The design of the Colombian pension system exacerbates income inequality and poverty after retirement age. High informality rates (over 60% of total employment, according to OECD) imply that many workers in Colombia have a low probability of qualifying to get a contributory pension. Despite the targeted support provided to the vulnerable population through pension assistance programs, this support  tends to be low compared to other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The relationship between informality and inequality after retirement plays a central role in the discussion of policies affecting the labour market. One dimension that has not been explored in the public policy debate is how policies aimed to mitigate climate change (and more specifically the creation of green jobs) can affect the distribution of workers between the formal and informal sectors, and how it can have an impact income inequality after retirement.

Find out more about the Extension in Colombia

This project seeks to contribute to the public policy debate by analysing the effects that scenarios of a green economic transformation may have on income inequality after retirement, via the reallocation of workers between the formal and informal labour markets. 

The project will aim to answer following questions, in the Colombian context:

• What are the environmental properties of jobs?
• How can economic transformation towards a more sustainable economy change the composition and transitions between the formal and informal sector?
• What is the impact on inequality and fiscal viability of implementing those policy scenarios?

In addition, the project will evaluate prospective scenarios during the discussion of the pension reform in the  Colombian Congress and will develop a simulation model for the use of the Ministry of Finance and Public  Credit.

The project will be implemented in three stages:

• The research team will first characterize the environmental properties of jobs in Colombia.
• In the second stage, the team will calibrate the transition matrices between employment states and wages to introduce to the microsimulation model. In this stage, the team will propose the economic transition scenarios to simulate.
• In the final stage of the project, the team will prepare a final report with the simulation results and policy discussion.

You will find below the different research papers related to this project:

• Quantifying Green Job Potential in Colombia: A Task-Based Approach (November 2024)
• Greening Colombia’s Energy: The Future of Jobs and Pensions (August 2025)

While there is mounting evidence that the Covid-19 pandemic has increased socioeconomic inequality, there is still a need to understand the exact channels of impact and what role the policy response has played in different contexts. It is also necessary for governments to be clear about the efficiency of the type of policies they have implemented throughout this period, in terms of the redistributive and/or regressive effect both from an inequality and poverty perspective. Indeed, we know that the amount of additional social spending (excluding health) implemented during the pandemic reached almost 3% of GDP in Colombia and only 0,2% in Mexico. However, research has not yet demonstrated whether the redistributive policies introduced by the Mexican and Colombian governments in response to the Covid-19 crisis have had any positive effect on the distribution of economic and social resources in these two countries.

The project will seek to understand what has been the redistributive impact of social and fiscal policy in Mexico and Colombia, in the context of the policies implemented during the Covid-19 pandemic.

This research project will be conducted as follows: 

1. Using the framework of the Commitment to Equity (CEQ) methodology, an analysis aiming to differentiate what has been the progressivity or regressivity of the policies implemented during the Covid-19 pandemic will be conducted. This analysis will take into account the main beneficiary groups of these policies and will include a comparison between the budget amount and the efficiency of the policies identified in terms of inequality and poverty reduction.  
2. A desktop analysis of the decision-making will also be carried out to understand how the redistributive effects of the policies implemented were envisaged by the governments. 

The results of this project are presented in the following research paper: Promoting a More Progressive Approach - Evaluating the Impact of Social and Fiscal Policies in Mexico and Colombia amidst the Covid-19 Pandemic (2025)

This research paper analyzes the redistributive impact of some fiscal policies and social programmes (direct taxes and transfers) before and after the pandemic Crisis in Mexico and Colombia, following the CEQ methodology. 

Download the paper

Public actors need to monitor the state of the environment in order to assess the effectiveness of their actions, prioritize management policies and measures, and thus objectively establish their contribution to the conservation of natural capital. To do so, they must be able to rely on science-based standards to identify the thresholds at which environmental functions can be considered sustainable.

The ESGAP (Environmental Sustainability Gap) is an innovative tool for assessing the condition of a territory’s environmental functions and how sustainable they are. For all critical components of natural capital in the territory concerned (air or water quality, pollution, forest resources, fisheries, etc.), this indicator calculates the difference between their current state and a state that would be sustainable (i.e., a state compatible with the sustainable functioning of the processes necessary for the preservation of life, human activities and well-being). This allows for the calculation of the “environmental sustainability gap”, which highlights the path to environmental sustainability. This can then serve as a guide for public policies to estimate and preserve the critical functions of the natural capital of a given territory. ESGAP has already been tested in New Caledonia, Kenya and Vietnam.

