During the last decade, mining activity in Colombia is becoming a strong sector due to the political and economic incentives government gave to support foreign investment. This promotion and economic development should go hand by hand with environmental and social protection as it has an important contribution to the total GDP of the country. There are a high number of mining projects currently under development but despite the existence of laws, policies and regulations, there is a continuous environmental negative impact on the environment and several social problems are emerging. As a result of the current natural resource degradation, represented in a high rate of decline in vegetation cover, the increase of plant and animal species threatened, contamination of surface and ground water sources, poor air quality in major cities, land use conflicts and conditions of inadequate quality of life for the population, becomes urgent to develop responsible mining. With the aim of achieving this purpose, is necessary to evaluate the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process, which is the main tool to evaluate and assess the impacts generated during a project, work or activity and make decisions as Decree 2820 of 2010 states on the other hand the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) approach is not ruled by any law but is the voluntary role of business towards society to respond to their needs and expectations. The purpose of the study is to determine the actual and potential role of EIA and CSR, both separately and if used together as decision-making and management tools. To attain the objectives of the research, a discourse analysis between different actors is used as a research strategy in order to find the answers to the research questions by collecting data through relevant documents and interviews with experts in mining, CSR and EIA process from Ministries, academy and mining companies. In this way, different perceptions on EIA and CSR are obtained, in order to determine how one improves the other or not to achieve environmental and social objectives. The findings reveal that, according to the perceptions of some environmental experts, the EIA process in Colombia is still a weak tool; it coincides with the study developed by the General Comptroller of the Republic in 2005-2006 which states that the whole licensing process (which includes the EIA) is inefficient in many aspects. It is not being used in the appropriate way, consequently does not meet the purpose of adequately protecting the environment; the analysis revealed that the main reasons for these problems are the lack of state-regulated methodologies and the moderate control to the process. Additionally, there is not a shared agenda between the Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Mines, which leads to take wrong decisions that are detrimental to either environmental protection or mining development. Regarding the Corporate Social Responsibility approach in Colombia, mining companies always work with their stakeholders developing different strategies; in most of the cases they use this approach to gain approval of communities and the social license to operate. Organizations use different instruments in order to respond to both employees and members of their geographical communities of influence. In most of the cases, their requirements centers on two main areas: basic education for them and their families and microbusiness initiatives. Even though there is no mining activity without impact, for sure there is responsible mining with less impact. The important issue is to make sure that the technical, social, economical and environmental aspects will be considered to develop a project. Moreover the guidelines proposed by the Ministry of Environment, the existent legal framework and the tools the country has, should be respected and used appropriately with the support of all the stakeholders involved in order to combine the so called “engine of the economy” with the protection of the environment and Colombian society.

The growing concern of continuous increases in health care expenditure, particularly due to high-cost medicines’ reimbursement, as well as international trends, promotes the feasibility and a positive scenario to establish a means for Health Technology Assessment (HTA) in Colombia. Methodology: This policy analysis paper utilizes a literature review to support the context surrounding the Colombian Health System, focusing on HTA, and a regional perspective. Following, personal interviews were conducted to provide a description of the policy process of agenda setting and policy implementation, as well as stakeholders’ opinions about the establishment and functioning of such a HTA Agency.

Since the 70s when cocaine consumption first took off in the US, this country has been fighting in Latin America the supply-side ‘war on drugs’ which was placed mainly in Colombia since the 90s, the only country in the region that has an additional component to the drugs problem, guerrillas and paramilitaries, both who use the drug trade to fuel a protracted conflict. The US fashioned under Clinton’s administration the controversial anti-drug strategy known as 'Plan Colombia' a policy that made Colombia the 3rd largest recipient of military aid in the world after Israel and Egypt until the Afghanistan and Iraq era; however after 9/11 the strategy took a different course from a war against drugs to a war against terrorism, significantly increasing the military counter-insurgency component of Plan Colombia, deepening the US dependence in the country and isolating it from the rest of Latin America. The results after 40 decades of US investment and intervention are questionable since the policies have proven to be a failure as they have not reached the expected results and have worsened the problems they tried to tackle. In a nutshell, the US anti-narcotics policy in Latin America has been a failure since after 40 decades and billions of dollars invested, it has not helped to curb production, trafficking and demand; but it has undermined the democracy and triggered conflict in countries where drugs are produced; the case of Colombia exemplifies this ‘war system’ where the ‘war on drugs’ shifted to ‘war on terrorism’ under the framework of the US strategy.

