Gender and the Role of Women in Colombia's Peace Process

The promises and visions articulated in United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 and subsequent UN resolutions and position papers that recognize the connection between gender equity and women’s participation in all aspects of peace processes and peacebuilding on the one hand, and international peace and security on the other, have not been fulfilled. Nonetheless, these resolutions have opened the way for advocacy that has had some successes in specific contexts. Colombia offers one such case.

Through desk research, literature review, and personal interviews, this paper provides an overview of the Colombian internal armed conflict and the peace process currently underway to transform it.1 It begins with an historical overview of the conflict, and then explores some of its gender dimensions. It analyzes the differential impact of the internal armed conflict on the lives of women and men, LBGTI persons, and boys, girls and adolescents, as well as the intersectionality between multiple components of identity, including gender, class, age, ethnicity, and region. The paper then turns to the peace process. It explores the roles of women in preparing the ground for a political solution to Colombia’s internal armed conflict. It considers women’s official, semi-official, and unofficial roles at, around, and outside the peace talks that were launched in late 2012 between the Colombian government and the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC-EP). This paper underscores the essentially gendered nature of both war and peace. It assesses shifting gender roles and ideologies, and the ways that they intersect with a peace process and transitions in a post-Accord period, particularly in relation to issues of transitional justice. Finally, my paper explores how greater consideration of gendered dynamics, as well as increased participation of women in the peace process and all commissions and bodies created to implement peace accords, will better equip Colombia to address the challenges ahead and will help ensure a more sustainable peace.

Developers are making billions off of Metro.

Some of Washington’s most accomplished real estate developers on Monday announced a new company that one described as a “true powerhouse.” Valued at $8.4 billion, the company, JBG Smith, will be the capital’s largest landlord to the federal government and will dwarf any real estate venture the region has seen.

To create it, the principles of two existing firms, the JBG Cos. and Vornado/Charles E. Smith, merged their companies and took what they considered the best 92 properties (including 50 office complexes and 18 apartment buildings) from each. Everything else will be sold. Although the properties are spread across the region, one characteristic unites them. Almost every one — 98 percent — is within a half-mile of a Metro station. That is, after all, where much of the most valuable real estate in the region is.

Daily Metro riders might be surprised that the proximity is prized, considering the troubles they endure in their daily commutes. Delays, maintenance shortfalls and security crises rack the system on a routine basis. Its financial and managerial underpinning are in such poor shape that the day after JBG Smith was announced, The Washington Post editorial board wrote that Metro was mired in “what looks increasingly like a death spiral” and argued for a federal takeover of the entire system.

A day later, Metro’s board chairman, Jack Evans, said he had reached the same conclusion, saying “extraordinary powers” were needed to overhaul Metro’s finances, workforce and governance. But for all Metro’s woes, smart real estate is betting on it more than ever. All of that development leads to property, sales and income taxes that fill local tax coffers. The extra revenue could eventually be tapped to help put the transit system back on solid financial footing.

“I believe JBG Smith has the potential to be the fastest-growing real estate company in the country,” said Steve Roth, a New York real estate magnate, on a call with investors to announce the new company. Roth is founder and chairman of Vornado Realty Trust, an $18 billion real estate empire, and will create JBG Smith by spinning off its Washington unit and combining it with JBG Cos., which is based in Chevy Chase, Md.

Roth said that they “very carefully selected which JBG properties would be included,” ultimately deciding to keep 41 properties valued at $2.4 billion that he and other executives reminded investors again and again were in “Metro-served” markets. That includes properties near downtown D.C. stations as well as those in Bethesda, Silver Spring, Rockville, Rosslyn, Court House and by Silver Line stations (some not yet opened) in Reston and Tysons Corner.

Of all the properties owned by the new $8.4 billion firm JBG Smith, 98 percent are near Metro. Dark blue indicates properties already built or under construction. Light blue means construction beginning soon; orange means future projects. (Via Vornado Realty Trust)

Michael Kelly, a JBG managing partner who will be chief executive of the new company, said on the call that his number one criteria for which properties to keep was their location in “core and Metro-served markets.” JBG will sell off another $3.3 billion in real estate, most of which is not walkable to a Metro station.

