Poverty in Colombia

 

Poverty is one of the main problems affecting Colombia. According to the World Vision Canada Annual Results Report from 2021, poverty is defined as the lack of sufficient resources to meet the necessities of life - food, drinking water, housing, and clothing; one can also add the lack of access to healthcare, education and even transportation. In Colombia, part of this problem started with the armed conflict that started over 50 years ago and still affects the country, especially the rural areas. This plays a fundamental role due to Colombia being a largely rural country controlled mostly by  people involved in illegal activities that are in positions of power or associated with them. These individuals don’t care about the welfare and inclusion of the less fortunate, so the difficulty of reducing poverty in the country has become almost zero. The gap between classes will continue in this way, and will only continue to widen as those in power only concentrate on satisfying their own greedy and selfish desires, due to the benefit of centralizing and monopolizing wealth, guaranteeing only their own assets and neglecting their duty to the people.vvb

Initially, it’s important to mention that we can consider four main reasons that could be the cause of much of the poverty in the country. In the first place is the lack of access to education in many of the rural areas of the country. Many Colombians in these regions don’t have the resources or basic conditions to be able to benefir from the educational system. As reasons for this, we have the lack of educational facilities and the unstable conditions of most of them, the low coverage of this institutions, the absence and the inevitable lack of preparation of many teachers and their low salary, students and teachers not having the possibility access technology and with this to internet connection, nor to basic public services, etc. These are some of the many reasons why education doesn’t reach these regions, resulting in the inability of children to access the labor market. Resulting in illiteracy, and a lack of opportunities they will have to face to try to live a decent life.

Secondly, and also related to education, is the current deficient educational model. In Colombia, the relationship seen between teacher and student has traditionally been unidirectional, a dynamic in which the student receives the knowledge, but doesn’t process it in an adequate way, this made young people used to a large extent to always receive, not to generate, which results in a big problem. For example, if you want to enter the labor market you have to know how to produce, produce knowledge, income and content, to innovate and use knowledge in diverse contexts, therefore this model prevents young people from acquiring that critical thinking and become capable and critical workers which in the end leads to the fact that they can’t sustain themselves and fall into poverty. (https://www.lapapaya.org/post.php?id=4704)

In third place we have the issue of unemployment, according to the DANE, in September 2022, the unemployment rate in  Colombia’s 13 most populated cities and metropolitan areas, is equivalent to a 10.4 %. This rate represented a reduction of 2.8% points in regard to the same month in 2021 (13.3%), but this is still a high number, we have to also consider that informality is an indispensable category to understand this rates. In September 2022, in the graphics presented by the DANE for the rates of informal employment, this rate was of 58.3%. Of the 23 cities and metropolitan areas, those with the highest proportion of informality were: Riohacha (68.6%), Sincelejo (68.3%) and Cúcuta  (67.9%), while the cities with the lowest proportion of informality were: and Manizales (35.8%), Bogotá (36.0%) and Medellín (39.2%). Considering the above, it should be noted that a large number of people in the informal sector have had a low level of education, and this has become  a big problem, due to the disadvantage that this provokes, it reduces the possibilities of employment in the formal sector and and increases the chances of the unemployment rate growing, as when there is a higher supply to demand, wages tend to fall, which makes companies start applying for more qualified people at a lower cost.

Additionally,  Inflation is another of the main causes of poverty in our country, according to Colombia's National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE), in September 2022, it was reported an increase of 0.93%, which would be the highest inflation in the country in recent times. Basic food products such as eggs, rice, and fresh fruits accumulate an inflation of 33%, 31% and 29% approximately. If food is taken out of the bill, the large part accumulated inflation for 2022 would have been 8.32% and not 11.4%.This is a serious problem for people belonging to the poor sectors in the country, since most of their income is destined to food, and barely being enough for it, which will make the cost of living for these people in poverty even more difficult. Since more income will be destined to the consumption of food, and investment for other basic services will decrease, a complex social panorama is created. (https://elpais.com/america-colombia/2022-10-05/colombia-acumula-en-2022-la-inflacion-mas-alta-de-este-siglo.html)

 

The measures taken by the government to reduce this rates have not been too impactful due to the structural nature of the issue, but it has provided some opportunities  for the population. After the economic recession caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, inequality raised at alarming rates, The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean reported that between 18,9 million and 23,9 million of Colombians live on less than $91 a month in 2020. Trying to participate of the poor decisions being made by the government, one of the strategies pointed out by citizens is the  reform of the tax system, in Colombia the 20% richest colombians receive 55% of the country’s income and the 80% are left with the rest. It can also be pointed out that the earnings of this 20% of people contribute almost nothing to the country’s wealth because they invest in stocks outside of the country or find tax havens that help them to evade the taxes they would have to pay in their country. (https://www.reuters.com/breakingviews/guest-view-colombias-struggle-against-poverty-2021-05-11/)

To conclude, it would be important to point out the ways in which Colombia’s government has tried to overcome this gap. The latest efforts have been focused on working in the debt management system, improving policy coordination between national financial institutions and improving existent welfare programs and creating new ones. However, Colombia is another country affected by the rising inflation caused by the Russia- Ukraine war provoking high cost of living that affects the less fortunate. In contrast to this problem, the expectations of some of the population are high due to the election of a president who advocates for a little different take against poverty by  focusing on the access of higher education, restructuring the healthcare system and further improvement of social programs. (https://borgenproject.org/poverty-in-colombia-2/)  On the other hand, another possibly helpful proposal, is to focus on improving competition in the international trade market by regulatory reforms that would boost participations, productivity and growth, (https://www.oecd.org/colombia/colombia-structural-reforms-to-foster-social-protection-public-finances-and-productivity-would-help-optimise-the-strength-and-quality-of-the-recovery.htm)  but due to the heavy humanitarian crisis this reforms can seem less urgent.