According to the United Nations, Colombia is falling far behind in achieving the Millennium Development Goals that it along with other 188 countries committed to earlier this decade, in order to improve the population's quality of life.
The UN Development Program issued the latest assessment of Colombia's progress with objectives to be achieved by 2015, and worryingly, Colombia is behind on almost every front., reports Caracol Radio.
One of the most worrying targets is that of poverty; Colombia pledged to reduce it to 28.5 per cent of the population by 2015. The rate currently stands at 46 per cent.
Coordinator of the UNDP's Millennium Development Goals, Cesar Caballero, warned that due to the economic crisis, increased unemployment and a drop in household income, Colombia's poverty will increase.
The assessment, made before the crisis, reads in part as follows: "Colombia is strong on the issues of basic primary and secondary education, and issues of infant mortality and vaccination. ... It is weak on the issues of poverty and destitution. We are further away [from targets] than we thought. [Rates of] teenage pregnancy in Colombia are very bad, as well as issues of high-risk housing and gender equality."
The report indicates that for every 100 women who have had children in Colombia, 21 were under 18. The goal is to lower this ratio to 15 women in 100, as well as to maintain HIV/AIDS rates to less than 1.5 per cent of the population. That figure currently stands at 1.7 per cent.
The regions with the lowest progress rates are the departments of Sucre, Guaviare, Guainia, Chocó and Valle, and the more advanced departments are Antioquia, Cundinamarca, Santander, Cesar, Nariño, Tolima and Boyaca.
