Project no. 1 NATIONAL (Environment)

Plan Colombia is a carrot-and-stick strategy promising poor farmers growing coca for cocaine money to switch to other crops - and threatening them with U.S.-backed military spray operations if they do not. Humanitarian aid is guiding the farmers in how to change - and prosper.

Project no. 2 BOGOTA

The mayor of Bogota, Antonos Mochas, has announced that for the next two months all children will have to be home before eleven o'clock or else they will be arrested and their parents will have to collect them. Mr Mochas says the initiative is designed to protect youngsters from getting into trouble and cutting down on child prostitution. The curfew is the latest in a series of unconventional measures designed by Mr Mochas. Earlier this year he introduced a highly successful night without men, where only women were allowed out for the evening (-- designed to force traditionally macho Colombian men to do the domestic chores and let women have a good time without male harassment. Mr Mochas says that if his latest measure is popular with parents he'll make it a permanent policy).

Project no. 3 NATIONAL (Poverty)

The World Bank has approved a $400 million loan to support fiscal reform in Colombia.

The money would be used to help carry out the structural changes in the economy necessary for a strong recovery, the bank said.

"Putting Colombia's fiscal accounts on a sustainable path is essential to achieve macroeconomic stability, which is a necessary condition to stimulate economic growth and reduce poverty," Olivier Lafourcade, World Bank director for Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela, said in a statement.

The loan will be used to improve fiscal relations between the government and local governments, improve public sector financial management and help protect social spending.

The loan has a maturity of 13.5 years and is expected to be disbursed in three tranches.