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The sectoral data on monetary poverty recently published by Dane for the last year confirms the huge regional disparities in social and economic problems in Colombia. At the national level, the monetary poverty trend fell by 3.6 percentage points between 2022 and 2023, reaching 33%, or a third of the national population.
However, a more detailed look reveals not only the different levels of monetary poverty incidence, but also the extent of its reduction dynamics – or, in three worrying cases, its growth. At the same time, the contribution of each sector to the country’s GDP confirms a situation in which half of the country’s total output is the sum of the first three regional economies: Bogotá, Antioquia and Valle del Cauca. Economic activity and poverty are two aspects of a territory divided into two or more parts.
In other words, two or three Colombias. In one of the provinces, the monetary poverty rate is below 25% (a quarter of the inhabitants), while in the other, five departments (Chocó, La Guajira, Sucre, Cesar and Córdoba) have a poverty rate of over 50%. The situation in Chocó is shocking: two-thirds of the people are below this income line.
These are not recent and should not surprise anyone. However, it does have the effect that they do not lead to strong decisions by national leaders and these places. The Caribbean Coast region is a special case, with most of the region’s capitals and provinces at the top of the list of monetary poverty and extreme monetary poverty. The debate on how to forcefully and permanently reduce these levels should be at the forefront of the region’s public agenda. Unfortunately, this is not the case.
Worryingly, in a year when the economy was buoyant for several months, Cauca, Chocó and Cesar bucked the positive trend of poverty reduction in much of the country. The national average poverty rate of 33% – high but falling – “hides” a situation that requires greater action. It is not enough to reduce poverty in the richest regions, but also to look at which policies have worked in the rest of Colombia.
Francisco Miranda Hamburg
framir@portafolio.co
X: @pachomiranda
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