Rural Communities In Colombia Research Articles

Assessing the Economic Impact of Coffee Farming on Rural Communities in Colombia

Purpose: The aim of the study was assessing the economic impact of coffee farming on rural communities in Colombia Methodology: This study adopted a desk methodology. A desk study research design is commonly known as secondary data collection. This is basically collecting data from existing resources preferably because of its low cost advantage as compared to a field research. Our current study looked into already published studies and reports as the data was easily accessed through online journals and libraries. Findings: Assessing the economic impact of coffee farming on rural communities in Colombia reveals significant findings. Coffee farming is a major source of employment and a primary contributor to household income in these areas, supporting the economic stability of numerous families. Moreover, the coffee industry’s demand for labor not only boosts local employment rates but also contributes to regional economic development through the generation of export revenues. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: Dependency theory, livelihoods approach & dual economy model may be used to anchor future studies on assessing the economic impact of coffee farming on rural communities in Colombia. Implement CBPR methods to involve coffee farmers in the research process, ensuring that their firsthand experiences and insights inform the study. Advocate for policies that support fair trade practices.

Autonomous cooperation: types of alliances between communities and combatants in civil wars

ABSTRACT Civilian cooperation with armed actors has been widely studied by conflict scholars. However, one aspect remains conceptually overlooked: instances where civilian communities cooperate while retaining their autonomy. This article proposes alliance as the core concept to understand cooperative relationships between communities and armed groups, while communities maintain autonomous self-governance. The article introduces a descriptive typology of alliances and provides a theoretical framework explaining how civilian positions and types of territory shape the various forms that alliances take. Drawing on field-based original empirical material from three rural communities in Colombia, the article illustrates how community-combatant alliances work on the ground.

Affecting Infrastructures: Crafting and Weaving as Alternative Repairs

As two traditional practices performed by rural communities in Colombia, crafting and weaving can be reframed as ontologies that embody alternative material orders and forms of repair. In this context, we explore two specific initiatives: the Crafted Empathy Chair developed by members of campesino social movements in Cauca and Nariño, and Interweaving Material Encounters, a series of collaborative spaces involving women from textile collectives from Chocó, Antioquia, and Bolivar. In the process of exploring these initiatives, we reflect on the role of nonhumans as technologies that allow our interlocutors to share their affect. In addition to discussing strategies for engaging in affective relations when dealing with the aftermath of war violence, we describe how these arrangements affect us as a part of the audience. Thus, we propose the term affecting infrastructure to conceptualize how crafting and weaving can foster everyday spaces and shared grounds for the emergence of emotional engagements as alternative modes of repair.

Teaching English in the Colombian Rural: Normalistas Superiores Challenges and Experiences

This qualitative study focuses on the challenges and experiences faced by normalistas in-service educators who teach English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in rural contexts in Colombia without the training to do so. Data were analyzed using grounded theory, through instruments such as interviews, real-life episodes, and a focus group. The participants were two normalistas educators who have taught English in rural areas for years, and the study was conducted in remote rural communities in Colombia with limited resources and connectivity. The results evidenced the teaching English practices outlook in rural communities, the adaption to an experimental learning and teaching method as part of the normalistas’ limitations in terms of English knowledge and instruments to teach the foreign language and, finally, the impact on rural learners as a result of normalistas’ performances in English classes.

The Resistance of the Ethnic Communities to the Business Onslaught in the Colombian Bajo Atrato, Seen from a Companion

ABSTRACT This article provides an account of the destruction of the social fabric of Afro-descendant, indigenous, peasant, and mestizo rural communities in Colombia from the perspective of a human rights worker of the Interfaith Commission of Justice and Peace (JyP). The community resistance that led to revelation of truth of what happened to the world is discussed. A description of the JyP’s multifaceted model of accompaniment, the strategies for return developed and implemented by the displaced families and communities, the associated legal actions and decisions, and knowledge generated from these very significant experiences of resistance in Colombia are also discussed.

