Conflict and Poverty in the Colombian Countryside

Submitted by andrewr on Mon, 03/08/2010 - 3:07pm
in
Date: 
Thursday, March 11, 2010 - 4:15pm - 5:45pm
Location : 
DC

Conflict and poverty in the Colombian countryside:

How both forced displacement and the US-Colombia FTA affect rural livelihoods

 Date: Thursday, March 11, 2010

Time: 4:15 – 5:45 p.m.

Venue: U.S. Capitol, Room H-137

Oxfam America, the US Office on Colombia (USOC),

and the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA),

in conjunction with Rep. Linda Sánchez and Rep. Hank Johnson

Invite you to hear Colombia’s leading experts on internal displacement, Luis Jorge Garay and Fernando Barberi, discuss the problems facing small-scale farmers and those internally displaced by the conflict. They will present findings from their new study on the potential impact of the US-Colombia FTA on small-scale farmers, which shows significant adverse effects on a population that has already been disproportionately affected by Colombia’s internal conflict.  They will also discuss their investigations into the conditions suffered by Colombia’s more than 4 million internally displaced persons (IDPs), and suggest what is needed to address these problems.

Luis Jorge Garay has a PhD in economics from MIT and has carried out extensive research on trade and agriculture.  He currently heads Colombia’s Public Policy Review Commission on Forced Displacement, which reports directly to the Constitutional Court on the government’s compliance with national and international laws to protect internally displaced persons (IDPs).  Dr. Garay has been a consultant for numerous Colombian and international organizations, including the United Nations University, UNDP, the Inter-American Development Bank, and Colombia’s Trade Ministry and National Planning Department, and has been a visiting scholar at the University of Cambridge and at Oxford University. 

Fernando Barberi is the leading economist of Colombia’s Public Policy Review Commission on Forced Displacement and is an expert on trade and agriculture.  He has an MA from the Center for Development Economics at Williams College and has worked in the International Monetary Fund’s Western Hemisphere Department.  He has also served as an advisor in Colombia’s Ministry for International Relations and Ministry for Agriculture, as well as in Colombia’s Embassy in Washington, D.C.

For more information, contact Diana Arango at USOC / (202) 232-8090 or Stephanie Burgos at Oxfam America darango@usofficeoncolombia.org / (202) 496-1088.sburgos@oxfamamerica.org