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Intermediate Level of Government: Technical Assistance a. Participatory design and implementation of Department wide strategies to strengthen City Councils The Colombia Program has coordinated activities with the governments of Nariño, Valle, Tolima, Cauca, Chocó, Huila, Antioquia, Caldas, Santander, Bolivar, Cordoba and Putumayo in order to develop a department-wide strategy towards institutional strengthening of city councils, particularly in coordination with the Secretarios Departamentales de Gobierno (Departmental Secretaries of Government). The objective is to help departments understand the role they can play and the kind of programs they can develop in order to deepen democracy in their regions through very pragmatic programs and activities. This has helped the Colombia Program better understand the difficulties and challenges confronted by departments in exercising their functions, and the type of support the departments need in this field. b. Participatory design and implementation of Department wide strategies with Violence Reduction The Colombia Program has coordinated activities with the governments of Nariño, Huil, Antioquia, Cauca and Bolivar a to improve their support towards municipal governments in terms of technical assistance and resources (through Plan de Atención Básica Departamental en Salud) in order to help local governments define sound municipal policies for violence prevention and crime reduction. This has helped the Colombia Program better understand the difficulties and challenges confronted by departments in exercising their functions, and the type of support the departments need in this field. c. Role of governors in relation to civil-security policies The Colombia Program is providing technical assistance to the National Police and Ministry of Interior and Justice to implement a new country wide initiative called Departamentos y Municipios Seguros. The program's objective is to promote and consolidate President Alvaro Uribe's Democratic Security Policy through a complementary strategy of security plans and policies at the local level implemented by mayors and governors in close coordination with the police. Since March 2004 a series of regional and departmental meetings have taken place in order to train governors and mayors throughout the country in implementing security policies.