Colombia Context Report

Located in the northwest of South America (Figure 1), Colombia is a highly urbanized, upper‑middle‑income country with a diversified economy. Poverty and food insecurity are concentrated in rural and peripheral regions, where institutions are relatively weaker, market connectivity is constrained, and exposure to conflict is high, while poor urban populations also face financial food access constraints. Departments such as Chocó and La Guajira consistently register the highest poverty and extreme poverty rates, reflecting long‑standing structural inequalities. Although national monetary poverty has declined in recent years, the urban–rural divide remains pronounced, and informal employment continues to dominate livelihood strategies among poor households in both urban and rural areas.

Rural livelihoods rely primarily on small‑scale agriculture, informal agricultural wage labor, livestock rearing, fishing, and, in conflict‑affected areas, coca cultivation. Urban livelihoods rely on services, trade, and manufacturing, with widespread informal employment, particularly among the country’s roughly 2.8 million Venezuelan migrants and refugees. Remittances provide important income support, but for largely middle and better‑off households. In addition, Colombia’s social protection system is an important component of poor households’ access to food. Cash transfer programs — including Renta Ciudadana, the VAT refund, Colombia Mayor, and Renta Joven — provide essential income support to targeted households. However, coverage gaps, irregular payment cycles, and rising costs of living limit their ability to fully offset economic and shock‑related pressures.

Armed conflict is a central element of the Colombian context. Multiple non‑state armed groups (NSAGs) contest territory, particularly in the Pacífico Region, along the Venezuelan border, and in parts of Amazonía. Conflict disrupts food security through confinement — where armed actors restrict civilian movement and access to land, markets, and services — and forced displacement, disproportionately impacting Indigenous and Afro‑Colombian communities. While conflict‑affected populations represent a small share of total departmental populations, the threat of disruptions to livelihoods is severe across many rural areas, with approximately three-quarters of the rural population living under the influence of at least one NSAG. 

Although national food availability is sufficient, supported by a mixture of domestic production and imports, significant disparities in physical and economic access to food persist across regions and population groups. Pacífico, Amazonía, and parts of Orinoquía regions face high transportation costs and more limited market integration, raising prices for food items that are not locally produced. Although inflation has moderated since its post‑pandemic peak, food prices remain elevated countrywide relative to historical averages, eroding purchasing power among poor households that already allocate a large share of income to food. The interaction of persistent armed conflict, structural economic inequality, rainfall variability, and asymmetrical market integration shapes Colombia’s overall food security context. Poor rural households, Indigenous and Afro‑Colombian communities, internally displaced persons (IDPs), and Venezuelan migrants are populations most vulnerable to food insecurity.

Colombia is a presidential republic with three branches of government (executive, legislative, and judicial) and a bicameral Congress composed of a Senate and Chamber of Representatives. President Gustavo Petro has led the executive branch since August 2022, and his term is slated to end in August 2026. At the sub-national level, Colombia is organized into 32 departments and the capital district of Bogotá, each governed by a democratically elected governor. Departments are subdivided into 1,103 municipalities, each led by an elected mayor, according to the Augustín Codazzi Geographic Institute (IGAC). A fiscal decentralization reform (Legislative Act 3 of 2024) will gradually increase the share of national revenues transferred to sub-national governments from 25 to 39.5 percent over the next decade (concluding no earlier than 2037), with the aim of strengthening local capacity to fund public services, including health, education, and sanitation.

Colombia’s geographic position in northern South America, combined with access to two oceans, makes the country a regional trade nexus linking South America with Central American and Caribbean markets. It is a founding member of the Andean Community (CAN) and the Pacific Alliance, and holds active free trade agreements with the United States (U.S.), the European Union, Canada, Chile, Mexico, and Perú, among others. Following the normalization of diplomatic relations between Colombia and Venezuela in 2022, bilateral trade increased substantially. According to the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE), Colombian exports to Venezuela grew 49 percent to reach 1 billion USD in 2024, and continued to climb by another 68 million USD in 2025. Land routes account for the majority of this exchange, with key customs points at Cúcuta (Norte de Santander Department) and Maicao (La Guajira Department). According to Migración Colombia, approximately 90,000 cross-border movements occur daily on average at official crossing points along the Venezuelan border, predominantly short-term, repeated crossings for work, commerce, and family reasons. 