Telemedicine and mHealth Applications for Health Monitoring in Rural Communities in Colombia: A Systematic Review

INTRODUCTION: Telemedicine and mHealth applications constitute a central pillar in the digital transformation of healthcare.OBJECTIVE: To describe the efficacy, applicability, and impact of telemedicine and mHealth applications on the monitoring and improvement of health in rural communities in Colombia.METHODS: This research was carried out as a systematic review, a type of study that allows for a thorough and replicable evaluation of the existing literature in the databases PubMed, Scopus, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, CINAHL, and ERIC.RESULTS: A total of 14 studies were included, which encompassed different types of research designs: two case-control studies, two randomized trials, four cross-sectional studies, two qualitative investigations, one consensus study, one retrospective cohort study, and two reviews. The sample size varied significantly among the studies, from 16 participants in the consensus study to 313,897 patients in one of the cross-sectional studies.CONCLUSIONS: Telemedicine and mHealth applications are transforming the way medical care is delivered to rural communities in Colombia. These tools have proven to be valuable in improving the detection and management of chronic diseases such as cognitive decline and cardiovascular diseases. At the same time, the implementation of these technologies has shown to be effective in improving the quality of medical care, providing greater access to specialized medical services, and reducing the sense of isolation among health professionals in rural areas.

Housing vulnerability, agricultural production, and goods lost estimated to floods in Rio Nuevo a rural community in Colombia

Floods affect households, crops, and assets, especially in rural areas in Colombia; due to the lack of risk management plans, settlements without core services and land use planning, atypical natural phenomena, and climate change. The floods recorded since 1964, in the rural community of Rio Nuevo in the department of Córdoba, but there is a lack of estimates of the economic losses and housing vulnerability. The research aim was to determine the degree of physical vulnerability and estimated economic losses in crops and goods due to flooding in the local community of Río Nuevo, Valencia Town. The methodological guide for the elaboration of departmental plans for risk management (known in Spanish as PDGR),  and the methodology for the economic valuation of potential direct tangible damages, was selected the variables (age, construction, regulations, soil, walls, floors, goods, and crops), questions, surveys to population, available data, proceed to process the information, elaborate maps and analyze. The results reveal physical vulnerability high in Rio Nuevo, with a value of 0.63 on a scale of 0 to 1. The rural community houses built located at a distance of fewer than 30 meters, mainly with wood, the soil of alluvial deposits, faced floods, humidity damages, hardening resistance, and non-quality life. The economic losses estimated between goods and crops were US$174200.22. A poverty condition, poor infrastructure, and unfavorable places, hamper improve the quality of the people. Colombian government need to excecute a proper infrastructure investment to reduce persistence vulnerability and relocated this riverside area, according to its culture and traditions, and protect the economy around crops

Resourcefulness, narratives, and identity in science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics education: A perspective of makerspaces for rural communities in Colombia

Disparities of scientific education (STEM) in rural and remote communities are exacerbating inequalities and taking away opportunities for youth to explore their scientific interests and participate in science-making globally. Maker education in rural and remote areas of Latin America could boost the participation of rural communities in scientific education and open alternatives to the lack of higher literacy rates and STEM education. In Colombia, tertiary education has been making efforts to close this gap through the Itinerant Technical Academies of Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje (SENA: National Learning Service). Participants in the Technical Academies create relevant technologies for their context, reflecting on their cultural values and aesthetics. In this contribution, we describe three projects conducted in the itinerant Technical Academies of rural Colombia in Narino to exemplify how participants made their artifacts relevant to their culture using available resources, materials, and practices. Students are using available resources to create artifacts that are relevant to their social contexts and aligned with constructivist practices. We propose and discuss three characteristics that have emerged in makerspaces situated in rural Colombia: (i) Narratives, (ii) Resourcefulness, and (iii) Identities and we suggest that makers, scholars, policymakers, and educators should pay attention to those three elements to guide future studies and further research on maker education in the Global South.

Key aspects in agro-projects with a commercial approach: An approach from the epistemological conceptions of the rural agricultural problem in Colombia

Solidarity economy investment agro-projects have become, since the last decade, State and non-State tools to bring economic development to rural communities in Colombia. This article aims to present a bibliographical review of solidarity economy agro-projects in Colombia and the key aspects (solidarity economy, associativity and productive projects) that affect its sustainability over time. The documentary review was applied in the Proquest and Redylac databases. We collected quality data and information on the state of the art of the study object. Methodologically, we analyzed epistemological approaches and theories with which the agrarian problem in Colombia has been addressed. The concept of agro-project was discussed initially. This concept was defined in its technical, economic and administrative aspects and was differentiated from other types of conventional agricultural organization. Elements such as the solidarity economy, productive projects and associativity were addressed in light of the epistemological treatment of the analyzed authors.

