For all governments, the National Development Plan (PND) becomes the roadmap for its administration and the Government of Iván Duque presented its own in 2018: Pact for Colombia, Pact for Equity. Less than a year after the end of his term, the document has a current progress of 62%, according to the Department of National Planning, the managing entity of the Plan.
However, some sectors show a lag in meeting their indicators compared to the general outlook. Figures from the entity show that among the most backward are inclusion (45.72%), environment (47.81%) and health (48.67%).
“Within the framework of the National Development Plan, an effort was made by the Government so that the 670 indicators that were put into the plan in 2018 and approved in 2019 are the same as we have today. When we think about the National Plan of Development we did not know that a pandemic was coming, and in that sense we remain in those goals “, clarified Alejandra Botero, director of National Planning.
(How to Prepare for Economic Emergencies).
According to the official, among the furthest behind are the health and inclusion sectors, “Because a large part of the indicators have to do with the management of the health sector, which were affected by the pandemic, and with poverty indicators, which were affected in the case of Social Protection”, while in the case of environment, he said that this lag is explained because “There are some very ambitious goals”, despite an important job that has been taking place this year.
“We have a very ambitious goal, which is to be able to achieve 85% of the PND, and that has a very large variability, in some sectors that are doing very well and in others that are far behind”, Botero said, who also highlighted that 85% compliance with a National Development Plan is something that has not been achieved for 10 years.
On the contrary, some sectors have been delivering much more solid advances throughout the three years of government. Botero highlighted that four of them are above 75% of what was planned in the Development Plan. The most advanced to date is Intelligence (National Intelligence Directorate), with a management of 88.89%, followed by Public Function (81.16%), Foreign Relations (78.2%) and the National Planning itself (75.8%).
In total the National Development Plan It has 24 sectors, and there are 13 that register progress above the total average, such as ICT (71.39%), trade, industry and tourism (69.69%), work (69.48%) and culture (67 , 07%), among others.
Likewise, of the four major pacts that make up the document, the macroeconomic consistency is at 61.76%, the structural pacts are advancing at 61.37%, the regional component is at 49.39% while those classified as transversal are by 66.14%.
THE WORK PLAN
Although Botero has been in charge of National Planning for three months, The official announced the work plan that the entity has planned to achieve the goal of 85% of the Development Plan before August 6, 2022.
The first point of the work plan is a debugging of the system, adjusting indicators that change with the new census, methodological adjustments and double counting.
Joint work will also be carried out between the technical teams of the National Planning Department and the sectors to reach the sector goals following the plan.
The third point of the work plan, as explained by Botero, consists of preparing projection exercises for compliance with 85% to identify the indicators and sectors where efforts should be focused, and finally, make the necessary reviews with the President, the ministers and entity managers, so that identified high-level bottlenecks can be unlocked. “The documentary collection is another of the priorities of this Government. It was a lot that had to innovate with the pandemic, and we hope that this remains a learning for future governments. We are now removing the Law of Junction, and reviewing how a National Development Plan is made, because the truth is that a 1,200-page document does not make much sense “, said the official.
According to Botero, among the tasks carried out by the Government is to work on that, Without the Plan losing its technical solidity, it becomes “more user-friendly”.
In addition to the fulfillment of the Development Plan, other objectives of the last year of Government from Planning are the implementation of Sisbén IV, which seeks to reduce the poverty figures to prendemic levels, the strengthening of the multipurpose cadastre, the fulfillment of the territorial pacts as well as the Decentralization Mission and the Intervention to La Mojana.
PROGRESS IN CATASTRE
Another task that National Planning assumed during this government was updating the cadastral information at the national level, through a multipurpose cadastre. However, according to Botero, “it has been a slower policy than anticipated ”, and assured that he does not believe that the goal of 60% updated by 2022 will be achieved. The official assured that to date 17.5 million hectares have been updated, which is equivalent to 15.4% of the total, and the update of 30.1% has been financed, a portion that is equivalent to 34.3 million hectares.
LAURA LUCÍA BECERRA ELEJALDE
