Mission Statement (Updated)
As a technical organization advising the national government, the National Department of Planning promulgates a strategic vision for the country and leads and directs the formulation of the National Development Plan. It is also charged with directing and monitoring investment directed at securing government objectives of the medium and long term and orienting, formulating, monitoring, evaluating and observing policies, plans, programs and projects of economic, social and environmental development of the country, by means of interinstitutional coordination among national and regional insitutions. All of this is done in a spirit of responsibility to the citizenry.
Vision (Updated)
The National Department of Planning is moving towards 2019 as the organ of the national government that orients, formulates, monitors and observes policies, plans, programs and projects which contribute to the economic, environmental and social development of the country. It strives to plan and invest effectively by evaluating the impact and management of policies that promote the institutional development of the State through the use of modern management tools, the use of qualified personnel grounded in the principles of effective, efficient and transparent public management that is transparent and close to the interests of citizens.
Origins
By 1936, it had become necessary for the state to rationalize the production, distribution and expenditure of State money, as well as to offer Colombian workers protection of the rights that they had acquired.
Consistent with these principles, planning was taken up in earnest in Colombia in tandem with the structural and institutional changes that were initiated by the national councils on the economy, political and social economy, in their role as advisory organizations.
Later, in 1958, the National Council on Political Economy and Planning was created, as was the Administrative Department of Planning and Technical services, bodies which undertook studies and make recommendations in matters of political economy.
In furtherance of this process, the structure of the Council was changed in 1968 and the aforementioned bodies were transformed into the National Council on Political and Social Economy- CONPES- and the National Planning Department ( Departamento Nacional de Planeación or DNP), respectively.
Since this era, the DNP has acquired a decisive function and since the 1950s the department has been instrumental in crafting plans and general programs for the country, in collaboration with international technical missions.
In the 1970s, the department began to produce development plans of a more structured nature, directed towards the economic development of the country, with an emphasis on the process of planning.
Going backwards in time, these development plans have been called:
* The State as Community: Development for All
Álvaro Uribe Vélez
2006-2010
* Towards the State as Community
Álvaro Uribe Vélez
2002-2006
* A Change for Peace
Andrés Pastrana Arango
1998-2002
* The Social Leap
Ernesto Samper Pizano
1994-1998
* The Peaceful Revolution
César Gaviria Trujillo
1990-1994
* A Social Economy
Virgilio Barco Vargas
1986-1990
* Change with Equality
Belisario Betancur Cuartas
1982-1986
* National Integration
Julio César Turbay Ayala
1978-1982
*Closing the Gap
Alfonso López Michelsen
1974-1978
* The Four Strategies
Misael Pastrana Borrero
1970-1974