Thinking the waters with rural communities in Colombia and Mexico: some reflections for community water diagnosing (in Spanish)

Thinking the waters with rural communities in Colombia and Mexico: some reflections for community water diagnosing (in Spanish)

Towards a path-transformative heuristic in inclusive innovation initiatives: an exploratory case in rural communities in Colombia

ABSTRACT This study contributes to a better understanding of the transformative process towards inclusive innovation from the perspective of three literature branches, inclusive innovation, institutional entrepreneurship and path dependence. Based on these literature branches, we ensemble a heuristic to assess the role of Institutional Entrepreneurs in fostering Inclusive Innovation initiatives supported by National Entities in local communities. To assess the heuristic and answer the beforehand question, we used an exploratory case at the municipality of Cumbal, in Nariño (Colombia). Through secondary information analysis and preliminary fieldwork observations, we demonstrate usefulness of the heuristic to unfold the transformative process in local communities. Also, we identified Institutional Entrepreneurs as change agents.

Public discourses on conservation and development in a rural community in Colombia: an application of Q-methodology

People living in rural areas are caught between the two often conflicting objectives of conserving biodiversity and promoting economic development. Current approaches to conservation are built on the premise that conservation and development are not antagonistic. Social conservationists advocate win–win solutions that both conserve biodiversity and promote human well-being. In this paper we explore how the conservation-development relationship is understood by a rural community in Colombia where remaining areas of tropical dry forest are threatened by human activities, and a payment for ecosystem services scheme, PES, is proposed as a conservation strategy. Q-methodology was used to identify and categorise local peoples’ perspectives on forest conservation. Four distinctive perspectives were found: Social Conservationism, Fair Development, Development Advocate and Government’s Responsibility. Social conservationism places more importance on forest conservation while the other three perspectives emphasise development. This suggests that the conservation program at the local level must be explicit about tensions and trade-offs. Not to do so can compromise the social acceptability of the PES scheme and therefore the conservation objective.

Different Routes, Similar Destination: Building Breast Care Models in Tanzania, Zambia, and Colombia

Purpose Cancer is becoming an urgent problem in low- and middle-income countries as the global burden of disease shifts from infectious to noncommunicable diseases. Whereas cervical cancer and breast cancer are preventable and treatable, these diseases are the leading causes of women’s cancer deaths in low-resource settings, mostly because of late-stage presentation and limited diagnostic and treatment capacities. Methods Using the Breast Health Global Initiative resource-stratified guidelines and a phased implementation approach, countries with resource constraints have designed and implemented breast cancer interventions that allow for a balanced, efficient, and equitable use of limited resources. Results Tanzania, Zambia, and a rural area of Colombia serve as examples of evidence-based approaches to the implementation of breast cancer control programs, leveraging the successes and experiences of existing care platforms—mostly cervical cancer and HIV—while creating a solid foundation for country ownership and sustainability. Tanzania used a top-down approach, investing in understanding the needs through a breast health care assessment to inform policy and practice, as well as building a national policy framework. Zambia analyzed the successes and experiences of their public Cervical Cancer Prevention Program to introduce breast cancer education, detection, and surgical treatment, and to improve the time of diagnosis for breast cancer using the single-visit approach recommended by WHO for cervical cancer. A rural community in Colombia has focused on mitigating some of the most common barriers that women face during their cancer journey by improving the cancer education of medical personnel, providing technology for early diagnosis, and implementing an outreach and navigation program that has significantly reduced waiting times from screening through diagnosis and treatment. Conclusion What are key characteristics that guarantee success? Country ownership is crucial, with political, institutional, and community ownership; capabilities; and accountability. Under these four dimensions and a phased implementation framework, we explain the approach that civil society, ministries of health, and stakeholders have taken to implement these programs. AUTHORS' DISCLOSURES OF POTENTIAL CONFLICTS OF INTEREST The following represents disclosure information provided by authors of this manuscript. All relationships are considered compensated. Relationships are self-held unless noted. I = Immediate Family Member, Inst = My Institution. Relationships may not relate to the subject matter of this manuscript. For more information about ASCO's conflict of interest policy, please refer to www.asco.org/rwc or ascopubs.org/jco/site/ifc . Anna Cabanes Research Funding: Pfizer, Genentech, Merk (Inst) Travel, Accommodations, Expenses: Pfizer, Astra Zeneca Mary Rose Giattas Research Funding: Pfizer, Genentech, Merk (Inst) Travel, Accommodations, Expenses: Pfizer, Astra Zeneca Mavalynne Orozco Urdaneta Stock or Other Ownership: Celgene, Johnson and Johnson Armando Sardi Stock or Other Ownership: Celgene, Johnson and Johnson

