Colombia

On November 13, 2023, HKS Student Policy Review Senior Editor Jane Petersen spoke with former Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos. The conversation covered a range of topics including what other countries can learn from Colombia’s peace agreement, poverty alleviation efforts, and the fight against climate change.

Carbon markets can be understood as a three-legged stool on which part of our climate goals rests; if one of the legs is missing, the stool falls. Unfortunately, today’s carbon market debates focus on two of those three legs whilst ignoring the other.  

AI will continue to permeate and transform cities. With the right guidelines, it will allow governments to improve citizen engagement, reduce tax fraud, and optimize energy, mobility, and waste management systems.

In this article, the authors explore the barriers that women face on the ground when accessing abortion, even when the procedure has been legalized. They look at the cases of Argentina and Colombia, in Latin America, and India and Nepal, in Asia, to highlight examples of barriers and how grassroots organizations are playing a key role in supporting safe access to abortions.

I could feel the bass of the music thumping in my thoracic cavity. The soles of my shoes were sticky with the beer that had spilled on the floor when I saw Eva inhaling a line of white powder off the kitchen countertop.

Bogota is 13 times denser than New York City.[1] Colombian cities are 100 percent denser than the global average and 126 percent denser than cities in Latin America.[2] Until now, the consensus has been that the largest determinants of density are population and income. An increase in population increases demand around an economic hub, increasing […]

Kai Dittmann interviewed President Juan Manuel Santos, former president of the Republic of Colombia and Nobel peace prize winner, for the Citizen. He talks to Kai about the Adaptive Leadership course with Heifetz, peace agreement, Venezuelan refugee crisis, and economic prosperity in Colombia. Santos has served as president of the Republic of Colombia from 2010 […]

In the last twenty years, violence in Latin America has reached staggering levels. Although Latin America and the Caribbean are only 8 percent of the global population, the region accounts for 33 percent of the global homicides.[i] The highly integrated corruption in government and community institutions has resulted in weak rule of law and public […]

BY LAUREN WINDMEYER Last Friday, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos won the Nobel Peace Prize for his long-running efforts to end Colombia’s 52-year civil war. Santos led negotiations between the Colombian government and FARC rebels for four years, ultimately coming to an agreement this August. To go into effect, the agreement needed a final vote […]

In the last decade, Medellin made a decision that will mark its future: it changed its economic vocation. The city, known in the twentieth century as the “Industrial Capital of Colombia,” decided to move from a traditional industrial operation to a knowledge economy. Corporation Ruta N is articulating these efforts and boosting a true ecosystem […]

An interview with Diego Molano Vega, Minister of Information Technologies and Communications of Colombia. Diego Molano Vega has been the Minister of Information Technologies and Communications of Colombia since 2010. In this interview, he reveals his perspective on one of the most challenging issues for the development of Latin America: keeping pace with the changes […]

Commentary When my administration began in 2002, many analysts said that Colombia was a failed state. Every year, the country faced thirty-thousand homicides and almost three-thousand kidnappings, and more than three-hundred municipalities lacked the presence of their mayors due threats made against their lives. Investment rates were low, unemployment was climbing, and poverty levels were […]