Colombie

This chapter reviews Colombia’s upper secondary education (USE) system, which lasts two years and targets students aged 15 and 16 (Grades 10 and 11). After examining the key features and trends at this level, it puts the spotlight on policy solutions to ensure Colombian students acquire the skills they need for work or further learning. The chapter highlights the importance of a comprehensive approach to USE, which consolidates core skills while providing greater access to work-based learning and more effective career guidance as a means to smooth students’ transition to the labour market. It urges the need to address students’ learning gaps before they reach USE, reduce the opportunity costs of education and develop a positive school climate. The chapter also examines how Colombia can reinforce national leadership and local capacity to steer reforms and enhance the relevance of USE to the local economy.

Understanding adults’ attitudes towards the environment is necessary to gauge the opportunities and challenges of creating effective and politically-feasible climate policies. Using data from the Wellcome Global Monitor 2020, the European Social Survey (Round 8), World Values Survey and EM-DAT, this paper examines how adults’ environmental attitudes vary within and across countries and details how environmental attitudes are associated with adults’ engagement in pro-environmental behaviours and support for environmentally-friendly policies. The paper explores whether the extent to which individuals prioritise the environment over the state of the economy or vice versa depends on individuals’ exposure to natural disasters or negative labour market conditions. Results indicate that people’s economic vulnerability and the sectors they work in impact their attitudes towards their environment and support for public policy. Furthermore, the findings suggest that increases in unemployment and exposure to natural disasters influence the extent to which individuals prioritise the environment.

Colombia needs to speed up digitalisation to transform its firms and industries. The country has advanced in digital connectivity. It has taken steps to update its training in digital skills and has a buoyant start-up scene. Now it needs to complement the current focus on technology adoption by identifying potential areas in which it can be an innovator and creator of knowledge-based solutions. This chapter reviews the progress Colombia has made in its digital transformation. It focuses on start-ups and existing firms, and concludes with a call to integrate the digital dimension in future policies for production development.

Growth has become more inclusive in recent years in Colombia. Strong growth and targeted social policies have reduced absolute poverty. Conditional cash transfers and education policies have increased attendance in schools. Universal health care is improving wellbeing of many Colombians. Reductions in non-wage labour costs have increased formal employment and access to social benefits. However, income inequality remains high with large disparities across regions. The causes are many. High informality keeps many workers in low quality jobs without social benefits or access to finance. Inequality is a gender issue as labour force participation rates and wages are lower for women than for men. Inequalities also reflect low social mobility as opportunities for education and jobs are influenced by socio-economic backgrounds. More targeted programmes are necessary to increase education enrolment rates of disadvantaged children in less developed regions. Further reductions in non-wage labour costs can raise formal employment. Better access to labour market programmes, early childhood education and elderly and disability care can boost female labour market participation. More resources are needed for targeted social programmes to achieve stronger outcomes. A comprehensive pension system reform is needed to extend coverage and alleviate old-age poverty.
This Working Paper relates to the 2017 OECD Economic Survey of Colombia (www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/economic-survey-colombia.htm)

Growth has become more inclusive in recent years. Strong growth and targeted social policies have reduced absolute poverty. Conditional cash transfers and education policies expanding coverage have increased attendance in schools. Universal health care is improving wellbeing of many Colombians. Reductions in non-wage labour costs have increased formal employment and access to social benefits. However, income inequality remains high with large disparities across regions. The causes are many. High informality keeps many workers in low quality jobs without social benefits or access to finance. Inequality is a gender issue as labour force participation rates and wages are lower for women than for men. Inequalities also reflect low social mobility as opportunities for education and jobs are influenced by socio-economic backgrounds. More targeted programmes are necessary to increase education enrolment rates of disadvantaged children in less developed regions. Further reductions in non-wage labour costs can raise formal employment. Better access to labour market programmes, early childhood education and elderly and disability care can boost female labour market participation. More resources are needed for targeted social programmes to achieve stronger outcomes. A comprehensive pension system reform is needed to extend coverage and alleviate old-age poverty.

Recent initiatives to promote labour formalisation are slowly paying off but more efforts will be needed to further reduce the costs and increase the benefits to workers and businesses of operating formally, including the labour market distortions related to social insurance programmes, the high minimum wage and the weak implementation of the labour law. Overall, the Colombian employment protection legislation is in line with those in OECD countries, but fixed-term contracts and subcontracting through temporary work agencies is widespread and workers labour rights are regularly violated through the use of civil-law contracts instead of employment contracts. Finally, a new unemployment protection system has been put in place to address the country’s high levels of unemployment. Income support focusses on individual unemployment savings accounts and public employment services are being harmonised. Yet, negligible funding severely limits the reactivation support employment service providers can offer.

This chapter examines how environment is being mainstreamed into Colombia’s economic and sectoral policies. It examines the use of tax policy to pursue environmental objectives, and progress in removing fiscal incentives that can encourage environmentally harmful activities. The chapter also looks at other economic instruments to implement the polluter-pays and user-pays principles and to recover the cost of providing environmental services such as water and waste management. It includes a discussion of public and private investment in environment-related services and infrastructure. Colombia’s innovation performance, including on environment, is also assessed.