In 2011, the Colombian government partnered with Government Debt and Risk Management (GDRM) Program, a World Bank Treasury initiative sponsored by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), to fine tune risk assessment and the management of contingent liabilities. The outstanding issue was finding a quantitative risk model to determine the right fees, set aside in a contingency fund, and define the right collateral from public entities that wanted government guarantees so that they could borrow. The GDRM program supported the Colombian ministry of finance in two primary ways. First, by providing a technical expert who gave on-site consultancy with direct support for research and development of the new methodology. Second, by fostering peer-to-peer dialogue with other countries at each stage of the risk management process. The team of practitioners included Sweden, a developed country with years of experience in issuing guarantees; Turkey, an emerging country with a solid framework for issuing guarantees and managing on-lending practices; South Africa, whose experience in managing government guarantees most closely matched Colombia’s; and Indonesia, a nation just starting down the path of government guarantee risk management.[…]