Original source (on modern site)
Key messages Colombia's humanitarian situation deteriorated compared to the previous year, with 7.7 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, of which 7.1 million required food and nutrition support [1]. Despite being an upper middle-income country, Colombia's food security situation resulted in 15.5 million food-insecure people (30 percent of the population), according to WFP's July 2023 analysis. The combination of violence, armed conflict, mixed migration, economic downturn, climatic and weather-related events and ecosystem degradation impacted the lives and livelihoods of millions of people, especially women, girls, Indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities and people with disabilities in rural and peri-urban areas. Colombia hosted a migrant population of 3 million migrants [2]. According to WFP's analysis, among these migrant populations, 52 percent of migrants intending to settle are food insecure as well as 73 percent of migrants in transit [3]. This year witnessed the La Niña and El Niño phenomena, with the National Disaster and Risk Management Unit declaring 1,036 emergencies in 25 out of 32 departments [4]. Clashes between armed groups, road blockades and civil unrest periodically hindered WFP's access to people. The impacts of weather-related events, especially landslides and floods, also limited people's access to critical infrastructure like healthcare centres, government facilities, bridges and highways. Although these circumstances caused delays in projects in hard-to-reach areas, WFP nonetheless reached 194,000 people with life-saving assistance in these regions. WFP remained the largest humanitarian actor in the country, deploying emergency humanitarian assistance to remote and armed conflict-affected locations while implementing nexus interventions through early recovery, resilience and peacebuilding projects. The country office executed programmes to fight malnutrition and stunting, promote the socioeconomic integration of migrants, provide school feeding for children, strengthen the capacities of institutions and communities to become more resilient to external shocks and leverage innovation, paving the pathway towards Zero Hunger in Colombia and the region. WFP used cash-based transfers (CBT) as the main modality to assist 772,029 individuals in vulnerable conditions, including people with disabilities, survivors of gender-based violence and women-headed households [5]. The country office reached a similar number of people with CBT compared to 2022 whilst improving the quality of the service by signing contracts with local financial service providers and expanding geographical coverage. WFP maintained voucher assistance and in-kind distributions in municipalities where the market was not functional, and protection risks were identified [6]. WFP distributed 6,897 mt of locally procured food, maintaining warehouses strategically located throughout the country to ensure rapid deployment of its stock. WFP supported government entities at central and local levels in developing or strengthening policies and programmes to fight hunger and malnutrition. More specifically, WFP collaborated with the ministries of Equality and Agriculture, the national departments of Planning and Prosperity, the National Institute of Family Welfare and the National Disaster and Risk Management Unit. WFP supported these partners' consultations at regional and departmental levels to define the priorities and inform the country's new National Development Plan [7]. Most WFP programmes promoted rural development, peace and resilience in municipalities prioritized by the national development programme with a territorial approach [8], empowering smallholder farmers and rural women to apply sustainable agricultural practices. Regarding climate change, WFP continued implementing its Adaptation Fund project for climate adaptation and resilience, benefitting mostly Indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities along the border with Ecuador. In response to the migration crisis, WFP scaled up its socioeconomic integration projects for migrants, Colombian returnees and host community members, strengthening micro entrepreneurship, employability and community asset creation, thus fostering economic opportunities and self-reliance. WFP provided operational data to multiple coordination platforms related to humanitarian and development work. The country office broadened the scope of its partnerships and opportunities with donors while expanding collaborations with private sector actors. WFP made progress in implementing early recovery and peacebuilding projects in historically marginalized regions, promoting the inclusion of former combatants in socioeconomic integration projects through food production and sustainable farming. Across its operations, WFP supported the Government in achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 (Zero Hunger) and SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals) [9].