Territorial control is a defining governance challenge, with multiple NSAGs — including the National Liberation Army (ELN), dissident Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) factions, and criminal organizations — actively contesting rural territory, particularly in the Pacífico, Amazonía, Caribe regions and Venezuelan border zones, competing for control of coca cultivation areas, drug trafficking corridors, and illegal mining, according to ACLED. The Petro administration's Total Peace policy has produced mixed results: although armed group violence against civilians has declined since its signing, armed groups have expanded their territorial presence, and inter-group clashes have increased.

Colombia is approximately 1.14 million square kilometers, shares land borders with Venezuela, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, and Panama, and has coastlines along both the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. There are five natural regions in mainland Colombia: Amazonía, Andina, Caribe, Orinoquía, and Pacífico (Figure 2). The Magdalena and Cauca river valleys — located between the Andes mountain ranges — are among the most fertile and economically important agricultural zones in the country. They support high population densities and intensive agricultural production. The Caribe Region in the north consists largely of low plains and seasonal drylands, while the coastal Pacífico Region is dominated by tropical rainforest and extremely high rainfall. The Orinoquía Region consists of savannahs suitable for mechanized agriculture and cattle ranching. In contrast, the Amazon Basin in the south is largely forested and sparsely populated, with livelihoods centered around subsistence agriculture, forest resources, and Indigenous livelihood systems. Colombia’s climate is predominantly tropical, but varies considerably according to altitude and agroecological zone. Elevation plays a major role in determining temperature zones, with lowland areas below 1,000 meters typically experiencing average temperatures above 24 degrees Celsius, while highland regions above 2,000 meters experience cooler climates with average temperatures below 17 degrees Celsius.

These elevation-related differences allow for a wide range of crops to be cultivated across different regions of the country. The most important cereal crops are maize and rice (Figure 3). Maize is more widely adaptable but tends to grow best in warm and temperate zones, where agriculture is also typically mechanized. Rice is mainly planted in Tolima, Huila, Meta, Casanare, Cesar, Norte de Santander, and Córdoba — areas that are flat and have high water availability — also enabling mechanized crop activities such as planting and harvesting. Potatoes are also common in the Colombian diet and are grown in the highlands of Boyacá, Cundinamarca, and Nariño and in the colder areas of Santander, Eje Cafetero, and Antioquia. Agro-industrial crops such as oil palm, sugarcane, coffee, bananas, and cocoa require specialized infrastructure for their processing or commercialization. The main producing regions are the Llanos Orientales, Valle del Cauca, Urabá Antioqueño, and Magdalena Medio. Coffee and cocoa are grown in the Eje Cafetero and Santander hillside areas due to favorable microclimates for the crops’ growth, development, and product quality.

Due to Colombia’s proximity to the equator, seasonal patterns are determined primarily by rainfall distribution rather than temperature fluctuations. In the Andina Region, highlands typically experience bimodal rainfall (April-June and September-November), allowing two cropping cycles per year of staples like maize, beans, and potatoes. In contrast, Orinoquía follows a unimodal pattern with a single rainy season (April-November), supporting one primary cropping cycle of rice and maize. Caribe has a more pronounced dry season and a unimodal rainy season concentrated from May to November, although the southern Caribe shares a longer unimodal pattern similar to Orinoquía, while the Amazonía and Pacífico regions receive heavy rainfall for much of the year, supporting near year-round subsistence cropping. Across much of rural Colombia, difficult geography, poor infrastructure, and limited state presence isolate remote communities, leaving markets poorly integrated and increasing the importance of local production patterns and services in determining market supply and economic opportunities. 