When Collectivity Makes a Difference: Theoretical and Empirical Insights from Urban and Rural Communities in Colombia

In this paper, we analyse two Colombian communities using elements of the capability approach. The first, Comuna 8, is an urban community in Medellín, Colombia’s second largest city. The second community is a Zona de Reserva Campesina (Peasant Farmer Reserve Zone) in the Cabrera municipality, in the Department of Cundinamarca. We explore the reasons why people value being part of a community, along with the collective capabilities that are expanded through community participation. As a product of these capabilities communities plan their own territories, which are examples of collective functionings. Social and environmental conversion factors, as well the historical background of the two communities, are key elements in the analysis. Finally, this research sheds light on individual and collective agency. This agency not only occurs in spaces recognised by Colombian law, but also in areas claimed by the communities themselves.

Community Operational Research: Developing a systemic peace education programme involving urban and rural communities in Colombia

This paper describes a Community Operational Research inquiry in which members of diverse local and marginalised communities, working with external researchers, created a peace programme that was implemented in more than four hundred and fifty local schools. It has disseminated a culture of peace in a social context characterised by high levels of violence. Diverse systemic problem structuring methods were used throughout the development of the programme. The creative design of methods guided the research and contributed to develop an evolving, participative multimethodology that mixes methods and tools from the qualitative/quantitative spectrum, including interactive planning, critical systems heuristics, soft systems methodology, statistics, and methods from the conflict resolution field. The peace programme was initially designed using a synergy of problem structuring methods, and several tools and methods were used thereafter to improve the programme as its contexts evolved. Community operational research and systems thinking have had an impact on the programme since its initial stages, and have contributed to modify it based on well-grounded quantitative and qualitative information. This programme has reached more than a million people in Colombian society, and has been internationally recognised as one of the most innovative and impacting experiences for Latin American social development. It has created a culture of peace in hundreds of schools, having transformative effects on the individuals as well as on their social relations. Moreover, the impact of the programme has transcended the schools’ boundaries and has spread to wider circles of society.

La seguridad social como un derecho fundamental para las comunidades rurales en Colombia

This research article aims to analyze social security for rural communities in Colombia. On one hand, it presents a description of access to social security for rural communities made up of indigenous, Afro-descendants and farmers, and on the other hand, an analysis of the Constitutional Court’s pronouncements regarding the consecration of social security as a fundamental, universal and integral right for all citizens; finally, it conceptualizes the affirmative actions that can guide the State’s action in the area of social security for rural communities. Thus, based on the analysis of data and documentary sources, it was possible to conclude that our social security system does not differentiate between rural and urban areas, since it is structured on the basis of the working conditions of the people, the capacity to pay and the contributions to the system, without offering alternatives or insurance designs appropriate to the socio-economic and living conditions of rural communities.

Physical activity in a rural community in Colombia.

To characterize physical activity profiles in a rural community in the southwest of Colombia and to identify knowledge gaps on this issue in the country. Cross-sectional study conducted in a rural area in Puerto Caldas, Pereira, Risaralda. The population of the study was obtained by convenience sampling from people participating in the activities of the Second Multidisciplinary Camp for Research and Services (CUMIS, for its acronym in Spanish), which was organized by the Colombian Association of Medical Students' Scientific Societies (ASCEMCOL, for its acronym in Spanish). The International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) was used in order to measure and classify the physical activity behaviors of this population. Data from 100 subjects with a mean age of 43±18 years were collected. 6 % of the population did not perform any kind of physical activity, while 61 % performed vigorous physical activity. Men spent more time in doing vigorous and moderate physical activity than women did (p<0.05). The World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations on physical activity were followed by 72.29 % (n=60) and 82.35 % (n=14) of the people with an age of 18 to64 and ≥65 years, respectively. It is necessary to build up evidence regarding physical activity in rural areas in order to implement public policies that promote its practice in communities where socioeconomic and health inequities exist. Part of the population living in the community where the study was carried out does not follow the WHO recommendations on physical activity; therefore, the lack of public health interventions is highlighted. A better coherence between international resolutions, national public policies and their implementation could lead to an increase in practice levels of physical activity.

