Viviana Arango

Director of Operations

viviana.arango@creer-ihrb.org

Anthropologist with a Master’s degree in Social Anthropology from Universidad de Los Andes, with over 15 years of experience in the fields of citizen security, business and human rights, and peacebuilding in Colombia and Latin America. She has worked with urban and rural communities, as well as with vulnerable populations.

She currently serves as a Project Coordinator at CREER, where she has led the conceptual, methodological, and financial formulation of projects, as well as their implementation and monitoring. She has also developed qualitative methodologies for working with diverse stakeholder groups, including state actors, communities, and the business sector.

In recent years, she has led CREER’s research line on human rights due diligence in value chains and has been part of the research teams for the renewable energy and coastal environments thematic areas.

Additionally, she has facilitated non-formal training processes on topics including: l) Business and Human Rights (including the UNGPs, Responsible Business Conduct, OECD Sectoral Guidelines, and other international instruments for the implementation of human rights due diligence); ll) Peacebuilding; and lll) The Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights.

Working Sector

Report from the meeting with workers and trade unions

Testimony from workers and trade unions

Closures and multi-stakeholder dialogue

Full document

Executive summary

Transitional minerals

The rapid expansion of critical minerals for the energy transition and other strategic industries (agriculture, defense, technology) presents us with a paradox: the decarbonization of the planet depends on an intensification of mining activity. For CREER, this rapid expansion carries critical risks regarding human rights, local economic dynamics, and ecosystem balance. Our work focuses on analyzing these dilemmas through the lens of a just transition, promoting governance frameworks that mitigate negative impacts and ensure that the mining of “minerals for the future” is carried out under rigorous standards of sustainability, equity, and respect for fundamental rights, through dialogue among different stakeholders.

Energy Communities

We analyze the governance and sustainability challenges that arise in the implementation of decentralized generation models. Our work focuses on researching how local associative structures interact with regulatory frameworks and human rights standards. Through applied research, we assess the risks of rent capture, internal decision-making conflicts, and the conditions necessary for these self-management schemes to guarantee equitable and transparent participation in the territory.

Solar

With a focus on responsible land management and respect for local livelihoods, at CREER we apply our technical expertise in the photovoltaic sector to promote a solar transition with social integrity. Through the analysis of rural environments, the strengthening of local governance, and the design of participation mechanisms, we seek to ensure that large-scale deployment in Latin America not only contributes to the energy mix, but also strengthens the social fabric. Our purpose is to lead due diligence models that ensure solar infrastructure coexists with food security, strategic ecosystems, and the productive vocations of each community.

Resources for Territorial Planning

Peacebuilding, Citizen Participation, and Human Rights

Transformative Perspectives for a Just Energy Transition