Within the framework of the ECOPRONAT research programme, AFD aims to develop methodologies for assessing strong sustainability, that is, adopting demanding criteria concerning the non-substituability of natural capital by other forms of capital (physical among others) in a territory or country. AFD also wants to promote their use in international frameworks and contribute to emerging international standards on the good ecological state of ecosystems.

Find out more about ECOPRONAT

Building on the previous work of University College London (UCL) on the application of ESGAP in countries of the Global South, this research project led by UCL aims to implement the ESGAP framework in Colombia and South Africa. It will test its relevance in fostering public policy dialogue in these two countries that already have a regulatory framework and natural resources management, but where not all data on biodiversity is available. 

More specifically, this project has four objectives: 

1. Developing the ESGAP components related to biodiversity and the state of ecosystems that could be used by Colombian and South African governments, and promoting the use of science-based targets for ecosystem maintenance;
2. Promoting reflection on strong sustainability in Colombia and South Africa through the ESGAP framework, by assessing whether the activities carried out in these countries are within the safe operating space for humanity;
3. Clarifying how the ESGAP framework aligns, complements and adds value to other types of existing sustainability indicators that national governments are already using;
4. Strengthening the capacity of partner countries to implement the ESGAP framework beyond this research project. 

The ESGAP framework is based on a dashboard that provides information on changes in the functional state of 23 components of the environment, focusing on the gaps that exist between these changes and the objectives of maintaining or achieving a "good environmental state". These components cover the 4 main categories of critical and essential environmental functions: resource provision, pollution reprocessing, biodiversity and human health. The scores for each of the twenty-three components are then aggregated to form a synthetic indicator and a dynamic indicator.

The research activities in the two pilot countries is carried out by researchers from Stellenbosch University (South Africa) and the National University of Colombia (UNAL). Capacity building will include training four postgraduate students as well as awareness-raising activities targeting policymakers and other stakeholders, in order for them to take ownership of the ESGAP and use it during public policy formulation.

The research teams will produce scientific papers on the relationship between the ESGAP framework and other sustainability indicator initiatives, as well as on the work and calculations of the ESGAP indicators carried out in each country, comparing the cases of Colombia and South Africa. A specific report will be produced on indicators of the state of biodiversity and ecosystems as well as the identification of data sources for the two countries studied.

In addition, an international workshop will be organized to present the complementarities between the ESGAP framework and relevant initiatives of existing sustainability indicators.

Finally, the research team intends to produce several documents for decision-makers and public policy actors:

• A summary of the review of biodiversity indicators and the state of ecosystems, which may be useful for negotiations at the Conferences of the Parties (COPs) to the Convention on Biological Diversity and for the design of national biodiversity strategies and action plans (NBSAPs);
• A webinar with a webinar report on the relationship between the ESGAP framework and other international sustainability reporting initiatives;
• A summary for decision-makers in each partner country on the rationale of the strong sustainability development approach and the methodology and ESGAP indicators that enable it to be implemented.

Download the publications related to the project: 

• The SDGs Provide Limited Evidence That Environmental Policies Are Delivering Multiple Ecological and Social Benefits, Earth's Future vol.12 (May 2024)
• Enhancing Environmental Sustainability Through the Environmental Sustainability Gap (ESGAP) Framework in Colombia, Policy Dialogues n°67, Editions Agence française de développement (October 2024)
• Strong sustainability in the SEEA and the wider indicator landscape, One Ecosystem (May 2025)
• Assessing environmental sustainability in Colombia: Metrics and policy recommendations, Environmental and Sustainability Indicators n°27 (September 2025)

A "Research Conversations" webinar presented the results of the articles to the scientific community in November 2024:

Climate change education (CCE) encompasses school and out-of-school activities that: teach skills and knowledge about climate change mitigation (such as sustainable lifestyles) and adaptation (such as disaster risk reduction); promote safe and sustainable learning spaces; actively engage communities as agents of change; and strengthen collaboration between policy makers and researchers in education and climate. It can take different forms (laboratory activities, school projects, etc.).