According to the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD), Colombia is exposed to a range of weather-related hazards that disrupt livelihoods and food security. These include rainfall and temperature variability associated with El Niño and La Niña events, causing droughts, floods, or landslides, which negatively affect crop production, infrastructure, and livelihoods. Environmental degradation, particularly deforestation in the Amazon, is another major hazard caused by the expansion of cattle ranching, illicit crop cultivation, and illegal mining activities. In addition, there remains a lower risk of earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, and tropical storms. Colombia is prone to earthquakes due to the large number of faults in the country, such as the Romeral and Piedemonte Llanero fault systems, and tsunami risks are primarily along the Pacific coast but occasionally affect the Caribbean coast. The threat of active volcanoes is present in Colombia's central mountain range and to the south in the Cauca-Patía depression and western mountain range. Lastly, tropical cyclones affect the islands of San Andres, Providencia, and Santa Catalina, La Guajira, and the coastal areas of the cities in Santa Marta, Cartagena, and Barranquilla. 

Colombia's total population is estimated at 53.4 million as of 2026, according to DANE. The population structure reflects an ongoing demographic transition: approximately 27 percent are under 18 years of age, 58 percent are between 18 and 59, and 15 percent are aged 60 or older, a share projected to nearly double by 2050 as fertility rates have fallen below replacement level. The country is highly urbanized: 77 percent of the population resides in urban centers, concentrated mainly in the Andina and Caribe regions and in major cities such as Bogotá (7.9 million inhabitants), Medellín, Cali, Barranquilla, and Cartagena. The remaining 23 percent live in rural areas, dispersed across ecologically complex zones including the Pacific coast and the Amazonía and Orinoquía regions. Colombia is classified as an upper-middle-income country. According to DANE, monetary poverty reached 31.8 percent at the national level in 2024 — the lowest recorded since 2012 and down from 34.6 percent in 2023 — while extreme monetary poverty stood at 11.7 percent. The Gini coefficient, which measures income inequality on a scale of 0 (highly equal) to 1 (highly inequal), was 0.551. Despite this progress, a sharp urban-rural divide persists: poverty in urban centers was 28.6 percent compared to 42.5 percent in rural areas, and extreme poverty was more than twice as high in rural areas (21.8 percent) as in urban ones (8.7 percent). 

Poverty is also geographically concentrated, with the highest rates in departments characterized by remote terrain, armed conflict, weak institutional presence, and limited market integration. In 2024, Chocó recorded the highest poverty and extreme poverty rates nationally at 67.4 and 44.9 percent, respectively, followed by La Guajira at 65.7 and 43.2 percent, respectively, according to DANE. By contrast, Cundinamarca (20.1 and 9.2 percent), Caldas (20.0 and 4.8 percent), and Bogotá (19.6 and 4.2 percent) recorded the lowest rates. This geographic gradient reflects deep structural inequalities, with poor rural households, Indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities (concentrated in Amazonía, Caribe, and Pacífico), IDPs, and Venezuelan migrants being the populations most vulnerable to shocks. According to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), approximately 78 percent of the rural population, or nearly 10 million people, now live under the influence of at least one NSAG. Colombia has one of the largest cumulative internal displacement crises in the world. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), almost 7 million people have been internally displaced since 1985, all of whom are recognized by the government as eligible for assistance and reparations. Acute displacement — mainly related to persistent conflict — continues to escalate, with annual new displacement rates ranging between 100,000 and 200,000 in recent years. IDPs are disproportionately from Indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities. In addition, Colombia hosts approximately 2.8 million Venezuelan migrants and refugees — the largest number of Venezuelans outside of Venezuela — according to a 2025 Migración Colombia report. While Venezuelan populations are concentrated in urban centers (Bogotá alone hosts over 590,000), substantial populations are also present in border departments such as Norte de Santander and La Guajira, where competition for employment, services, and informal market access intersects with local conflict and displacement dynamics.

In Colombia, methods of earning income and accessing food vary significantly across urban and rural areas, shaped by local agroclimatic conditions and the diversity of livelihood options available. Rural households typically derive income from small-scale agricultural production, livestock rearing, agricultural wage labor, fishing, forestry, and small-scale mining activities, with the vast majority of income-generating opportunities (83 percent as of 2025) informal in nature. Agriculture accounts for more than half of rural employment, and typically employs approximately 14 percent of all workers nationally, although the sector contributed less than 10 percent to national GDP in 2024 (Figure 4). Crop production is dominated by staple foods such as rice, maize, cassava, potatoes, and plantains, which form the foundation of household food consumption. Rice production is largely domestic, while maize consumption relies heavily on imports. Export-oriented cash crops, which include coffee, oil palm, bananas, sugarcane, and cocoa, also play an important role in Colombia’s rural economy.

