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PRESS RELEASEDecember 3, 2024

World Bank Poverty Report Highlights Persistent Inequalities in Colombia

Cover Report Poverty and Equity Assessment Colombia 2024

BOGOTÁ, December 3, 2024. Colombia has made significant strides in reducing poverty, even in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, deep inequalities in access to opportunities across different social groups and regions in the country and widely varying levels of poverty persist. The new World Bank report titled “ Trajectories: Prosperity and Poverty Reduction in the Colombian Territory stresses that an individual’s place and circumstances of birth in Colombia can largely shape their future, thus demonstrating the need to address these inequalities in order to achieve inclusive and sustainable growth.

These disparities are largely due to the State’s historically uneven capacity to deliver quality public services across departments and municipalities. These inequalities mean fewer opportunities for many to accumulate essential assets such as education, health, land, and housing, which are essential to improving their quality of life. This situation is more critical in departments such as La Guajira, Vaupés, Amazonas, Nariño, and Guainía, disproportionately affecting vulnerable groups such as Indigenous Peoples.

Limited access to these assets often results in fewer economic opportunities, low-quality jobs, and reduced social mobility. At least 30 percent of labor income inequality is determined by circumstances at birth, and there is a strong correlation between the well-being of individuals and that of their parents, especially in a number of departments.

“This report highlights the urgent need to address the deep inequalities that persist in Colombia. Strengthening institutions and improving access to quality services throughout the country are key to ensuring that all Colombians, regardless of where they are born or where they live, will have access to the same opportunities,” noted Peter Siegenthaler, World Bank Country Manager for Colombia“We must work together to ensure that all Colombians can enjoy more equitable prosperity."

The report also provides detailed municipal-level data on different areas including on monetary poverty trends, preventable mortality, and the connectivity of municipalities with economic centers, underscoring how climate change can further isolate low accessibility areas.

According to the report, more than 16 million people in Colombia live in poverty. In departments such as La Guajira and Chocó, two in three persons are living in poverty, compared to one in three persons in Boyacá, and the proportion is even smaller in Cundinamarca. Even in periods of significant poverty reduction in the country, the poorer municipalities were unable to reduce poverty at the same rate as the more well-off ones, which helped widen the well-being gap across territories.

Departments with higher poverty rates tend to have a lower share of formal employment—below 20 percent for departments such as Nariño, Sucre, La Guajira, and Cauca, compared to 67 percent in Bogotá.

The report also highlights the fact that learning poverty—that is, children who cannot read and understand a simple text by age 10—exceeded 95 percent in some municipalities in Guainía and Amazonas. In addition, more than 85 percent of child deaths in certain municipalities are preventable with adequate care, reflecting unequal access to essential services.

Vast distances and lack of transport infrastructure and connectivity further limit access for certain parts of the country. Twenty-one percent of the municipalities, home to approximately four million people, have limited access to economic centers or are cut off from the opportunities that these centers can provide.

In addressing these challenges, local governments have an important role to play in contributing to greater prosperity in the territory. However, the report indicates that they face significant challenges in terms of revenue generation and fiscal management, and limited coordination across municipal governments may restrict their ability to better serve the population.

Strategies to close gaps

The report introduces new actions that target the challenges entailed in closing the gaps, including a social mobility measure at the departmental level that highlights unequal opportunities for achieving success in different regions, and an index of State presence in the territory pinpointing disparities in the delivery of public services.

The report points out that investments in assets and access to quality services, such as education, health, land formalization, access to financial resources, and improved physical and digital connectivity are crucial to boosting incomes and economic opportunities. The return on investment is higher in areas lagging farthest behind and with the poorest populations, as it improves their chances for a better life.

There is also a need to strengthen institutions at all levels of government, improving the technical and fiscal capacity of local governments and fostering coordination to achieve economies of scale in service delivery.

Lastly, if policies are to achieve maximum effectiveness, they must be designed such that they accommodate the diversity of needs and capacities across the territory, the importance of coordination among key actors, and the provision of an integrated package of services to address various barriers to poverty reduction.

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Find out more on the World Bank Colombia website.

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PRESS RELEASE NO: 2024.12.03

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Bogotá, Colombia.
María Clara Ucrós
57 1-3238259

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