Colombia: Resilience and Well-Being in Response to COVID-19

Abstract

Colombia—a medium-size country in northern South America with a population of over 50 million people and a GDP of USD 324 billion—was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. The government rapidly declared a State of National Emergency, closing the country’s borders and imposing a 5-month and strict lockdown limiting people from leaving their houses while preparing the health and economic system for the upcoming difficulties. Despite these actions, the country has been profoundly and negatively affected by SARS-CoV-2, but some initiatives are worth highlighting as good practices intended to protect the population’s well-being. In this chapter, the authors apply the quality-of-life (QOL) framework of Shultz et al. (The handbook of community well-being, 2017) to analyze how Colombia has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Within this framework, Colombia is considered a country and community that has adapted, over time, as a result of the interaction of endogenous and exogenous forces. The pandemic is viewed as a disastrous exogenous force that shifted Colombia from its balanced path to an unbalanced one. Special emphasis is placed on understanding the factors that made the country both vulnerable to and resilient against the virus, as well as the country’s institutional responses—e.g., government, private sector, and citizens—to mitigate it.