Despite the growing number of scientific studies on CCE, the concrete effects of these educational interventions remain uncertain. This is why, following a call for research proposals, AFD has selected two projects for systematic reviews of the existing literature and its main gaps: 

1. The first project focuses on the effects of climate change education on the knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of schoolchildren and their entourage; it is carried out by a team of researchers from the departments of psychology and natural sciences of the University of Rosario in Colombia.
2. The second focuses on the effects of climate change education on behaviour and norms; it is led by a team of researchers from the Groupe d’Analyse et de Théorie Economique (GATE-CNRS) and the Department of Experimental Economics at the University of Rosario in Colombia.

The study conducted by the University of Rosario analyses the impacts of climate change education according to the type of intervention (“traditional”, immersive, innovative teaching activities, etc.) and the strategies mobilized (based on knowledge, habits, emotions…). It aims to assess the effects of these different interventions on the knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of preschool and school-age children and their entourage, with a focus on their sociodemographic characteristics. 

The study led by GATE-CNRS examines the impact of climate change education on the behaviours and the social norms that shape behaviors and expectations  of children and young adults within society, through the prism of behavioral sciences. It aims to identify educational activities and content that promote changes in social norms, as well as possible cognitive biases and cultural and normative barriers. This systematic review will be supplemented by a research experiment conducted by GATE-CNRS.

Both research projects are based on systematic reviews, namely rigorous and reproducible syntheses of the results of all existing original studies answering the same research question, which makes it possible to identify, select, evaluate and summarize primary studies, data and research findings on this issue.

The study led by the University of Rosario adopts the PIO (Population, Intervention, Results) methodology, which helps in the formulation of the research question and the realization of bibliographic research. A comparative analysis is then conducted to assess the effects of education on different populations (for example, younger students versus older students, etc.).

The study conducted by GATE-CNRS uses the PICO (Population, Intervention, Comparison, Result) approach, in which a comparative analysis allows to evaluate the most popular, effective or reliable types of interventions from a methodological point of view, behaviours and social norms, with a focus on intervention contexts. An experimental study conducted in France and Colombia will then aim to fill some gaps observed in the literature by testing two hypotheses: 

1. immersive educational activities are more effective than traditional activities in inducing pro-environmental behaviours and normative changes;
2. the level of adherence to norms and civic engagement in both countries result in a different propensity to engage.

Each of the two research projects resulted in a “Policy Dialogue” publication, presented at COP28, as well as a research paper published in the collections of Editions Agence française de développement. The project of the GATE-CNRS team will also give rise to a second research paper presenting the results of the field experiment.

A webinar from the “Research Conversations” series, held in April 2025 to present the latest findings, is available for replay (in French with English subtitles):

The two systematic literature reviews highlight gaps in research on climate change education, but also some promising results for this area of intervention.

The study conducted by the University of Rosario highlights, among other things, the omission of the gender equality lens, the difficulties in analyzing the effectiveness of long-term interventions, and the fact that research focuses more on the effects on knowledge than on behaviour. The study also highlights that the most relevant interventions are those that mobilize innovative pedagogies, that are based on information drawing on personal experiences, and that generate positive emotions, while those based on negative emotions can have counterproductive effects.

The study led by the GATE-CNRS finds that the types of intervention are very diverse. Projects based on concrete activities, those that combine several types of interventions and those that involve several stakeholders (teachers, students, etc.) lead to more convincing results. The study also highlights the very small amount of work that focuses on social norms; the fact that this research is conducted mainly in high-income countries and in urban areas; and that it focuses on recycling and waste behaviours, easily observable, neglecting behaviours with a greater impact on climate (transport, etc.).

The results of the experimental study are expected by the end of 2025.

• Dr. Cecilia Poggi, Research Officer, AFD
• Dr. Linda Zanfini, Research Officer, AFD
• Dr. Benjamin Quesada, Associate Professor, Earth System Science Director, Research Group Leader "Interactions Climate-Ecosystems" (ICE), University of Rosario (Colombia)
• Dr. Fabio Galeotti, CNRS researcher at the Groupe d’Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon St-Etienne (GATE), Head of the 'Experimental economics' research group at GATE (France)