Coffee production is concentrated in the Andina coffee belt, while oil palm plantations are expanding primarily in the Orinoquía Region. In conflict-affected areas, coca cultivation is a primary income source for a significant share of rural households. According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime-SIMCI, Colombia had 253,000 hectares under coca cultivation in 2023, concentrated in Nariño, Cauca, Putumayo, Norte de Santander, and in the Amazonía Region. Cattle ranching is an additional rural livelihood option: Colombia had an estimated 30 million head of cattle as of 2025, concentrated mainly in Antioquia, Córdoba, Meta, Casanare, Caquetá, Cesar, Magdalena, Santander, Cundinamarca, and Bolívar. While cattle are typically owned by middle and better-off households, poor households engage with the industry as day laborers.

Urban livelihoods are dominated by activities in trade, manufacturing, and the service sectors (Figure 4). Remittances, mainly from the U.S. and Spain, accounted for 2.8 percent of Colombia’s GDP in 2024 (a historic high), supporting household income for the mainly middle and better-off households that receive them. Informal employment remains widespread and is engaged in by approximately 43 percent of workers, often characterized by unstable incomes and limited access to social security coverage. The cities with the highest average prevalence of informal employment by the end of 2025 were Sincelejo (67.9 percent), Valledupar (66.0 percent), and Cúcuta (63.6 percent). The migrant population is even more likely to enter the informal sector. Among migrants with the intention to settle in Colombia, livelihoods are concentrated in a narrow set of mostly precarious income sources: self-employment accounts for 43 percent of main household income, followed by salaried work (27 percent) and day labor (10 percent). Half of migrant households depend on a single income source. In 2024, the average household income among migrant households was 1.13 million Colombian pesos (COP), below that year’s minimum wage of 1.30 million COP, and 59 percent reported a partial decline in income in the previous six months. For migrants in transit, livelihoods are even more fragile, as 74 percent report lacking enough resources to reach their destination and rely mainly on personal savings (53 percent), loans from relatives or friends (20 percent), and the sale of assets (13 percent).

National employment data show that unemployment rates tend to increase early in the year and again between May and July when seasonal demand for labor declines in several sectors. Overall, unemployment has dropped somewhat in the years following the pandemic and now sits at 9.2 percent nationally. However, the unemployment rate among Venezuelan migrants — particularly those most recently arrived in Colombia — is typically much higher. 

The social protection system in Colombia predominantly uses a mix of conditional and unconditional cash transfers. To identify the potential beneficiaries of these social programs, the government uses the System of Identification of Social Program Beneficiaries (SISBEN), which classifies the population according to their living conditions and income level, based on data and targeting inputs from DANE. The SISBEN classifies the national population in groups A to D. Group A corresponds to extreme poverty, group B to moderate poverty, group C to “vulnerable groups,” and group D to the non-poor, “non-vulnerable.” According to the National Planning Department, the SISBEN is constantly updated through regular household surveys. Venezuelan migrants with valid migration documents, including Permiso por Protección Temporal (PPT), are classified in the SISBEN to become recipients of state assistance. The Departamento de Prosperidad Social (DPS) is then responsible for implementing the safety net via cash transfer delivery. The main cash transfers are: Colombia Mayor, Renta Ciudadana, the VAT refund, and Renta Joven. Colombia Mayor is an unconditional transfer for adults over 60 (women) and 65 (men) years old who do not have a pension. Although the program targets roughly 3 million beneficiaries, recipient levels are well below that, as not all eligible adults have signed up. Monthly payments of 230,000 COP (approximately 62 USD) have been confirmed for the first half of 2026. Renta Ciudadana is the Colombian government’s flagship anti-poverty program, which targets more than 700,000 households in groups A and B, and, as of early 2026, offered a cash transfer of 500,000 COP (approximately 135 USD) on a bimonthly basis. Created in 2020, the VAT refund is a bimonthly targeted consumption subsidy for SISBEN-classified households in groups A and B. In early 2026, more than 760,000 households were included in the first joint cycle with Renta Ciudadana, and payments are expected to fluctuate between 106,000 and 110,000 COP (approximately 29-30 USD). Renta Joven is focused on access to and retention in higher education, a mechanism to encourage and strengthen the country’s human capital. It centers its efforts on young people between 14 and 28 years old who are enrolled in higher education institutions. In the first half of 2026, 170,000 participants were slated to receive the bimonthly transfer of 400,000 COP (approximately 111 USD).  

