Countries

Overview

In Guatemala, the face of poverty and hunger is young, indigenous and rural. Guatemala, with the fourth highest rate of chronic malnutrition in the world and the highest in Latin America and the Caribbean, faces a serious challenge to reduce chronic undernutrition, currently at 49.3% among children under 5.

The situation is worse in rural areas of the country where the indigenous population is concentrated; in the highlands of Guatemala, seven out of ten children under 5 are malnourished.

There are several reasons behind these rates: national health services cover approximately 60% of the country; most of the rural areas lack water and sanitation systems and have a limited access to an adequate diet due to income restrictions. In rural areas, the minimum wage covers around 75% of the basic food basket, and poverty reaches 70% of population.

Additionally, Guatemala is prone to natural disasters: hurricanes, earthquakes, floods and frosts are recurrent events which damage the livelihoods of an unprepared population living in vulnerable areas. In October 2008, Tropical Depression Nº 16 affected four departments of the country. The floods caused the loss of life, housing, crops and communication infrastructures, and affected more than 150.000 people.

WFP Activities

In Guatemala, WFP is working to connect farmers to markets through the Purchase for Progress initiative. Learn more

WFP supports 350.000 people through school feeding, productive projects and activities, pre-school feeding and mother and child healthcare. Disaster prevention and mitigation support is provided through food-for-work and food-for-training activities, training and vulnerability analysis and mapping (VAM).

Efforts to stimulate local commodity purchase include technical assistance and strengthening for small farmers’ organizations.

Together with the national counterparts, WFP carries out the following activities:

• Food for development: WFP supports 50.000 vulnerable households in remote areas, to create and preserve assets and thus improve their livelihoods under food-for-work and food-for-training activities. The activities are complemented by community organization enhancement. The regional PRRO 10444.0 provides food-for-work schemes to enhance preparedness in communities located in areas prone to recurrent natural events, reaching 75.000 people.
• Pre-school and School Meals: CP 10092.0 assists 86.000 children and teenagers, who receive nutritional feeding at rural primary schools and 12.000 who receive feeding at day-care centres. The food is accompanied by nutritional and hygiene training provided to parents and staff in charge of day-care centres.
• Mother and child healthcare: WFP supports the National Strategy for the Reduction of Chronic Malnutrition which provides basic health services and supplementary food to some 125.000 pregnant and lactating women and children under 5 to reduce the prevalence of chronic malnutrition in the most affected areas of the country.