Rooted in meaning

Regional

Some of our initiatives have operated across borders or beyond the four core countries. In total, these Regional efforts span five additional countries in Latin America, collectively reaching more than 40 local communities. In border regions, for example between Colombia and Ecuador, partners have responded to shared issues such as displacement, weak institutional presence and insecurity, supporting coordinated approaches to protection and service delivery across both sides of the border. More broadly, regional programmes have addressed cross-cutting risks including trafficking, sexual exploitation and violence, as well as pressures linked to climate vulnerability and economic instability, which are increasingly compounded by reductions in international development funding across the region.

At the same time, Regional initiatives have played a critical role in connecting actors, systems and knowledge across countries. This has taken place through regional networks, multi-sector working groups and inter‑organisational platforms, many of which have evolved into sustained coordination spaces that continue to operate today. 

• Active programmes and projects: 4
• Initiatives supported since 2004: 34
• Local organisations supported since 2004: 31

Colombia

Beginning in the context of armed conflict and widespread displacement in areas such as the Bajo Atrato and Alto Guayabal, and extending into urban peripheries like Comuna 18 in Cali, Altos de Cazuca in Soacha and neighbourhoods in Tumaco and Cartagena, our work in Colombia has consistently focused on communities where risks to children and families are most acute. These contexts, marked by violence, displacement and limited state presence, have framed our partners’ response to key national shifts, including stronger child protection legislation and the 2016 peace agreement and its aftermath.

In places such as Kennedy in Bogotá, Quibdó’s neighbourhoods, and indigenous territories in Northern Cauca, our partners have supported local networks, strengthened protection systems, and enabled children, women and communities to engage directly with decision-making processes. This has allowed community-led evidence and organisation to influence municipal plans, national policies and even peace negotiations, while ensuring that responses remain grounded in lived realities.

• Active programmes and projects: 8
• Initiatives supported since 2004: 36
• Local organisations supported since 2004: 46+

Ecuador

As the first country in Latin America to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and with the 2008 Constitution recognising children as a priority group while defining Ecuador as plurinational, intercultural and committed to the rights of nature, the challenge for our partners has been turning these commitments into lived realities. Working across more than 20 local communities in provinces such as Guayas, Esmeraldas, El Oro and Manabí, our partners have focused on children and families facing violence, exclusion and economic vulnerability.

What stands out in Ecuador is how partners have developed practical, community-based solutions to operationalise these rights. In Esmeraldas and Guayas, they have created safe and inclusive school environments linked to community protection networks, combining prevention of violence with stronger referral systems so children can access support services. In Manabí, youth-led “safe spaces” and clubs have enabled adolescents to build life skills, address early pregnancy and identify abuse, while engaging parents, local authorities and service providers to shift harmful norms.

• Active programmes and projects: 5
• Initiatives supported since 2004: 18
• Local organisations supported since 2004: 22+

Peru

Peru has made sustained efforts to strengthen national systems aimed at improving children’s wellbeing. However, these advances have not been experienced equally. Children and families in rural and indigenous communities across the Andes and the Amazon continue to face higher levels of poverty, malnutrition and limited access to quality services. Across more than 25 local communities, our partners have worked precisely in these contexts, focusing on bridging the gap between policy ambition and the lived realities of children and families.

In regions such as Huancavelica and Ayacucho, for example, partners have developed community-based models in health, early childhood care and nutrition that link families with public services, directly addressing national priorities while demonstrating how integrated approaches can work in remote settings. At the same time, they have strengthened local protection systems, supported participation mechanisms for children and young people, and contributed evidence and methodologies that inform wider policy and programme design, including national strategies on protection and wellbeing.

• Active programmes and projects: 7
• Initiatives supported since 2004: 21
• Local organisations supported since 2004: 28+

Bolivia

Working across more than 30 local communities, from Amazon territories in Beni to highland and peri‑urban areas in La Paz, Cochabamba and Taraco, our partners in this country have focused on places where poverty, climate vulnerability and limited access to services most directly affect children and families. More than in any other country, initiatives in Bolivia have consistently centred on indigenous communities, reflecting and reinforcing the country’s transition to a Plurinational State since the 2009 Constitution.

Our work has engaged closely with these shifts, supporting processes such as decentralisation and indigenous autonomy, as well as strengthening land rights and community control over natural resources, particularly in the Amazon, where environmental pressures and inequality intersect visibly. Across these contexts, our partners have worked to ensure that children’s rights and family wellbeing are embedded within broader processes of social and territorial change.

• Active programmes and projects: 5
• Initiatives supported since 2004: 23
• Local organisations supported since 2004: 34+