Similarly, Vornado will contribute buildings in downtown D.C. and 26 buildings near the Crystal City Metro station but will sell off its Skyline City office complex on Leesburg Pike.

“We deliberately excluded assets that did not meet those criteria,” Kelly said.

Kelly and other JBG managers could be rewarded handsomely for their choices, as they will own 6 percent of the new company, which equates to $504 million.

Meanwhile, Metro imminently faces a $290 million operating deficit in its next fiscal year, which has prompted it to propose service cuts, fare increases and staff reductions. That’s on top of an estimated $12 billion to $18 billion in capital funds needed over the next 10 years for maintenance and upgrades. Since 2010, ridership is down 12 percent (100,000 fewer trips per day), and if proposed fare increases go into effect, Metro estimates that it will lose another 10 million trips next year.

And yet Metro has added 2,000 employees in recent years to help run things.

As crazy as it sounds to invest so exclusively on such a transit system, JBG Smith is far from alone in thinking that Metro stations, even in their compromised state, are poised to be an extraordinary profit center. They produce enormous gains for developers and tax revenue for local jurisdictions.

In fact, the difference in value between Metro-accessible offices and apartments and those that require driving has probably never been greater.

“Regarding the importance of Metro to our industry, it cannot be overstated,” said Gregory H. Leisch, senior managing director at the commercial real estate firm Newmark Grubb Knight Frank.

Take Tysons Corner, where all the cranes are putting up towers near the four new Silver Line stations — many of them to accommodate residents and companies that are moving from just a few miles away.

But that distance, Leisch said, means everything. During the past five years, companies have moved into 700,000 more square feet of space than they have vacated near Silver Line stations. Everywhere else in Northern Virginia it’s the opposite, as companies have vacated 5.5 million square feet more space than they have leased.

Silver Line development: Companies have leased 700,000 more square feet than they’ve vacated near Tysons and Reston Silver Line stations during the past five years. Elsewhere in Northern Virginia, buildings have emptied to the tune of 5.5 million square feet. (Via NGKF)

Furthermore, Leisch said that Metro is a national leader in attracting investment near its stations when compared with other systems.

“The share of office space in the District and Arlington, so well served by Metro, is unparalleled when compared to other major metro areas,” Leisch said. “It is 44 percent of our inventory. Cities like L.A., Phoenix and Denver, without a subway, average 23 percent of their office inventory in the center city.”

“Metro areas like Boston and Philly, with successful subway systems, have an average of 36 percent. So the vitality of the District of Columbia and inner suburbs is directly dependent on Metro. And [that] does not even count close-in suburbs of Tysons, Alexandria, Bethesda, Silver Spring, etc.”

There is increasing agreement that Metro needs some type of dedicated revenue stream beyond rider fares to return to solid financial footing.

D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) has endorsed a minimum of a 0.5 percent regional sales tax increase; Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) and Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) have not outright rejected the idea. They are also focused on seeing improvements in safety and customer service before committing more funds to Metro.

Another idea would be to try to capture some of the value Metro is creating for others by imposing some type of tax on commercial property near stations, a strategy the organization studied two years ago.

Building near Metro stations also drives ridership. A tax would mean a disincentive to builders. Could they afford it? (Via Metro)

A tally last year found roughly $50 billion in real estate development being actively built near Metro stations. That’s five times what it cost to build the original system, so even correcting for inflation, Metro-proximate development has created economic impact well beyond the system’s construction costs.

In some instances, developers have already paid to extend Metro their way. In NoMa, developers agreed to charge themselves to help fund the construction of a new station in 2004.

More recently, the Peterson Cos. agreed to provide $500,000 annually toward the creation of a new Metro bus line serving its National Harbor project from Alexandria.