For most households, the majority of food is obtained through market purchases, while own production remains relevant in rural areas. Still, national data indicate that poor households allocate nearly 60 percent of their total expenditures to food purchases and essential services such as housing, electricity, and water, while the rural poor typically dedicate an even higher proportion. The typical Colombian diet consists primarily of staple carbohydrates and animal protein sources. Common foods include rice, plantains, cassava or potatoes, maize-based arepas, eggs, chicken, beef, and panela, an unrefined sugar product derived from sugarcane. The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that cereals and tubers account for approximately 34 percent of total dietary energy consumption across the country. Regional dietary patterns vary depending on ecological conditions and local food availability. Coastal populations consume higher quantities of fish and seafood, while rural agricultural households often rely on locally produced crops combined with market purchases to meet their food needs.

Armed conflict has been ongoing in Colombia since the mid-1950s, characterized by violence, kidnappings, and extortion. Initially, leftist guerrilla movements, including the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN), transformed peasant uprisings into a war against landowners and the government. The conflict expanded in the 1980s and 1990s as right-wing paramilitary organizations and narcotrafficking became prominent features of the war, resulting in widespread civilian targeting, forced displacement, extortion, extrajudicial killings, torture, and kidnappings that destabilized rural areas. After an intensified campaign by the Colombian military in the early 2000s substantially degraded the FARC’s capabilities and territorial control, the group entered into peace negotiations with the government that culminated in a 2016 peace agreement promising FARC demobilization, political integration, transitional justice, and rural transformation.

However, incomplete implementation of the peace agreement, the security vacuum created by the FARC’s demobilization, and lucrative smuggling networks have enabled the proliferation of new armed groups focused on the control of illicit economies rather than ideology. FARC dissident factions, ELN fronts, criminal successor groups, and transnational trafficking networks continue to compete for control of territory and smuggling corridors, with violence concentrated in strategic rural and border areas where state authority remains limited. Presently, armed groups in Colombia include splinter factions of the FARC, such as the Estado Mayor Central (EMC) and the Second Marquetalia, the ELN, and drug trafficking cartels such as the Clan del Golfo (AGC), formed from former paramilitary groups. These armed groups disproportionately target civilians, and generate revenue through kidnapping, extortion, illegal gold mining, and especially coca cultivation and cocaine trafficking. Coca cultivation in Colombia is overwhelmingly tied to the illicit cocaine economy (despite some traditional uses in Andean communities), undermining agricultural production of food crops, while criminal control of key trade routes disrupts market access and results in frequent extortion of traders. Territorial disputes regularly lead to displacement, confinement, and disruption of livelihoods particularly along the Pacific coast (Nariño and Chocó), the Catatumbo region along the Venezuelan border, parts of Antioquia and Córdoba, and stretches of the Amazon Basin (Figure 5).

Levels of violence — which declined significantly following the 2016 peace agreement — have rebounded since 2023. According to the International Committee of the Red Cross' (ICRC) Humanitarian Report 2025, 2024 was the worst humanitarian year in Colombia in eight years, with 382 documented violations of international humanitarian law and an 89 percent increase in casualties from explosive devices. Further deterioration likely occurred in 2025. In January 2025, an ELN offensive against FARC dissident factions in the Catatumbo region (Norte de Santander Department) displaced tens of thousands of people amid reports of massacres and targeted killings. Overall, in the first half of 2025, more than 70,000 people were displaced and nearly 100,000 people were confined, representing increases over the same period in 2024. 

