The civil society of Colombia

Abstract

The Republic of Colombia, with approximately 48 million inhabitants, is the fourth largest country by population in the Americas, after the U.S., Brasil, and México. It is divided politically into 32 departments and 10 districts with 1101 municipalities. Colombia has a rich history of philanthropy and solidarity since colonial times. Together, with the political strife of the past, these shed light on present day philanthropic practices and trends toward thriving civil society formation in the country. In order to strategically address human challenges and strengthen civil society in Colombia, a vision of what the civil society landscape looked like was needed. No such system existed in Colombia, and the extent and breadth of the sector was not known. The federal government has no single database that tracks the sector. Therefore, the primary research question for this case study is—What is the size and scope of civil society in Colombia? This dissertation, in good measure, provides the answer. It provides a geographical and taxonomical map of civil society organizations (CSOs) in Colombia. This dissertation also examines how Colombia came to have a thriving civil society sector yet lack a federal registry. Findings show there are 24 federal and capital district registries of different types of civil society. Moreover, each of the 32 departments have registries for health and education and some also register CSOs related to environment, culture, sports, and recreation. Findings from 21 of the 24 federal or district registries and three of the 32 departments reveal a total of 296,467 CSOs. This constitutes an estimate of 98.60 percent of all possible records. There is approximately one CSO for every 163 inhabitants or 61.5 CSOs for every 10,000 inhabitants, giving Colombia the highest number of registered CSOs per capita in the Americas, save the United States. The National Taxonomy of Exempt Entity (NTEE) codes were applied to CSOs, where possible. Findings reveal Colombia has a balanced civil society, with no subsector greater than 33 percent of total CSOs.