‘Serious Weakness’ that Colombia Does Not Collect Data by Race and Ethnicity: Expert
‘Serious Weakness’ that Colombia Does Not Collect Data by Race and Ethnicity: Expert
In an interview for Colombia Reports, AS/COA’s Christopher Sabatini discusses how the country’s lack of racial and ethnic data affects its ranking in the Americas Quarterly Social Inclusion Index 2014.
Colombia’s lack of data regarding their sizable racial and ethnic minority populations are “critical omissions” that makes it difficult to track socioeconomic development and progress, said the lead author of an annual study that came out on Tuesday.
Lack of race and ethnic data stunted Colombia’s ranking in the 2014 Social Inclusion index by Americas Quarterly, a policy analysis journal covering economics, political and social development in the Western Hemisphere. The survey was released on Tuesday, and ranked Colombia 11th out of 17 Latin American countries and the United States....
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The index did not allocate the full score and ranking for countries that failed include race and ethnicity data such as Colombia, Argentina, Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Honduras. Rankings were established based on 10 variables where complete sets of data were accessible, yet “it must be noted that the comparison doesn’t include some of the most important variables, like race/ethnicity,” the report said....
Underrepresentation of minority communities hinders development
Colombia, similar to many American countries has long struggled with the under-representation of minority communities in official census questionnaires, leaving misunderstanding about the size of these populations.
“This denys these populations a fundamental voice and empowerment,” said Christopher Sabatini, Americas Quarterly Editor-in-Chief and AS/COA Senior Director of Policy, in an interview with Colombia Reports....
