Andrea Escobar

Malnutrition and bad eating habits are not part of the public agenda in Colombia even though the latest data from FAO shows nearly 50% of Colombians silently suffer from these afflictions. Andrea created a sustainable model that links economic empowerment with good eating habits in the most vulnerable communities in Colombia. By recognizing that mothers have a great influence on family dynamics of economic development and can also induce change in habits, Andrea incorporates them as key agents of change for transforming the communities’ relationship with food, from nutrition to entrepreneurship.

Andrea has worked with impoverished communities for more than a decade and saw firsthand how women have the main management role when it comes to family nutrition, looking after family members while also generating the community’s social fabric. She realized these conditions were ideal to promote systemic transformations within the local dynamics.

Andrea works directly with mothers in vulnerable communities who have limited or no knowledge of what a healthy diet is. Her program starts with them because she acknowledges the power they have to exert long-term change within their families, which translates into changes in the whole community. Women use the training sessions to learn about good eating habits from experts in the field and how to incorporate them into their daily diet. Reinventing the roles within the family context, women become natural multipliers of the message to other families and communities.

Andrea offers three-year training programs for mothers organized per community focused on growing and harvesting techniques, and on how to plan a healthy diet, purchase, transform, cook, and consume food. Through these initiatives, she is contributing to participant families overcoming food security barriers, with proper nutrition and sufficient access and availability of food, and ultimately, encouraging them to be in charge of finding informed solutions to their dietary needs. The first year involves intense and close collaboration with the mothers tracking diet and weight changes, but then her involvement diminishes, and mothers take a more proactive role, training other mothers and even going to nearby communities to train other mothers. During these three years, Andrea achieves real and lasting changes, with built-in replication as the mothers begin acting like change agents to attack these serious problems within their own community.

However, a change of habit is not enough if families and communities have no access to proper food. This is where Andrea transcends the family sphere, developing and strengthening entrepreneurship abilities within the community and providing microfinancing to grow and sell items such as healthier bread made from soy, and fruits and vegetables. With this, her goal is that the community can overcome the barriers to food safety and have proper nutrition (access, availability, and consumption) by becoming knowledgeable protagonist agents actively seeking solutions.

Given that the public agenda in Colombia ignores the effects of poor nutrition, directing its efforts toward mitigating hunger with short-range projects (e.g., sporadic delivery of food), Andrea seeks to change the rules in decision-making in public policy on the matter of nutrition. Her vision is supported by her extensive experience in this field and the data collected, which gives rise to the first Food Observatory of Colombia launched in alliance with partner organizations. The data collected (such as height, weight, nutrition habits, income level, access to food, diet composition, malnutrition, and obesity index) are the base for the reorientation of the public policy processes for the health sector that Andrea visualizes. If this initiative continues with the same impulse, it has the potential to broaden and significantly influence the field toward a more integrated vision for the problem through the implementation of this methodology nationwide.

It has long been recognized that nearly one third of Colombians suffered from malnutrition or obesity, but in the past decade, the problem has worsened dramatically as the long civil war forced nearly three million people to flee their homes and towns and live as internal refugees. Then the crisis in Venezuela led to more than two million Venezuelans escaping to Colombia where many of them live far below the Colombian poverty line. A major study in 2021 carried out by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) in Rome reported that now nearly 50% of Colombians suffer from malnutrition or obesity. The facts were too hard to accept in the midst of the pandemic, however, and the problems never became part of the official public agenda.

Two of the most important causes of these major but silent health problems are the lack of income and food culture based on carbohydrates and high energy diets with low vegetable and protein consumption. This causes a prevalence of diseases in Colombia such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, autoimmune diseases, and others. Women are the most concerned about this issue, as they strive to provide what's best for their children, wanting them to access healthy diets. However, they face barriers because of increased sexism. For example, they lack job opportunities, and consequently, they are unable to contribute to household income or make decisions on household issues, like setting a food budget for a healthy diet. Under these conditions, women are subject to low self-esteem and feelings of hopelessness. Yet, they have a fundamental role within their families and within their communities.

National and local governments do not regulate processed foods, they import low-cost products that have low nutritional value, and they do not regulate the prices of healthy food which are always on the rise. Having a healthy diet is three times more expensive than a high-energy diet. It is worth mentioning that minimum wages in Colombia are the equivalent of USD $231, which does not cover the average family’s basic food basket. Moreover, the poverty index for 2021 in Colombia was 39.3% in major cities, 37.8% in populated centers, and 44.6% in rural areas; as a consequence, it is more difficult to have monetary access to healthy food for a balanced diet.

According to the Nutritional Situation National Survey (ENSIN) of 2015, 54.2% of Colombian families suffer from a lack of food and nutrition safety. This means that more than half of families in Colombia do not eat three times a day and do not consume enough of the required nutrients for good health. Likewise, according to official data, 720,000 children suffer from malnutrition. According to an analysis by Andrea’s organization, SoyDoy, across different communities, 27% of children suffer from acute malnutrition, 32% suffer from obesity and almost 30% are in danger of malnutrition.

