Rural poverty in Colombia
Poverty, social injustice and violence in the countryside are characteristic of rural society in Colombia at present and they are the main obstacles to sustainable rural development. Overall, poverty affects about 22 million Colombians, and 7.4 million of them live in extreme poverty. Despite the declining overall poverty rates seen in recent years at the national level, rural poverty is on the increase. In rural areas, 62 per cent of the people are poor. And even on the national level, human development is lagging. Colombia ranks 75th on the UN’s Human Development Index for 2005, among a total of 177 countries.
The country has about 10 million poor rural people, comprising 2.4 million rural households. About 44 per cent of rural people live in conditions of extreme poverty. About 1.3 million rural families are landless. Half of them are permanent workers employed by medium and large farms. The rest have developed various survivial strategies, and many are employed in services, commerce and other non-agricultural activities. In 1965, 80 per cent of the rural population depended on agriculture for a livelihood, but in 2007 that figure had shrunk to 43 per cent. According to some estimates, about 2.5 million rural people, half of them women, presently are engaged in off-farm activities.
The distribution of land ownership is a major problem in Colombia, where large landholders control vast areas of under-utilized land.
Who are Colombia’s poor rural people?
Poor rural people are no longer typically small-scale farmers who struggle to increase their crop productivity. Instead, they are more often members of households engaging in microenterprises, and they perform various activities relating to markets for resources, products and services.
The rural people who are most vulnerable to poverty are those who have limited access to assets and resources and limited control over them. They include women, children of all ages and members of households headed by women or young people with inadequate job skills. Afro-Colombians, indigenous peoples and minority ethnic groups, located mainly in remote rural areas, are among the country’s poorest people.
Segments of the rural population that have been displaced by armed conflict also are vulnerable. More than 1 million people have been forced to abandon their land and their homes and have seen their scant assets destroyed.
Where are Colombia’s poor people and why are they poor?
Poverty is widespread in Chocó, Boyacá, Córdoba, Nariño, Huila, Sucre, Cauca and Tolima, where poverty affects 60 per cent of the population. It is particularly severe in remote rural areas and in conflict zones. There is a high level of transmission of poverty from one generation to the next, and it mainly affects women and children.
People in rural areas face poverty because of:
- lack of access to social services, education and skills training
- limited access to physical assets such as land, and to financial services and technical assistance
- lack of coordination among public institutions involved in overcoming poverty
Many rural people are direct victims of the violence that has affected Colombia for more than 40 years.
Source: IFAD
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