WFP Colombia
Country Brief
July 2024

In Numbers
316 mt of food assistance distributed*
USD 1.93 m cash-based transfers made*USD 29.9 m six months (August 2024 – January2025) net funding requirements, representing
62 percent of total
146,511 people assisted*
In July 2024*

Indigenous communities in La Pedrera, Amazonas supported by
WFP to recover from emergencies caused by conflict andweather-related-events © Photo/ WFP Colombia

Operational Context
Despite being an upper-middle-income country, Colombia
faces a complex humanitarian and food security crisis, with 13
million moderately or severely food-insecure Colombians (25percent of the population) according to the latest WFP
assessment (EFSA, 2024). Improving food security is one of theGovernment’s priorities, together with advancing the peace
process. The situation in Colombia is also marked by internal
violence, forced displacements, widespread presence of illegal
armed groups, ongoing mixed-migration flows, severe climaterelated emergencies, and economic shocks. In this context, 7.7
million people need humanitarian assistance (OCHA, 2023).
Likewise, Colombia’s decades-long armed conflict resulted in
9.5 million victims of which 90 percent are internally displaced
persons (OCHA, 2024). At the same time, 2.9 million migrants
are currently reported (Colombian Government, 2023)
representing one of the largest figures across the region
concerning migration. WFP operates in Colombia since 1969
and its strategy aligns with the Government’s priorities on foodsecurity, humanitarian response, recovery, development, andcapacity-strengthening to achieve Sustainable Development
Goals (SDG) 2 (Zero Hunger) and SDG 17 (Partnerships forGoals).

Population: 51.8 million

2024 Human Development Index:
89 out of 191

Income Level: Upper middle

Chronic malnutrition: 10.8 percent

Contact information: Sergio Bayona (Sergio.bayona@wfp.org)
Country Director: Nils Grede
For further information: www.wfp.org/countries/Colombia

48%

52%

Preliminary figures

Operational Updates
In July, WFP reached over 79,000 Colombians (includingreturnees, host communities and internally displaced persons- IDPs) as well as 48,000 migrants across 15 departments. The
activities through which WFP assisted them included:•Emergency Response - The humanitarian situation in
Colombia has worsened over recent months due toescalating armed conflict and increased rainfall leading tofloods and loss of livelihoods. WFP has received requests
for assistance from several departments. A CERFfinanced project finalized implementation in Choco,
Nariño and Valle del Cauca, reaching 4,700 people withhumanitarian assistance and 3,100 more through earlyrecovery of livelihoods.
•Livelihoods and Resilience – WFP continued the“Productive Subsistence Units” project in 5 departments,aiming to improve the access and consumption ofhealthy food for 8,300 vulnerable families. In July WFP
distributed cooking utensils and educational booklets forthe beneficiaries. WFP finalized an early recovery projectin La Guajira benefitting 370 people. The project also
strengthened the disaster risk management capacities of
local authorities, indirectly impacting 1,600 people in thetargeted communities.
•Migration – In July WFP detected a 4% increase inmigration flows compared to June. About 28,000
beneficiaries were reached through hot meals andalmost 16,000 people received ready-to-eat food rations.
The agency is closely monitoring the migrant flows andhas elaborated a contingency plan to respond to apossible sudden increase of people entering the country.
•School Feeding – This month, WFP provided meals to73,000 children including 10,600 migrant children in LaGuajira.
•Service Provision – In July WFP transported 29 MT ofhumanitarian assistance for the Government of Chocó,
the Victims’ Unit and the Pan American Development
Foundation. The assistance reached more than 3,000
people affected by armed violence in the departments ofChocó, Cauca, and Nariño. WFP plans to support otherpartners through the transport of humanitarianassistance in the coming months.
•WFP signed a new agreement for the operation of themobile units with the National Family Welfare Institute(ICBF) for USD 6.2 million to support the response tovictims of forced displacement and those affected byweather-related-events. The new agreement will go until
the end November with 8 new mobile units to be
deployed in La Guajira, Choco and Vichada.

