During a speech at the first Talante Popular and Solidarity Economy Meeting, President Gustavo Petro pointed out that Bogotá could be among the most unequal cities in the world.
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“Colombian society is the most unequal in the world, and it has turned out that Bogotá is the most unequal city in Colombia. We are in a situation that we should be ashamed of. It may be, but I don’t dare to say so here because I don’t have the numbers, the lists, that the city of Bogotá is the most unequal in the world.” the president said.
If we look at the figures, according to Dane data regarding the Gini coefficient (indicator used to measure the degree of inequality), The country’s capital registers a measurement of 0.530 points, which places it as the city with the highest score in the national territory if we consider that the measure ranges between 0 and 1, the latter being the representation of total inequality.
But, What is behind that figure? And what has driven that result?
In an interview with EL TIEMPO, Bogotá’s Secretary of Social Integration, Roberto Angulo, said this could be related to two factors: the impacts of the pandemic and the diversity of the population in the capital.
“When we looked at the poverty data during the pandemic, we observed that in monetary poverty, the big cities were the ones that had the greatest impact, and with the multidimensional poverty index, the rural areas were the ones. The impact that the pandemic had on the social crisis in the big cities was through the labor market channel.”the official stressed.
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Monetary poverty
Cesar Melgarejo / CEET
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Added to this behavior is the fact that, Angulo mentions that, like other large cities in the world, Bogotá is home to all types of populationincluding both citizens in vulnerable conditions and high-income people.
In this regard, he stressed that “Bogotá has a great advantage over the rest of the country, as it has the highest GDP per capita of all geographic domains. However, as it concentrates more people than any other city in Colombia, it faces several challenges related to inequality.”
Now, in relation to the statements made by President Petro, the Secretary of Social Integration mentioned that there is no “a comparable ranking at city level of an inequality indicator”since it is generally studied by country and it is done by the World Bank or ECLAC, which homogenizes the entry methodology of each nation.
He said that the availability of comparable data would be more focused on Latin America, where high levels of inequality are also evident in several cities.
As regards the Gini coefficient, it should be remembered that although this measure analyses inequality in current household income, does not take into account other factorssuch as equal opportunities. In this regard, Angulo highlights that “Inequality is generally a complex concept that cannot be captured by a single indicator.”
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BRIEFCASE
*With information from EL TIEMPO – BOGOTÁ
