Colombia

Extraction-led growth versus people’s well-being

The recently elected Government of Juan Manuel Santos has given priority to environmental sustainability and risk management and has issued a National Development Plan aimed at generating income and increasing production while still preserving and protecting bio-diversity and the nation’s ecosystems. Nonetheless people’s well-being and the environment are still under threat. A recent example is the production of biofuels, which has damaged the peasant economy, displaced entire populations and destroyed natural ecosystems. Despite its rhetoric of sustainability, the Santos Government continues the same economic model of its predecessor.

Dialogue Alliance Sud-Nestlé on Colombia

Published on Wed, 2011-07-06 12:09

Nestle's factory in Bugalagrande,
Colombia. (Photo:
Michel Egger/Alliance Sud)

Source: Alliance Sud.

For five years, non governmental organisation Alliance Sud and swiss food multinational Nestlé have been engaged in a high-level dialogue which is innovative in more than one respect. Alliance Sud, focal point of Social Watch in Switzerland, has led two fact-finding missions into Nestlé’s operations in Colombia. These have produced concrete improvements, although the basic conflict between the multinational and trade unions remains.

Women of African descent demand commitment against double discrimination in Cali

Published on Fri, 2011-06-10 14:09

Lena Mbaye and Geraldine Dávila
(Photo: Afrocolombianos Visibles)

Sources
Asociación Diásporas
Report by the Colombian newspaper El Informador
EFE agency report
Previous report by the Colombian newspaper El País

Black women from Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa demanded this week a firm and final commitment to equality and the end of discrimination from governments and the international community, at the closing of the Second International Meeting of women of African descent held in Cali, Colombia.

Insufficient policies

Colombia has focused investment on reducing poverty and enhancing economic, social and cultural rights in order to achieve the MDGs. Despite this, progress in recent years has not reached even the minimum levels, and is far below the standards set by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR). The country enjoyed considerable economic growth up to 2008 but this did not translate into any improvement in the social situation, and the fact that international aid is administered through the central Government is an obstacle to alternative projects being undertaken.