WFP Country Strategy

Monitoring and Evaluation•Country Strategic Plan (2021-2024)
Total Requirement(in USD)

AllocatedContributions (in USD)

795.7 m448.8 mSix Month Net Funding
Requirements (in USD)

26.9 m

SDG 2 - Target 1: Access to Food

•Strategic Outcome 2: Venezuelan migrants, Colombian returnees andmembers of host communities receive humanitarian assistance, equitable
access to quality differential services and expeditious and massive accessto the labour market and entrepreneurship options, with a focus on foodsecurity and nutrition, with the support of WFP and in coordination with theUnited Nations country team, as a complement to the efforts of theColombian Government.
Activities:•Provide humanitarian assistance and access to services.
•Strengthen institutional capacities and provide support.
Strategic Outcome 3: The public policies, institutional capacity, systems,and services for the promotion of food security, nutrition and social
inclusion are technically strengthened and vulnerable populations haveaccess to adequate and nutritious food throughout the year for theacceleration of catalytic SDGs, in particular SDG 2, with the support of WFP
and in coordination with the United Nations country team, as acomplement to the efforts of the Colombian Government.
Activities:•Support the Government and territorial entities in strengthening theircapacity and strategies.
•
Provide technical assistance and support for school feeding.
•Provide food and nutrition assistance, including through thestrengthening of the social protection system.

Challenges•••

SDG 2 - Target 4: Sustainable Food systems
Strategic Outcome 1: By 2024, people and communities in a situation offood vulnerability in the PDET municipalities prioritized by the Government
improve their quality of life by strengthening their resilience andsustainable livelihoods and local governments strengthen their capacities,
contributing to the stabilization and consolidation of the territories, withthe support of WFP and in coordination with the United Nations country
team, as a complement to the efforts of the Government.
Activities:•
Provide food assistance through conditional transfers and asset
building, to ensure the transition from humanitarian assistancetowards self-sustainability and development phase activities.
•Provide technical assistance for the strengthening of livelihoods,
ensuring food self-sufficiency and the generation of surpluses formarkets.
•Strengthen the social cohesion, prevention of gender-based violence(GBV) and leadership capacities of the livelihoods and resilience
beneficiaries.
•Support the most vulnerable people to manage and reduce climaterelated risks to food security and to adapt to climate change.
SDG 17 - Target 8: Global Partnership
Strategic Outcome 4: Humanitarian and development partners haveaccess to reliable services to support effective interventions year-round.
Activities:•Provide on-demand supply chain, transport and digital beneficiary
management and other services to humanitarian and development
partners.

WFP Colombia Country Brief
July 2024

WFP completed assistance to indigenous communities inAmazonas. According to the endline monitoring, 97%
percent of beneficiary households achieved the highest
level of food consumption and poor food consumption was
reduced from 58% to 0%. In terms of use of livelihoods
coping strategies, beneficiary households reduced their useof emergency strategies from 22% to 11%.
According to WFP’s monitoring, access to food is more
limited among communities affected by conflict andweather-related events than for people not affected bythese occurrences. Migrants, despite having better foodconsumption, have greater use of emergency coping
strategies than other population groups such as reducing
expenditures on health, education, clothing andwithdrawing children from school.
The government warned of a 75% to 85% probability of theLa Niña phenomenon for the July-September quarter thisyear. The transition from El Niño to La Niña is expected tosignificantly impact agricultural livelihoods and requires
heightened attention.
So far in 2024, there have been 127 episodes of violence
affecting 33,123 people. More than 90% of them were also
affected by restricted humanitarian access.
Currently, only 55% of the funds required in 2024 for crisis
response have been confirmed. Essential crisis response
funds are still pending confirmation. Donors are
consistently decreasing crisis response funds in thecountry. This hinders WFP's capacity to effectively respondto the multiple crises affecting Colombia.

Partnerships••

WFP received USD 14.8 million from the US Bureau of
Humanitarian Affairs to assist conflict-affected populations
through emergency response and early recovery activities.
Furthermore, the German Federal Foreign Office allocatedEUR 400,000 to WFP for emergency response.
WFP and the Howard G. Buffet Foundation conducted thefirst steering committee of the” Feeding Peace” Fund. 13
business projects led by ex-combatants and victims ofinternal conflict were selected for support, benefitting 900
people in five municipalities across the country.

DonorsCanada, Colombia, European Union (DG-ECHO), France,Germany, Italy, Korea (the Republic of), Switzerland, UnitedStates of America, and private donors.
Additional support has been provided by the Adaptation Fund,
United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund, WFP
Innovation Accelerator, the United Nations Multi-Partner TrustFund for Peacebuilding and the SDG Fund.

Stories from the field•

Learn how WFP and Colombia’s department of Social
Prosperity are implementing the project Productive
Subsistence Units to promote food security in the mostvulnerable regions of the country.

•Discover how WFP is changing lives in Colombia throughemergency food assistance and capacity strengthening inconflict-affected communities of Choco, Nariño and Valledel Cauca thanks to the funds from CERF.