This problem not only causes a huge impact on Colombian public health, but also affects education where school absenteeism can reach up to 30% in some areas. One of the main causes for it is the shortage of food at home and the lack of nutrition programs at school. It also affects the social sphere as it causes domestic violence, forced displacement, and depression. Likewise, it has an impact on macroeconomics as the children who survive malnutrition have a higher risk of becoming adults who do not fully develop both mentally or physically, which leads to low education levels and low-income rates of up to 40% below the standard, which will have a lower productive capability in the long-term. Due to the fact that the lack of food and nutritional security has multiple causes, the complexity resides in the fact that only one line of action is not enough to address this challenge.

There have been many attempts to approach these issues through government institutions and NGOs together with the private sector, and while the malnutrition percentage has been reduced by 3%, this is due merely to welfare programs. These programs require resources that are dependent on money transfers or humanitarian aid actions, such as soup kitchens, food deliveries to families, and the operation of childcare centers nationwide; all of which only tackle the symptoms of lack of food safety and are not sustainable because as soon as the program activities end, the problem returns. In this sense, the solution becomes a vicious cycle where the community is dependent on external aid, and the entities, as much as they have good intentions, do not generate a long-term solution.

Additionally, currently, the world is facing the unexpected consequences of the war in Western Europe, with a direct impact on imports from Ukraine of agricultural products and fertilizers. In a couple of months, this could mean that Colombia could start experiencing a severe food crisis, with a potential increase in food prices, threatening, even more, the food security situation of the vulnerable population in the country. Andrea visualizes that in light of this looming crisis, preventive measures should include strategies linked to nutritional education (e.g., food substitution) but also by planting orchards of diverse agricultural products utilizing methods that do not involve the extensive use of agrochemicals.

In 2008 Andrea Escobar created SoyDoy (https://soydoy.org/) to tackle the lack of food and nutritional safety, focusing on the generation of economic resources and food education. Through her model called Nutriemprendimiento (Nutrientrepreneurship), Andrea connects with communities, especially mothers, using Encuentros Alimenticios (Food Gatherings) to turn them into agents of change in food habits. Once mothers start to see the results, there is already a critical mass in the community with new habits that have been fully integrated into their routine, and they are the ones who progressively replicate the program in neighboring communities. This process includes replicating the theoretical-practical workshops on healthy habits in food selection and nutrition, as well as sharing best practices on producing and safeguarding food quality that Andrea has developed together with her team of experts.

As part of her strategy, from the start, Andrea sets the bases for a long-term process that lasts between two to three years, where she can persuade the community that habit changes take time unlike the immediate solutions other public and private entities usually bring. In Andrea’s case, after several months of accompaniment, the transforming action takes place when mothers see the data that their underweight children are gaining weight and the obese children are losing weight. Tracking the data and making it available in broad numbers is a crucial part of Andrea’s program. It encourages the mothers to start to replicate what they have learned to the rest of the members of the community. The accompaniment process lasts until it is evident that the community has taken control of the information, learned the concepts, moved and created an impact, have been internally organized, and that they reached the objectives. All this indicates that the social fabric within the community has been created, where there is an exchange of good practices sustained through their support network. This whole process lasts between 2 to 3 years. Andrea comments that “she does not leave the community if she does not have the evidence of the habit changes and empowerment.”

Andrea conducts a baseline diagnostic, identifies the most critical points, measures the height and weight of children, analyzes food insecurity conditions, the economic reality and who the relevant players are, as well as the relationships between them, and identifies the community leaders (those with either formal or informal authority) and makes them her allies to achieve enduring changes. Additionally, she maps private entities that are the link in a value chain to create microbusinesses, be it as clients, key financers, or volunteers.

Mothers from the communities attend workshops that Andrea organizes around the food theme tackled from diverse angles. For instance, mothers gather to chat about recipes, and from there, issues arise, such as how they choose what to eat, what to cook, how to get the ingredients, how or if they consider the nutrients in their diets, their eating habits, and even new ideas on how to redesign their dietary plans. In these interactions, community members not only create and share knowledge but also strengthen their bonds with positive implications for the community’s social fabric. Ms. Ana Rosa Bejarano exemplifies the multiplier effect of the program. She joined the program three years ago, and her continuous participation has enabled her to meet other community members with whom she shared her experience and the outcomes of implementing the learnings of the program in her now-healthier eating habits. Sharing experiences is key to the continuity of the program according to Andrea because, as in the case of Ms. Ana Rosa, the same dynamic spreads rather naturally to close ties and families.

Andrea also empowers the younger generation and develops a social fabric in the communities through projects that enable access to food such as Nutrihuertas (Nutrigardens), through which she promotes sustainable agriculture initiatives for each household and for the community, which allows families to access fresh, nutritious, and varied produce that supply basic local food needs. Improving food and nutrition safety in this way reduces monthly family expenses because they are able to produce locally what they need to sustain a healthy diet. This is done by training families on how to process harvested products and the different aspects of the manipulation and hygiene of these products.

