Violence in Colombia: Building Sustainable Peace and Social Capital
Publisher: World Bank
Author(s): International Bank for Development and Reconstruction
Date: 2009
Topics: Economic Recovery, Land, Livelihoods
Countries: Colombia
Colombia, one of South America's oldest, middle-income democracies, has developed rapidly despite a fifty year 'simmering' civil war and increasing levels of urban and rural crime and violence. In the past decade, however, the scale and intensity of violence has changed from a marginal conflict to generalized violence that now dominates the daily lives of most citizens. Today government and civil society alike recognize that violence is the key development constraint. It affects the country's macroand micro-economic growth and productivity, as well as impacting on the government's capacity to reduce the poverty, inequality and exclusion experienced by the majority of its urban and rural population. This paper is intended to contribute to Colombia's effort to address the country's fundamental problem of violence. It introduces three critical issues of analytical and operational importance. First, a conceptual framework that identifies a continuum of violence, including political, economic and social violence; second, an assessment of the costs of violence, highlighting how violence erodes the country's capital and associated assets, especially its social capital; and finally, a National Strategy for Peace and Development, comprising components at three levels-a national level peace program, sector level initiatives to integrate violence reduction into priority sectors, and municipal level social capital projects.