Communities and companies continue to build together the Social Investment Plan of the Soto Norte Project

Bucaramanga, May 13, 2023. With a massive participation of inhabitants, male and female leaders of California, Surata and Matanza (Santander), the Second Community Meeting convened by the Soto Norte Project was held, with the objective of building, together with the inhabitants of the province, the Framework Social Agreement where the company's social investment for 2023 will be defined.

For this meeting, the main objective was to form the regional and municipal commissions that will manage the development and monitoring of this great Social Agreement, so that each municipality can, with the support of the Soto Norte Project, prioritize and execute those projects that are so badly needed in the region.

In this sense, the company invited all attendees to be part of each of the groups that respond to a specific investment line in order to define the approach of each investment project, the internal structure of the commission, the working mechanisms and the roles of each member. Likewise, they agreed on the main actions to be developed to meet the objective and work schedule.

The first gathering was held on Monday, May 8, in California, with the formation of seven commissions: Road Infrastructure, Vital Infrastructure, Education, Health and Welfare, Own Economy, Community Strengthening and Project Management.

The next day, with more than 100 inhabitants of Surata, the second gathering was completed in this municipality, where the commissions for Improvement of roads / construction of footprint plates, Studies and designs of water conduction system, Farmers Market, Improvement of rural schools and School transport were formed.

Following the same methodology, the meeting was held in Matanza on Wednesday, May 10. In this municipality, four commissions were consolidated: Road improvement, School transport, Farmers' Market and Studies and designs for Collection Center. Under this participatory construction initiative, the Soto Norte Project aims to ensure that social investment lines actually generate a collective benefit. Apart from the municipal commissions, three regional commissions will have to be formed.

Bajo esta iniciativa de construcción participativa, el Proyecto Soto Norte pretende que las líneas de inversión social generen realmente un beneficio colectivo. Aparte de las comisiones municipales, se tendrán que conformar tres comisiones regionales.

The second is the Relationship and Management Committee, which provides cross-cutting support to all the committees defined within the framework of the Social Agreements of the Soto Norte Project with all the municipalities in the area of influence. This, considering that the execution of each of the plans will need management before governmental and non-governmental, local, departmental and national instances, as well as management of resources necessary to facilitate the development of key projects in the territory.

La segunda es la comisión de Relacionamiento y Gestión, la cual brinda soporte transversal a todas las comisiones definidas en el marco de los Acuerdos Sociales del Proyecto Soto Norte con todos los municipios del área de influencia. Esto, teniendo en cuenta que la ejecución de cada uno de los planes necesitará gestión ante instancias gubernamentales y no gubernamentales, locales, departamentales y nacionales, así como gestión de recursos necesarios para facilitar el desarrollo de proyectos clave en el territorio.

Finally, the third regional commission is of Innovation and Competitiveness, which will help identify and formulate, or support the formulation of, new development projects for the Province of Soto Norte.

"A month ago, the community had the opportunity to choose the investment lines and projects. With this second moment of the process, we seek a shared vision of what is best for the territory, the municipality and the entire community. In this second meeting we have new participants, as it demonstrates the commitment and active participation of the people of Soto Norte in the decisions made by the company for social investment this year, "said Yaneth Mantilla Baron, Vice President of Strategic Affairs.

Lizeth Duran Leon, a member of Matanza's Own Economy Committee, said that "it has been a very interesting and participatory exercise because citizens were listened to. We had the opportunity to work as a team to see how we can contribute to the execution of actions to mitigate the different needs that are being presented in the territories. "

Each commission, which will be led by a person from the community, will have the responsibility of guiding and/or accompanying the design of the project, managing permits (before authorities and before the community) and other actions required to enable or facilitate the execution thereof.

It is important to mention that among its functions is also to provide support and supervise the execution of the project, keep the community informed and manage technical, financial and human resources required to ensure the effective execution of the project.

The Framework Social Agreement is one of the results of the "Soto Norte Social Dialogue", a process led by the Soto Norte Project and EAN University, in which more than 800 people from the province, 100 leaders, 69 Community Action Boards, and 71 villages from the three municipalities participated.