Contrary to the conventional orthodoxy of the World Bank, lack of formalized or secured property rights is not the main reason why titles do not become loans in Colombia. My research shows that the institutional barriers that prevent poor people from leveraging their assets are rooted in the Colombian constitution, and in the lack of private financial institutions willing to lend to the poor. Low and middle income populations cannot use their houses as collateral to obtain loans aimed to finance business because the Colombian constitution mandates families to secure a share of their assets as Family Wealth. As a result, families have to protect their estate from being impounded by lenders. When the law allows the use of the house as collateral— for financing the purchase, improvement or enlargement of housing — there are few formal financial institutions lending to the poor. Despite of the importance of this for land-titling programs, it passed unnoticed by the World Bank, who approved a US$100 million loan for the Bogotá Urban Service Project in 2003. This thesis reveals the assumptions made by the Bank regarding the importance of property formalization as a mechanism to create massive equity out of the improved real estate in the informal sector. It contrasts the Bank’s assumptions with the actual process of upgrading in Bogotá. Leveraging poor people’s assets would be critical to the well-functioning of upgrading program, but these policies should rely on a mechanism other than the willingness of formal institutions to lend to the poor.

Conjunto de 43 leyes promulgadas por la Asamblea legislativa del Estado de Bolívar a lo largo de 1871. En el documento se señala de forma cronológica la fecha de promulgación de cada ley, así como las resoluciones a las que llegó el ente gubernamental en materia de administración pública. Finalmente, hay un apartado dedicado a las elecciones realizadas ese año en Bolívar.

Discurso del presidente Francisco de Paula Santander a los ciudadanos neogranadinos en el que los invita a confiar en el gobierno y combatir con patriotismo las agresiones que reciben de las fuerzas navales británicas. El documento conserva la ortografía de la época.

Impreso redactado de forma satírica en el que reclaman la participación de Florentino González como gobernador de la supuesta provincia de Batuecas (se presume que este lugar hace referencia a Bogotá, pues González ejerció como gobernador de la ciudad tiempo después de la publicación del impreso). El documento es firmado bajo el seudónimo de "Batueca" y conserva la ortografía de la época.

Documento mediante el cual Manuel Ibañez manifiesta al público general sus apreciaciones y se defiende de las acusaciones que ha recibido en el pleito que sigue contra Domingo Alcalá, en Ibagué, por asuntos comerciales. El documento conserva la ortografía de la época.

Documento mediante el cual se busca desacreditar la opinión de Julio Hoenigsberg, representante de la compañía extranjera encargada de la administración del Ferrocarril de Bolívar, en el pleito que se sigue contra Ramón Santodomingo y Ramón Jimeno, por el manejo de los fondos destinados para la construcción y mantenimiento de las vías férreas. A lo largo del documento, Jimeno señala que el Gobierno ha dado la razón a Hoenigsberg y ha privilegiado la inversión extranjera, en lugar de atender las quejas de él y su socio.

Documento en el que José María Núñez Uricoechea se defiende de las acusaciones que fueron publicadas en contra suya y de Santiago Pérez Triana, en la editorial del diario El Tiempo, del 30 de noviembre de 1912. A lo largo del impreso Núñez solicita al editor del diario que revele el nombre del autor del artículo, en el que se les acusa de sabotear y criticar sin fundamentos la administración fiscal de Colombia durante el gobierno de Carlos Eugenio Restrepo.