Mobilities at Gunpoint: The Geographies of (Im)mobility of Transgender Sex Workers in Colombia

Drawing from geo-ethnographic data collected during a participatory action research (PAR) project funded by the National Science Foundation and subsequent research conducted in Colombia with marginalized youth populations, this article explores the sociospatial exclusion and (im)mobility of the oppressed, subjugated, and persecuted through the social cartographies, geo-narratives, and auto-photographic images of transgender sex workers that were displaced by paramilitary-led gender-based violence and forced to leave their birth cities and rural communities in Colombia at an early age. As is the case for thousands of victims of the armed conflict in Colombia, displaced transgender populations seek refuge and opportunity in the streets of Bogotá, Colombia. The (im)mobilities of transgender sex workers are explored in two stages—the forced, violent mobilities of their displacement, followed by their experiences of discrimination, sociospatial exclusion, and persecution through hate crimes and social cleansing killings on arrival in Bogotá. This article discusses how research actors constructed their own spaces of cohesion and resistance to the multifaceted discrimination and marginalization from mainstream urban society through PAR. The PAR project presented in this article continues as part of the broader struggle of transgender sex workers to challenge the exclusionary discourses and praxis that limit their mobilities and autonomy in the city. This article concludes with examples of how research actors use the action-driven elements of PAR to negotiate, analyze, and resist the relationships of power and violence embedded within their urban environment and begin to re-present and change the reality of their immobility within the city.

Folk medicine in the northern coast of Colombia: an overview

BackgroundTraditional remedies are an integral part of Colombian culture. Here we present the results of a three-year study of ethnopharmacology and folk-medicine use among the population of the Atlantic Coast of Colombia, specifically in department of Bolívar. We collected information related to different herbal medicinal uses of the local flora in the treatment of the most common human diseases and health disorders in the area, and determined the relative importance of the species surveyed.MethodsData on the use of medicinal plants were collected using structured interviews and through observations and conversations with local communities. A total of 1225 participants were interviewed.ResultsApproximately 30 uses were reported for plants in traditional medicine. The plant species with the highest fidelity level (Fl) were Crescentia cujete L. (flu), Eucalyptus globulus Labill. (flu and cough), Euphorbia tithymaloides L. (inflammation), Gliricidia_sepium_(Jacq.) Kunth (pruritic ailments), Heliotropium indicum L. (intestinal parasites) Malachra alceifolia Jacq. (inflammation), Matricaria chamomilla L. (colic) Mentha sativa L. (nervousness), Momordica charantia L. (intestinal parasites), Origanum vulgare L. (earache), Plantago major L. (inflammation) and Terminalia catappa L. (inflammation). The most frequent ailments reported were skin affections, inflammation of the respiratory tract, and gastro-intestinal disorders. The majority of the remedies were prepared from freshly collected plant material from the wild and from a single species only. The preparation of remedies included boiling infusions, extraction of fresh or dry whole plants, leaves, flowers, roots, fruits, and seeds. The parts of the plants most frequently used were the leaves. In this study were identified 39 plant species, which belong to 26 families. There was a high degree of consensus from informants on the medical indications of the different species.ConclusionsThis study presents new research efforts and perspectives on the search for new drugs based on local uses of medicinal plants. It also sheds light on the dependence of rural communities in Colombia on medicinal plants.

A Systemic Framework to Develop Sustainable Engineering Solutions in Rural Communities in Colombia

In several rural areas in Colombia there is a serious lack of water quality supply. Thereby the problematic situation is understood as complex one that involves stakeholders with pluralistic interests, multiple variables and requires the development of sustainable and suitable solutions. In order to address this issue, this paper proposes an integration of engineering design framework (CDIO) with a systemic approach. Particularly the approach emphasizes on systemic elements such as autonomy, systems within systems, cooperation between stakeholders and cause effect relations; it also proposes a previous observing phase for engineering design framework. Thus the proposed systemic framework aims to generate projects that improve living conditions in rural communities and promote the production of knowledge between the stakeholders to ensure sustainability in the long term. To illustrate the proposal, this work contains a case study that discusses a project carried out by a research team—Ingenieros Sin Fronteras Colombia—in a rural district near to Colombia’s capital. The experience, which involved and benefited 16 families in the community, provided strong evidence to support the proposed framework. The paper concludes with a discussion about the replication of this proposal in other contexts.