Food insecurity, the other threat of COVID-19 for Colombia’s indigenous communities

By Alexandra Rostiaux, UNV ROLAC Panama





As of 22 February 2021, some 35,440 positive cases have been registered among at least 78 indigenous groups in the country, which also require differentiated and focused attention to address the particular challenges and needs they face.



Beyond the health challenge, indigenous communities were particularly affected during the months of strict quarantine, by the mandatory preventive isolation measures and restrictions on mobility implemented by the National Government to curb the spread of COVID-19.



These measures have had a strong socioeconomic impact on the indigenous population in terms of access to livelihoods. The World Food Programme (WFP) projections on food insecurity in Colombia indicate that the COVID-19 crisis has significantly impacted a large part of the population and that at least 3.5 million Colombians are severely food insecure.



Subsistence crops, whose surpluses were traded or exchanged among the indigenous communities themselves, were greatly affected by the isolation measures. In many areas of the country (including Vaupés, Meta, Guaviare, Vichada, Amazonas, Guainía, Putumayo and Chocó, among others), indigenous and farmer communities require actions to strengthen the recovery of crops and other activities that support the survival and self-sustainability of these vulnerable communities.



Many communities have tried to adapt to the new reality.



“With the pandemic, the whole dynamic has changed. Social leaders could not go out to the field, nor make people’s needs and situation visible, but the population calls them to ask for help,” says Mónica Miranda, from Mitú, department of Vaupés in the Amazonas region. She is a community representative of the Victims Participation Roundtable, a space for institutional participation representing the population affected by the internal conflict.



Ms. Miranda explains: “As a communication channel, the leaders use the community radio station, Yurupari Estéreo, to reach the population. In the radio messages in Spanish (some in indigenous languages), the telephone numbers of the leaders are shared, so the community can call them to discuss their difficulties, especially the lack of food during the pandemic. Thanks to this communication channel, the social leaders were able to manage humanitarian aid, such as cash transfers, for them.”



Ms. Miranda considers economic troubles were the greatest challenge the population would likely face, since many families that used to sell food in the Maloca (communal house in the Amazon used for social functions, food sales or celebration of festivities) had nothing to sell and no capital to help get them back on their feet again after the economic blow they suffered as a result of the preventive isolation measures.



 





In addition, the lack of educational and employment opportunities generated by these isolation measures increase the risk of recruitment by organized armed groups and organized criminal groups operating in indigenous areas.



It is estimated that these groups have a presence, influence and/or control over 496 rural municipalities where indigenous peoples live. Consequently, these populations are particularly affected by the dynamics of violence and armed conflict that pose a risk to the security of their communities. The Protection and Education clusters consider indigenous children to be the population with the greatest protection needs in the country.



Currently, the Amazon region is being significantly impacted by COVID-19, threatening the lives and livelihoods of its population, especially of the indigenous communities who live there. The largest land areas in the Amazon are in Brazil, Peru and Colombia, home to more than 400 indigenous communities with an estimated population of 6 million people. At least 21,000 indigenous people in the tri-border region have contracted the virus.



In response to this situation, UN Resident Coordinators from the three countries agreed in 2020 to develop, with the support of OCHA, an action plan to strengthen government responses to urgent needs in the area. The plan initially emphasizes response efforts in the Health, Food Security and Nutrition, and Water and Basic Sanitation (WASH) sectors, identified as priority areas for intervention by an assessment mission.



First-level responses in the three countries have already begun through reprogrammed funding, but additional resources are needed to scale up the response to reach more people in need of humanitarian assistance.



 

 



More information on the humanitarian impact of COVID-19 in the Amazon tri-border area can be found in the latest Flash Update.