zero-waste initiatives in underserved neighborhoods.
In Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, many of the decisions that shape daily life begin close to home: in community meetings, neighborhood streets, and shared spaces where residents come together to address pressing needs. This strong tradition of local organization reflects the commitment of community leaders who understand their communities firsthand.
Yet when these leaders identify a problem, the challenge is often not recognizing what needs to be done, but how to turn that idea into a project capable of mobilizing resources and institutions. Local knowledge is already there. What is often needed are more practical tools to translate community priorities into structured, actionable proposals—an agenda the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is actively supporting in Latin America and the Caribbean.
As one community leader put it, “Progress often depends not only on opportunities, but on having the knowledge to make the most of them.” That idea is at the heart of the Cartagena experience—one the IDB has documented in a new report, Fortaleciendo el Liderazgo Comunitario en Cartagena de Indias (available in Spanish).
The Power of Local Action
Colombia’s progress over the past two decades shows that change is possible. Monetary poverty has fallen from more than 50% at the turn of the millennium to 31.8% in 2024. Yet inequality remains high, with a Gini coefficient of 0.54 in 2023, and cities continue to face complex social demands.
In Cartagena, those demands are felt at the neighborhood level. The city is home to nearly 69,000 Venezuelan migrants, who enrich its social fabric while also increasing the need for responsive local services and stronger community-level solutions.
At the center of this local action are Colombia’s Community Action Boards (Juntas de Acción Comunal), grassroots organizations that help channel citizen participation and connect communities with public authorities. With more than 45,000 nationwide, they are one of the country’s most important mechanisms for bringing local priorities into development decisions.
Recognized under Law 2166 of 2021, these organizations are deeply embedded in neighborhoods across Colombia. Strengthening their technical and administrative tools can help them play an even greater role in making local governance more inclusive and responsive.
Helping Local Ideas Become Real Projects
In the second half of 2025, the IDB and the Cartagena City Government launched a training program for members of the Community Action Boards and other community actors across the city. The goal was simple: help leaders turn what they already know about their neighborhoods into projects that can be planned, presented, and implemented.
The program combined a broad virtual phase with an intensive in-person lab. It focused on three areas:
- the institutional framework of the Community Action Boards,
- citizen participation mechanisms, and
- leadership and project design.
Step by step, participants learned how to navigate the institutional landscape and turn local ideas into viable initiatives.
What Local Leaders Gained
The virtual phase showed clear gains. Among nearly 400 participants, average knowledge increased by more than 20% across the program’s three areas. Understanding of the institutional framework of the Community Action Boards rose from 64% to 86%, while knowledge of citizen participation mechanisms increased from 66% to 85%. In project formulation, where participants already had a stronger starting point, scores still improved from 84.7% to 88.8%.
From Ideas to Action: The In-Person Laboratory
The Cartagena program’s in-person lab was designed as a space for translating knowledge into action. Seventy-eight community leaders came together to design 12 concrete development projects tailored to their communities.
These initiatives addressed diverse priorities, including an inclusive water transport system in island districts, youth cultural centers promoting well-being and creativity, and recycling programs that combine environmental sustainability with income generation.
A Local Example: “Basureros Cero”
A particularly illustrative example is “Basureros Cero,” from the Olaya Herrera neighborhood. Community leaders identified five critical illegal dumping sites and transformed this long-standing concern into a structured solution—combining data collection, community awareness, coordination with local authorities, and engagement with recyclers. The project shows in practical terms how a local concern can become coordinated action.
Equally important were the intangible outcomes. Participants reported stronger connections among leaders across neighborhoods and renewed confidence in their collective ability to shape their communities. The program strengthened not only technical skills, but also collaboration, trust, and motivation.
What Policymakers Can Take from the Cartagena Experience
The Cartagena experience offers valuable lessons for strengthening community-centered governance. These findings are documented in detail in the IDB's report Fortaleciendo el Liderazgo Comunitario en Cartagena de Indias (available in Spanish), which offers a practical framework for organizations and governments looking to replicate this model. It shows that scalable approaches can combine reach and depth when they bring together technical training, leadership development, and participatory diagnostics.
Ultimately, investing in community leadership is not only a social intervention; it is also a governance strategy. When local organizations have the tools to turn community priorities into viable projects, they become stronger partners in designing, implementing, and sustaining development solutions.
For policymakers, the message is clear: supporting organizations like the Community Action Boards can make local governance more responsive, inclusive, and effective. By building on existing community knowledge and helping translate it into concrete action, these initiatives can generate lasting improvements in people’s lives, one neighborhood at a time.
For more details, see our report Fortaleciendo el Liderazgo Comunitario en Cartagena de Indias — available in Spanish only.