Since the early 2000s, the Colombian economy has grown and diversified, supported by high international commodity and oil prices and macroeconomic policies aimed at strengthening investment, improving tax collection, and expanding social safety net coverage. Between 2010 and 2024, average GDP growth was 3.5 percent, driven by expanding trade and services. In 2025, this diversification was evident as manufacturing and commerce contributed about 28.6 percent of GDP, while primary economic activities, such as agriculture, contributed less than 10 percent. 

Economic output is driven by energy and mining (including coal, oil, and natural gas), agriculture (particularly cash crops such as coffee, flowers, and sugar cane), manufacturing and industrial activity (primarily textile production, chemical manufacturing, and plastic processing and services), with the greatest contributions derived from professional services, public administration, and tourism. Economic activity is geographically concentrated. In 2024, Bogotá, Antioquía, and Valle del Cauca generated roughly half of the national GDP due to their larger manufacturing, trade, and services bases. Conversely, Amazonía and Orinoquia contributed the least, reflecting sparse populations and weaker connectivity and infrastructure. 

Colombia’s export structure is oriented toward agriculture, fuel, and mining products. In 2025, over 55 percent of exports came from four products: oil and derivates (25 percent), coal (10 percent), coffee (11.7 percent), and gold (9 percent). Major trading partners include the U.S., Panama, India, Brazil, and Ecuador. The energy sector contributes significantly to government revenues, with fossil fuels representing 10 percent of fiscal revenues. Crude oil production averaged 746,467 barrels per day (bpd) in 2025 and provides substantial foreign currency inflows, with nearly 60 percent of the national production exported in 2024. On the import side, manufacturing imports represented 75.1 percent of international purchases in 2025, while agricultural products, mainly cereals, accounted for 14.7 percent.

Agriculture is focused on cereals and cash crops (Figure 6). Colombia is the world’s third-largest coffee producer, contributing to 8 percent of the global output. The coffee sector is a relevant source of income and is the country’s third-largest export commodity, providing nearly 700,000 jobs. Several cash crops (palm oil, sugarcane, coffee, bananas, cocoa) require specialized processing and logistics to reach domestic and external markets. Colombian palm oil production accounts for 2 percent of the global output, with over 80 percent of African palm production concentrated in Meta, Santander, Cesar, Casanare and Magdalena, and significant domestic processing capacity supporting exports. Rice is the largest sown cereal and is harvested between August and October. Domestic production meets close to 90 percent of the demand, with the remainder imported mainly from the U.S. and Ecuador. Production is concentrated in Meta, Tolima, Casanare, and Huila, which together generate over 70 percent of the national output. Maize is the third‑largest crop by planted area after coffee and rice, and it is typically harvested between August and September. Nearly 70 percent of production is concentrated in Córdoba, Sucre, Bolívar, Tolima, Huila, Valle del Cauca, and Meta. Yellow maize serves primarily as animal feed, while white maize is oriented to human consumption. Commercial farms supply nearly 80 percent of marketed volume, while smallholders produce mainly for subsistence. Colombia is structurally deficit-producing for maize (both white and yellow) and is heavily reliant on wheat imports as local production is minimal, covering less than 1 percent of demand.

Market concentration is high, with 73 percent of the wholesale trade for agricultural products limited to five cities: Bogotá (35 percent), Medellín (15 percent), Cali (8 percent), Bucaramanga (8 percent), and Barranquilla (7 percent). Trade flows are centralized in the main urban centers — especially Bogotá — and products are redistributed or ‘reexported’ to the rest of the country. This system drives up transportation costs and increases handling losses. Infrastructure is unequally distributed. Road networks are concentrated in the central part of the country, particularly in the Andina and Caribe regions. Pacífico and Amazonía regions lack effective road connections to the rest of the country due to their remoteness and mountainous terrain. Transportation often involves long travel distances, and storage conditions remain challenging, marked by limited equipment, insufficient cold-chain infrastructure, and continued reliance on manual handling. 

