On Sunday, February 16, the official delivery of the final report of Results of the EOT Barichara Citizen Forum took place, a process that for several months collected the voice of nearly 1,200 people to think about the direction of the municipality towards the year 2037.
The meeting took place at the Paper Workshop of the San Lorenzo Foundation and brought together around 170 people: community members, volunteers, partner institutions, and representatives from the national, departmental, and local governments. It was a space to listen to what the community had already expressed throughout the process.
The Forum was a civil society initiative, spearheaded by the Community Water Roundtable (MESETA), which promoted the need to create a broad and participatory space around the Territorial Planning Scheme (EOT). The Barichara Regenerative Foundation supported the channeling of resources and provided technical assistance for the Forum's development from the outset, while the Autonomous University of Bucaramanga (UNAB) strengthened the pedagogical approach of the process.
For months, community meetings were held with the Community Action Boards, with students from educational institutions, sectoral gatherings were generated, mapping exercises and spaces for dialogue in which residents of rural areas and neighborhoods shared their concerns, proposals and visions about the future of Barichara.
The discussions covered water conservation, environmental protection, rural areas, urban growth, the local economy, and the need to strengthen the territory's cultural identity, based on the determinants of the Territorial Planning Scheme established by law in Colombia. These dialogues not only broadened the public conversation but also allowed for the involvement of productive and community stakeholders in a structured discussion about the municipality's development model, which can help strengthen public-private partnerships and generate greater levels of trust between sectors.
An exercise in participation and territorial governance
It is important to clarify that the Forum's Steering Committee did not present its own proposal, except for the methodology of the process. The self-managed task was to collect, organize, and relay the community's input. The final report synthesizes these voices and transforms them into a citizen-generated contribution formally submitted to the municipal authorities, to directly contribute to the updating of the Land Use Plan.
The delivery of the report did not mark the end of the process, but rather the beginning of a new stage, which now rests with the municipal government, which is responsible for implementing the updated Land Use Plan (EOT). The publicly released document, as well as the Forum's website, allows anyone to consult citizen contributions and track the agreements reached collectively, guaranteeing transparency and traceability.
We believe that by engaging in participatory discussions on land-use planning, environmental protection, urban expansion, and productive potential, the process can contribute to improving conditions for local economic development by generating greater predictability, legitimacy, and sustainability in decisions that impact the local economy. Furthermore, the pedagogical translation of technical tools allowed traditionally excluded sectors to participate on equal terms, broadening the social base of decision-making.
Active community participation was central to this exercise. People of different ages, professions, and backgrounds joined the conversation about the territory they share. The result was a territorial governance exercise: transparent, rigorous, and deeply human, whose methodology—based on community leadership, intersectoral collaboration, and open digital tools—is replicable and transferable to other municipalities seeking to strengthen their planning through genuine participation.
The Forum's Steering Committee is deeply grateful and pleased with the positive reception this process received from the community, as well as from local, regional, and national authorities. We are confident that this experience can become a model for other regions of the country, demonstrating that organized and respectful citizen participation is a viable path to strengthening planning, local economic development, and democracy.
Visit the portal for the final report of the EOT Barichara Citizen Forum and consult the minutes of each meeting at: http://www.foroeotbarichara.com