“Now you’re seeing developers coming to Metro and saying we want to invest in improving the system,” said Nina Albert, Metro’s director of real estate and planning.

A concern with any broader tax on Metro-proximate real estate, Albert said, is that it could inhibit development around stations that have not experienced it yet, further restraining ridership growth. Some balance would have to be achieved.

“I don’t think people realize how important Metro is to the economy of the region,” Albert said. But, she added, “every developer I talk to acknowledges the importance of it.”

Foreign media outlets respond to Malaysia’s purchase of patrol vessel from China

Malaysia admitted to buying four coastal patrolling vessels from China, marking the first significant defense business deal between the two countries. On Oct. 31, Najib Razak began his third visit to China since becoming prime minister. Mainstream Malaysian media outlets emphasized not only the militarily agreement, but also the unique role of Malaysia in the Belt and Road Initiative.

On Nov. 2, the BBC reported that Malaysia is willing to solve the South China Sea dispute peacefully, through bilateral conversations. The BBC also examined how the U.S. has come across new obstacles in its competition with China for regional influence. Bloomberg News called the purchase a milestone.

Meanwhile, Japan’s Nihon Keizai Shimbun described how Malaysia’s purchase of the vessels is an extension of the improving diplomatic relations between China and the Philippines. Manila Bulletin reported that Najib’s visit indicates that Malaysia is also pivoting toward China.

Economy That Is Basically Healthy

The United States economy is basically healthy.

That is the simplest, most important thing to take away from new jobs numbers released Friday morning, four days before the presidential election. These numbers affirm that Americans were probably right to focus on other things during this election. The United States still has plenty of problems and economic challenges. But they are more of the long-building variety than the get-us-out-of-this-slump variety.

The unemployment rate edged down to 4.9 percent in October, continuing a remarkably stable run (it has been either 4.9 percent or 5 percent for 12 of the last 13 months). Employers added 161,000 jobs, broadly consistent with the pattern over the last year; job creation estimates for September were revised upward.

The biggest and most pleasant surprise in these numbers is evidence that workers’ wages are rising faster than they have through seven years of expansion. Average hourly earnings for private-sector workers rose 0.4 percent, and are up 2.8 percent over the last year. It suggests that the many anecdotal reports that employers were needing to increase pay to get workers are more than just anecdotes.

It is also true that inflation is starting to edge up, which means that in terms of buying power wages aren’t really rising any faster than they were a few months ago. But if you think of inflation trends lately as being driven mostly by swings in energy prices, you’re left with the good news that American workers seem to have the leverage to demand higher pay from their employers. That’s what you’d expect from more than a year at a 5 percent unemployment rate, but wage gains have been slow in coming.

There is less good news in the report as well. The October numbers partly reversed progress that was evident in the September report on the number of Americans who were part of the labor force. A whopping 444,000 more people said they were either working or looking for work in September than August, but that number fell by 195,000 in October. For the truth of the matter, it’s probably best to average the two months and assume that higher wages are indeed coaxing people into the labor force, but at a more gradual pace than the September report suggested.

Where does that leave a proper understanding of the state of the United States economy on the eve of an election?

The current economic expansion may be the most maligned in history. Among the complaints: It has been too weak, too slow, too uneven; it has been accompanied by people dropping out of the labor force; it hasn’t brought meaningful income gains; it is driven entirely by the sugar high of monetary stimulus from the Federal Reserve.

And these statements aren’t wrong! It really has been painfully slow, particularly given the depth of the 2008-2009 recession from which the United States has been recovering these last seven years.

But it’s worth pausing to look at what has been achieved. Some 95.1 percent of Americans who tell survey-takers that they want a job are working. And they are finally starting to get the bigger paychecks they have long hungered for. It took a long time getting here, but the problems in the economy don’t have much to do with recessions and recoveries anymore. They’re about deeper questions of how best to improve the nation’s long-term economic potential.

The next president will take office with a sound economy. The decision voters face is over which candidate’s long-term vision they find most compelling for building upon that.