Domestic macroeconomic conditions shape price stability and local currency performance. The Central Bank maintains a flexible exchange rate system, and the currency fluctuates based on supply and demand conditions. The Central Bank intervenes in the foreign exchange market when needed to keep inflation within the inflation target, which is close to 3 percent. However, the value of the COP is sensitive to political uncertainty, as reflected in a sharp depreciation episode between April 2022 and April 2023, driven by uncertainty over tax policies and increased risk perception, in which the local currency lost 21 percent of its value. The COP is progressively recovering since late 2023, and although the exchange rate remains somewhat volatile, the Central Bank anticipates a more stable environment through 2027.

Yearly inflation rates have progressively declined since the 2022 peak levels (Figure 7). In December 2025, headline inflation was 5.1 percent and persisted above the inflation target (3 percent). Food and transportation inflation rates were 5.07 and 5.35 percent, respectively, in the same period. Inflation is shaped by different factors such as food price volatility, periodic minimum wage adjustments, indexed services, regulated prices, and exchange rate trends. Rent, education, and utilities are adjusted annually with consideration for inflation, producer prices, and minimum wage levels. However, there are ongoing discussions about eliminating this measure for some services due to associated inflationary pressures.

Annual minimum wage adjustments are typically introduced in January and consider productivity and Consumer Price Index trends, aiming to preserve purchasing power. In 2026, the minimum wage was raised to 1,750,905 COP (approximately 486 USD), a 23 percent increase over the 2025 level, and is currently under judicial review due to its implications on inflation and production costs.

Food security in Colombia is determined by constraints on households’ physical and financial access to food and is strongly tied to conflict exposure and inequalities in infrastructure and income. Although national food availability is generally sufficient due to a combination of domestic production and imports, access to food varies sharply. In this context, the populations of highest concern are poor rural households dependent on subsistence agriculture and seasonal labor, including Indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities mainly in the Pacífico, Amazonia, and Caribe regions, poor urban and peri-urban households dependent on informal wage labor; and displaced populations (both IDPs and Venezuelan migrants) whose limited assets, irregular employment, and restricted access to services leave them among the most economically vulnerable. 

Armed conflict is a central driver of acute food insecurity in Colombia as violence between armed groups causes cycles of displacement and confinement. Forcibly displaced households lose access to land, livelihoods, and productive assets, leaving them reliant on social and humanitarian food assistance to meet their food needs. During periods of confinement, households face restricted mobility that limits access to farmland, markets, mines, and other livelihood activities and often results in consumption gaps or the use of negative coping strategies. Actively confined and/or recently displaced populations remain a small proportion of total departmental populations; however, the threat of livelihood disruptions is severe across many rural areas, with approximately three-quarters of the rural population living under the influence of at least one NSAG. 

In addition, Colombia’s transportation infrastructure is underdeveloped in less populated areas, with direct implications for food access and prices. Road networks are concentrated in the Andina and Caribe regions, where population density and economic activity are highest. These regions benefit from a mix of paved and unpaved highways that support food production, trade, and distribution. In contrast, the Pacífico and Amazonía regions lack quality road connections to the rest of the country due to remoteness and rugged terrain, relying primarily on river transport. The Orinoquía Region is similarly constrained, with a single main road connecting it to central Colombia and limited secondary roads. According to a 2021-2022 Private Competitiveness Council report, over 70 percent of departmental roads are tertiary, and at least three‑quarters are in poor condition. Despite this, roads accounted for 77 percent of freight transport countrywide in the decade leading up to the pandemic. Disruptions, such as temporary road blockages, fuel price fluctuations, and fuel shortages negatively affect food availability and prices, particularly in regions with fewer major transportation corridors. Weak market integration and distance between production areas and consumer markets increases transportation costs and contributes to regional price differences. For example, potatoes produced mainly in Cundinamarca and Boyacá are significantly more expensive in the Caribe Region. Meanwhile, large urban markets such as Bogotá and Medellín benefit from better storage capacity and more reliable supply chains, resulting in more competitive food prices.

