Breaking the Cycle: Food Insecurity, Protection and Armed Conflict in Colombia

Conflict. Hunger. Protection risks. In Colombia, these three phenomena have been interconnected in a reinforcing cycle for decades. Efforts to address each component of this negative cycle are vital, but approaches are often disconnected, leading to short-term or incomplete solutions. As a result, communities struggle against growing odds to build resilience or stability.

Using participatory methods, a research team led by CARE, the World Food Programme (WFP), and InterAction interviewed 16 focus groups in 2 departments of Colombia to learn directly from diverse perspectives what threats, vulnerabilities, capacities, and risksi affected people faced. Though the negative cycle effect was widespread, differences between and within communities meant that often people experienced armed conflict, hunger, and protection risks in vastly different ways, indicating that one-size-fits-all solutions won’t be enough to bring lasting positive change.

Despite the differences in personal and communal experience of risk, two categories of variables emerged that defined how individuals were affected by conflict, hunger, and protection risks: context-specific conflict dynamics and institutionalized discrimination.