The poverty of Colombian women, particularly rural women, is exacerbated by the civil war. Because of armed actions, the population is displaced, and peasant families lose their farmland and, as a result, their resources. Most heads of these families are women. When peasants are not displaced, they watch as their basic crops are destroyed with toxic products sprayed from the air in the war against the drug trade.
In the cities, swelled by villagers fleeing the war, living conditions are precarious and jobs are few.
On June 25, 2000, 300 women from southern Colombia assembled behind the banner of the World March of Women in San Vincente del Caguán, after travelling on a bus for one week. They were there to insist on taking their rightful place at the peace talks and they also presented their demands to the guerrilla forces.
The women organized a public hearing on the economic and employment situation.
Designing a concrete plan
The plan promoted respectful development of the country's various communities and of the environment, which would foster women's collective participation while preserving bonds at community level.
It demanded recognition of women's informal work-work at home, caring for children and old people-and fair distribution of land.
Training and education were key points among the demands, but so were maintaining State control over the country's economic policy.
For the cities, the March women demanded an "emergency plan for the community-based economy," involving women, communities, universities and researchers.
The second cornerstone of the plan was an industrial and trade institute that would assist in setting up trade projects. The third, a network of local popular economic centres, would focus on development projects.
At the political level, such a plan would mean the Colombian Congress' ratification of regional and international instruments to eliminate sources of women's inequality (UN and ILO documents).
"We, the women, want to live in a sovereign, independent country, with a government that provides guarantees for life, freedom, equality and difference," the Colombian women stated as they denounced Plan Colombia and the International Monetary Fund's dictates, which "exacerbate poverty and violence."
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