More than half of the population of Sisbén IV is in serious conditions of poverty

On March 15, the National Planning Department revealed the figures for Sisbén IV, which has been in operation for a year. According to the entity, 29.1 million Colombians have already been registered in the databases, which shows a growth in databases of 24%, since in March 2021, 23.5 million people had been registered.

Through these data, the government managed to classify the country's households in order to improve the social programs that the State provides to the poorest. What he found is that 65.8 per cent of those registered live in a serious situation of poverty and that they are distributed as follows:

In Group A, which according to Sisbén IV is extreme poverty, there are 8.8 million people and in Group B, moderate poverty, there are 10.4 million Colombians registered. These two groups make up 65.8 per cent of those registered as poor

But within this figure they do not count group C, vulnerable households, where there are 7.6 million people, nor group D, non-vulnerable poor, where there are 2.4 million registered.

This record helps Sisben IV identify those who need help from the State. According to the DNP statement, in the year of operation of this system, a total of $11.5 trillion in unconditional cash transfers has been delivered to more than 3.08 million households in conditions of extreme poverty and poverty, a figure that this month will gradually increase to 4 million households following the announcement made by the president, Ivan Duque, on February 22nd”.

It also revealed that within the Families in Action program, more than 1.3 million families belonging to groups A to B 4 have been enrolled, which will be included from 2023 in the fourth phase of this program. This makes it possible to improve the targeting processes of this program and to reach households with children under the age of 18 with the greatest needs, according to the entity.

“For the closure of President Iván Duque's government, 98% of Colombians living in poverty and extreme poverty, that is, people belonging to groups A and B, are expected to have 98% of Colombians living in poverty and extreme poverty at the Sisbén IV bases.

According to the National Planning Department, this new system brought “technological order”, as it helped to change the old model of conducting paper surveys to carrying them out by mobile devices “allowing the scanning of ID cards and identity cards, improving the quality of recorded information, and to allow the georeferencing of households and to use this information in the construction of maps of potential beneficiaries of social programs by municipality”.

It also allows you to update any news or change that a citizen requests, within a maximum period of six days after it is sent to the DNP.

The Sisbén IV also has the Citizen Portal, “a website that facilitates requests for surveys and the updating of information of households and their members”. The portal aims to be a technological and transparency tool that avoids intermediaries in requesting the process. The Sisbén IV database is centralized, “which guarantees the processing and protection of data, and prevents the information from being modified for political purposes”.

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