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Bogotá D.C., November 14, 2022. The Ministry of Health and Social Protection and the National Dialogue Commission will meet this November 15^th and 16^th to present the contents and policy instruments to the general public, in order to approve the "Guidelines for Health Policy with a Differential Approach for the Roma People and the Guidelines for Health Territorial Planning within the framework of the General System of Health Care Social Security (SGSSS)."

A mechanism will be available to continue strengthening the spaces for participation and decision-making together with the principles of interculturality and protection of the fundamental right to health as established in:

• The Political Constitution of Colombia, in articles 7 and 70, whereby the State recognizes and protects the ethnic and cultural diversity of the Colombian Nation and the equality and dignity of all the cultures that coexist in the country.

• Law 21 of 1991 that approved Convention 169 of 1989 of the International Labor Organization (ILO) which recognizes the right of ethnic peoples to assume control of their own institutions and ways of life and of their economic development and to maintain and strengthen their identities, languages and religions, within the framework of the States in which they live.
  
   
• Decree 2957 of 2010, which aims to establish a regulatory framework for the comprehensive protection of the rights of the Roma or Gypsy ethnic group. Article 20. Agreement of health priorities and goals. The territorial administrations must agree with the Roma or Gypsy ethnic group on the health priorities and goals established in the National Public Health Plan, which will become part of the Territorial Health Plan."
  
   
• Statutory Law 1751 of 2015: "The right to health will be guaranteed as fundamental and will be applied in agreement with them, respecting their customs"

It is estimated that in the country, 2,649 people were self-recognized Roma, according to the 2018 National Population and Housing Census, which represents 0.006% of the total population.

The majority (67%) reside in the municipalities of Bogotá, with two ProRom and Unión Romani Organizations and nine Kumpanias distributed in the municipalities of Girón (Santander), Cúcuta (Norte de Santander), Sampués (Sucre), Pasto (Nariño), Sabanalarga (Atlántico), Envigado (Antioquia), Ibagué, Flandes and Saldaña (Tolima), San Pelayo and Sahagún (Córdoba) and Sampués (Sucre).

Considering the socio-historical and cultural conception of health, illness and health care of the Roma people and the situational and demographic analysis, the latter according to the comparison of the 2005 census and the 2018 National Population and Housing Census (CNPV) distributed by DANE, it follows that:

• For the Roma people, health is understood as a state of well-being that is affected by a series of "eco-socio-environmental" disharmony or imbalances within the community expressed in the bodies. (DNP, 2010).
• According to the contrast between the gypsy and the gadzhé (non-gypsy) (Bimbay, 2021), diseases have two meanings or forms of understanding; those generated by the Rom, recognized as "Roma nasuaslism" and those that are produced by non-Roma and identified as "gadzhikai nasuaslism or gadzhikani."
• Decrease or reduction in the group of people under 14 years of age. 2005-2018 Census
• Increase in the group of people over 65 years of age. 2005-2018 Census
• Increase in the aging index in the Roma population, from 22.8 to 34.4 compared to national values of 20.5 to 40.4, according to data from the 2005 and 2018 Censuses
• Decrease in the youth dependency index in the Roma population, from 35.5 to 32.7 compared to the national values of 48.8 to 33, according to data from the 2005 and 2018 Census
• The demographic dependency index in the Roma population went from 43.5 to 44 compared to the national values of 58.8 to 46.5, according to the 2005 and 2018 Census data
• Of the 55.8% of the Roma population enrolled with the General System of Health Care Social Security, 82.8% are in the subsidized regime.
• Perceived morbidity includes vision problems and motor problems, which represent 2.99% and 1.82% respectively. Difficulties in hearing, speaking, understanding, and using limbs, and mental problems, (Rrom, 2022).
• Increased percentage of full-term live births in the Roma population from 7.06 to 10.53 in the 2017-2020 period.
• Decreased percentage of live births with four or more prenatal care consultations in the Roma population from 87.6 to 75.4 in the 2017-2020 period.
• Increased Child Mortality (under 5 years of age) in the Roma population from 57.1 to 67.8, in the 2018-2020 period
• Their own territories, arranged in (9) Kumpanias and (2) organizations, became the setting for the participation exercise seeking the inputs, contributions and proposals that emphasized the resulting thematic lines such as: their own health and intercultural, government, autonomy and governance, health and work environment, socio-environmental environment and habitat, gender, inclusion and non-discrimination. These are consistent with the instruments and policy guidelines for the Roma population presented today and which started with the issuance of Resolution 464, 2022, and inputs that were adopted in the ethnic chapter of the Ten-Year Public Health Plan.

Next year there will be an opportunity to put the mechanisms into practice that will make possible the transition, coupling and articulation of the different contents and policy instruments of the sector, related sectors and the Roma people, within the framework of the rights, differential and intercultural approach.