Conflict Poverty, inequality and social responsibility 
What kind of country we want to become?, when you look closely at the daily news of that country the idea that recurring dream is that we have to be one very different from what we live today and, perhaps, to which generations of Colombians from the time of the independence revolution have had to live. A recurring phenomena such as violence, corruption and lax government will add an effect that has historically marked the Colombian society: poverty.
If all possible country models diverge on how to achieve it, no country should be ideal model that does not include the eradication of poverty as a priority. But share this question with which I begin this writing with passion should lead us to think about the convergences and divergences that allow us to visualize how to cover this problem. Without a shared vision, I mean: not a general and rather with a bias towards the sector of society that has, as the traditional political class, "the issue of poverty is another result of the correlation of forces and games of interest, the excitement of the rhetoric that sometimes appears or a stage of conflict, a clash of visions.
Either way poverty is not a simple matter. There are features of poverty that make a complex, multidimensional and as much or more complicated solutions. Poor rural households have more children (twice) that a home does not have an urban poor and lower income population shows a lag in Colombia, for example, focuses on the Atlantic and Pacific and heterogeneity in poverty same, on the other hand, education in these sectors is much lower in terms of coverage and quality, and revenues come mostly from labor income, so that satiety of needs largely depend on the level of employment. That education, employment and income level of workers become determinants significant proportion poverty.
Moreover, the problem becomes more complex when assimilates that poverty is not a static concept. During the life cycle, households face a number of risks and this leads to address unforeseen events, many non-poor families fall into poverty. Knowing what is likely to fall into poverty would allow the design of effective strategies and targeted subsidies, transfers and social responsibility policies. Identify the determinants of poverty will discover other important phenomena in Colombia shed light on the complexity of problem: for example, Colombia can be poor or not, according to the variables that impact the per capita income, the proportion of people working at home, years of education of head of household and reside in Bogota ( !).
A Nuñez and Espinosa discovery in 2005 is revealing and gives interesting clues for designing effective strategies to combat poverty: an increase in a year when the education level of household head reduces income poverty from 55.3% to 48.8% and expenditure reduces poverty by 52.9% to 46.4%. Finally, if the average ownership of financial assets (dinero) se incrementa a 3,4%, la pobreza por ingreso se reduce a 54,9% y por gasto a 51,8%. Más educación para los jefes de hogares pobres y más dinero que devengan los trabajadores de una familia es una estrategia con resultados fecundos en lucha contra la pobreza. De modo que la estrategia más efectiva -si bien no la única que debe implementarse- de lucha contra la pobreza es una política de reducción del paro, dado que los resultados sugieren que un 5,3% de incremento en la pobreza se encuentra explicado por el aumento del paro. Sin embargo una política de generación de trabajos no es la única estrategia, como los resultados lo sugieren.
In the macroeconomic area is frustrating conclusion: the economic literature has promised that the growth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) generates employment and household income, but on the other hand, economic stability, predicts that families are exposed to covariant shocks ( as unemployment, inflation) that make your real income is volatile. Despite the promise of economic literature regarding the GDP growth has not been met in Colombia: a study in the last decade concluded that the growth between 1997 and 2004 reported only two consecutive periods of expansion "pro-poor" while the rest of the periods benefited more to the nonpoor. With a much more detailed analysis it is found that during these years, growth reduced poverty by only 1%. Only between 2000 and 2003 there was a significant reduction of this phenomenon.
Everyone is vulnerable to volatility in income. But the poorest are most vulnerable due to lack of savings or assets to back them, are at risk and have few tools to address them. The increased vulnerability of the poorest makes them risk averse and more cautious in making decisions to carry out activities with higher returns. Homeless, and health services, educational opportunities and training, security or access to justice, the vulnerability can be much stronger and attack an issue that may take time but priority overtones.
back on topic of economic growth, it is noteworthy that the GDP of the first decade of the century was 10% higher than that of the early years of the last decade of the twentieth century. Yet poverty rates were similar. If poverty tied to the workplace, the bias from the 1990's was created by skilled labor and access to higher education, still prohibitive for the poor, increased the gap and bias growth to the richest people in society. To this we add that the unskilled labor, especially in rural areas, is intended for the production of sluggish demand for goods or non-tradable crops.
Having regard to the above analysis, it was identified that public policies have not been successful or sufficient. Moreover, it is imperative to recognize that the development strategy involving the poor should be a transversal policy, linking the public sector, private sector and the growing sector of the charitable organizations. Economic development is linked the social fabric of social and cultural relations in which productive activity and plays in which these relationships are reinforced. There is not really feasible must be companies that is not linked to one degree or another with the territory in which it sits. In this regard is the Social Responsibility in the heart of a nation that is constituted in one of the essential support for the articulation of their economic and ethical wealth, because it establishes an open connection to a corporate vision (essential in any market economy) and a national vision. Corporate Social Responsibility can think of an economy and a society that share space in harmony: We can no longer accept business successes in countries failed. It is an affront to millions who depend on poorly paid and unstable jobs.
However, in conclusion, there is the dilemma: Obstruction of business growth or the growth of poverty. The problem is not primarily economic system that has rich, the problem is, in the words of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, that there are many poor people. It is in them that we must concentrate our efforts as entrepreneurs, politicians, students, ordinary citizens and members of a society that wants to dream for a country to suit their needs is possible. Perhaps the first thing required of us is to cushion the blows that the poorest because of their vulnerability received daily. Perhaps a family housing are more appropriate to concentrate on their future physical and mental efforts to educate and better educate their children or find a better job "with an appropriate policy from the Government, of course. But while their roofs allow the passage of water in rainy season or soil moisture threaten their health, it is likely that poverty comes through the door of their humble homes and threatens to never leave. The first step we must take, then, is noted.
I'm a student Economics of the Universidad del Valle and international NGOs working for A Roof for my Country.
