El Salvador with its 5.7 million inhabitants (in addition over 2 million residing abroad) is a middle income country with profound inequalities in distribution of wealth (GINI: 0.52) and persisting profound levels of poverty.
The food and nutritional security situation is of concern with an estimated 16.3 percent of rural families not having sufficient earnings to cover the costs of the basic food basket. Under-nutrition figures are also worrisome: chronic under-nutrition among children under 5 years of age is 18.9% nationally, reaching 25.6% in rural areas and nearly 50% in the most vulnerable and marginal locations. Respiratory infections and diarrhea continue to be the main causes of morbidity among children.
Over the past 10 years, the country has been harshly hit by natural disasters, the most significant of which have been Hurricane Mitch (1998), two earthquakes affecting mostly affecting the Western region (2001), as well as Tropical Storm Stan (2005). In addition to their direct impact on the life and livelihoods of thousands, this chain of disasters perpetrates the cycle of poverty and under-nourishment among the most vulnerable communities. It is anticipated that the country’s vulnerability to disasters will further deteriorate due to the effects of climate change.
The already fragile situation of vulnerability to food and nutritional insecurity among large part of the poor urban and rural population has been exacerbated over the last two years by the global phenomenon of food prices increases, which severely impacted poor Salvadoran households’ purchasing power and access to appropriate food and nutrition. As a result, rural families started engaged in potentially harmful coping strategies. Moreover, official statistics indicate that during the period 2006-2007, poverty has deepened and become more widespread, rising from 30.7 to 34.6 % of the total population.
In this context, WFP El Salvador played a critical role by:
- Providing analytical tools and inputs, for instance by launching and coordinating a regional study and by hosting a regional forum on Markets, Prices and Food and Nutritional Security in Central America. These initiatives provided fresh insights on the dynamics of the problem, and allowed in-depth information sharing for decision makers; and
- Complementing and accompanying the efforts of the Government of El Salvador in strengthening social protection initiatives and programmes, as well as food production and income generation interventions.
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