COVID-19 as a tipping point for Latin America’s sustainable development goals: the case of Venezuelan migrants in Colombia

Abstract

Colombia has been a global leader in its embrace and implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In recent years, Colombia has advanced its peace initiatives with armed actors, leading to partial resolution of 52 years of armed insurgency. Exemplary progress has been made in the achievement of multiple SDG benchmarks. However, progress has been challenged (and potentially interrupted) by two intersecting developments. First, Colombia has been on the receiving end of a massive influx of Venezuelan mixed migrants who are fleeing the collapse of democratic governance and economic catastrophe leading to poverty, hunger, and disruption of health services. Colombia has been the major receptor nation for the Venezuelan emigration with more than 2 million migrants dwelling in Colombia in 2020. Second, the COVID-19 pandemic is surging throughout Latin America, with the World Health Organization declaring Latin America as the epicenter of the global outbreak in May 2020, bringing life to standstill due to the strict mitigation measures in place. These synchronous shocks – mass migration and pandemic – are challenging Colombia’s progress toward SDG benchmarks and threatening to create a decisive tipping point that may derail the country’s stellar progress to date.