Financial access is therefore a significant constraint for many poor households. Although the statutory minimum wage is adjusted annually for inflation, more than half of the population earns below this threshold. Informal employment is widespread among poor households, with particularly elevated rates of informality in the Caribe and Pacífico regions. Informal workers face irregular wages and limited job security and social protection, increasing vulnerability to economic shocks. Venezuelan migrants, concentrated mainly in Bogotá, Antioquia, and Norte de Santander, remain most at risk in urban labor markets. Although most have regularized their legal status in the country and are eligible for legal employment and access to social programs, the sheer number of migrants has caused a labor supply shock, driving up competition for opportunities and limiting income growth amid high inflation. Employment opportunities remain limited, particularly for newly arrived migrants and female‑headed households. 

Although food and headline inflation have begun to moderate following global price shocks post-pandemic, prices remain above historical averages, continuing to erode purchasing power among poor households. With food expenditure taking up a large share of household income, fluctuations in food prices or general inflation negatively affect household purchasing power and food security. Poor households cope by increasing engagement in existing or alternative livelihoods, reducing diet quality, limiting non‑essential spending, relying on savings, or accumulating debt. Households more acutely affected by economic, weather, or conflict-related shocks are likely to employ more severe coping strategies, such as reducing essential non-food expenditure, selling livestock or productive assets, or reducing the number of meals per day. 

Current and historical data indicate low levels of acute malnutrition across Colombia; however, subnational disparities persist, particularly among Indigenous populations, migrants, and specific municipalities. Demographic and Health Surveys from 1986 through 2010 consistently show global acute malnutrition (GAM) using weight-for-height z-scores (WHZ) within the Acceptable range (< 5 percent). The most recent survey, the 2015 National Survey of the Nutrition Situation in Colombia (ENSIN), recorded a national GAM (WHZ) prevalence of 1.6 percent, with no region reporting values above 2.5 percent. Although no national survey has been conducted since 2016, a SMART survey conducted in Puerto Carreño in 2024 found GAM (WHZ) at 1.9 percent, consistent with the long-standing national pattern, albeit limited in representativeness to one municipality. Meanwhile, surveillance system data reinforce these findings. In 2025, acute malnutrition among children under five was estimated at 0.52 percent nationally, a decline from 2024 levels. Most municipalities reported low prevalence, although Risaralda reached 5.2 percent, entering the Alert range (5-9.9 percent). The surveillance system also captures cases among Indigenous and migrant populations, though disaggregated prevalence values remain limited. Furthermore, mortality indicators provide essential context but are limited. In 2024, the World Bank reported a crude death rate (CDR) of 5 deaths per 1,000 people, and UNICEF reported an under-five mortality rate of 11.5 deaths per 1,000 live births. However, these are national-level statistics and should be interpreted only as broad indicators of overall population health, and cannot be compared to the CDR and under-five death rate (U5DR) thresholds used by the Integrated Phase Classification (IPC) scale to assess acute food insecurity, both of which use measures per 10,000 people per day. According to the Ministry of Health’s Basic Health Indicators (2024), the leading causes of death among children 1 to 5 years of age include congenital anomalies (10-13 percent), acute respiratory infections (10-12 percent), neurological diseases (7-9 percent), and nutritional deficiencies and anemias (9-10 percent). These mortality patterns underscore how infection and micronutrient deficiencies interact with underlying nutritional vulnerability.

Nonetheless, food access constraints, conflict‑related movement limitations, varying infant and young child feeding practices and diet quality among young children, exposure to common childhood illnesses, and inconsistent water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services pose nutrition risks in certain regions. Nationally, breastfeeding practices are moderate: UNICEF reports 69 percent of children born in the last 24 months are put to the breast within one hour of birth, and 37 percent of infants 0 to 5 months of age are exclusively breastfed. Dietary inadequacy persists, and 7 percent of children are estimated to live in severe child food poverty. WASH conditions also vary widely; for example, in Puerto Carreño, 15.8 percent of households practice open defecation, 19 percent lack handwashing facilities, and only 18.2 percent have treated drinking water. Immunization gaps remain a concern, with more than 10 percent of surveyed children never vaccinated for measles or the pentavalent vaccine in Puerto Carreño.