After the first year, communities already begin to see an impact: mild malnutrition rates lower from 27% to 21%, chronic malnutrition rates lower from 15% to 13%, and obesity rates decreased from 32% to 29%. Communities also see a wider range of results: school absenteeism due to malnutrition decreased in communities where Andrea works from 32% to 24%, and crop productivity increases by 60%.

As a third element that helps break the poverty and malnutrition cycle, Andrea implements an Entrepreneurship Program through permanent support cycles for communities to develop business ideas and strengthen entrepreneurship projects. These teaching cycles include personalized advice sessions with expert mentors who have the financial capital needed to scale micro-entrepreneurial projects. This way Andrea helps promote sustainable food sources, creating incentives and strengthening micro-entrepreneurial capacities and income generation in the most vulnerable communities in the country, where participant families can stimulate the local economy and experience a better quality of life.

By the third year, the average household income increases by 42% and 64% of children and youth are studying or working in a job. Andrea tracks income generation in particular, as she considers it to be the basis for overcoming food insecurity. Moreover, communities have a profound change in mindset. 86% of women participants say that SoyDoy helped them to build a network with their community and 67% say they feel empowered in terms of their food security and their role in the community. And because Andrea works to establish deep ties within the community, about 80% of participants complete the entrepreneurship program and 72% of participants complete the full food security training program.

So far, Andrea has reached 22 cities in 12 departments of Colombia. Her work has had a direct impact on the health of over 15,000 people. In 2019, Andrea saw that she had a proven, three-year program which shows real, life changing results in the communities where she worked and she was “ready to take the blinders off” and begin planning for large scale replication to attack one of Colombia’s biggest, unrecognized problems. She changed her Board of Directors to reflect her growing ambitions and prepared a more aggressive strategy. While the pandemic forced her to delay the launch of her new strategy and pivot toward helping meet short term food needs in these impoverished areas, she has begun to implement her new strategy in 2022.

Andrea has a two-part strategy—to help put malnutrition and obesity on the public agenda of the new administration which will take office later in 2022 and to expand her proven approach by replicating her multiyear program through more partners with broader and deeper reach into needed populations.

Andrea realized that the information she collected in the communities did not match the official data on malnutrition and obesity, which led her to create the first Food Safety Observatory in Colombia as a result of her participation last year in Ashoka’s Agri-food Community. This data collected by Andrea is already being used by local authorities, companies, and other NGOs to reorient their programs. She aims to influence public policy in Colombia about food security by generating and collecting data, and by taking a more visible and public role via her Observatory and national information campaigns on priority actions to fight malnutrition, obesity, and looming grain shortages and increases in food prices due to the war between Russia and Ukraine. She has worked with universities, other NGOs and has begun lobbying Congress under the banner of Food Security and is becoming a respected voice who knows the facts and has a proven program.

Andrea is planning to grow her own, direct program more aggressively in 2022 and will add other partners like NGOs and university students and plans to reach an additional 1.5 million people in 600 communities directly over the next ten years. But she also plans to have a social franchise model with other NGOs and channels in Colombia and expand to Peru and other countries to facilitate and scale the positive impact she has been achieving.

Andrea is from Manizales, a small university city that hosts students from the whole country. Her social inclinations started very early because of her parents. Both are entrepreneurs with a vocation to help their community and included Andrea when giving toys to those underprivileged. While being in contact with this reality, so different from hers, she could not stop herself from questioning why there were children who did not have the same opportunities as she did.

At school, she took on leadership roles to organize various activities and at the university, she joined AISEC and the youth leadership group, and as its president, she led national events. At age 18, she supported an NGO for children with AIDS, organizing events and helping to consolidate the organization. This created a second reflection moment about children’s needs. Once more she realized there are children not being provided for and she was affected by how many families withheld their care due to social stigma. This propelled her to reach out to those in her close circle and mobilize them for the cause.

Later she moved to Bogota to continue with her higher education. There she led the training department of the University of Manizales Leaders Foundation. She graduated as an architect and became interested in urbanism and cities, where she got more in-depth knowledge on how to build sustainable cities and its link to people’s behavior. This made her reach out to the communities and understand their problems from a social perspective.

At age 25 she joined the Rotary Club to lead the Social Food Program, which focused on children’s nutrition nationwide. There she gained a deeper understanding of the complexity of the food safety issue in Colombia. Two years later, in 2008, Andrea created SoyDoy. At that time, she had developed her idea, her leadership, and administrative skills. Due to her deep social commitment, and her notion that without nutrition there is no education, Andrea took on the topic of food health as her life passion. Despite the challenge that the problem is getting worse, not better in Colombia, she will not rest until she changes public policy and sees her successful programs replicated broadly.