In July of 2017, the IPC Technical Working Group (TWG) in Guatemala conducted an IPC Acute Food Insecurity Analysis on five departments of the Corredor Seco Ampliado: Chiquimula, Huehuetenango, Quiché, San Marcos and Totonicapán.

Out of a total analyzed population of 4.6 million people, between 25 and 41% were facing limited access to food. In particular, according to the analysis, 2.8 million people (62% of the analyzed population) were facing minimal food insecurity (IPC Phase 1); 1.3 million people (27.8% of the analyzed population) were facing moderate food insecurity (IPC Phase 2 - Stress); and 0.47 million people (10.2% of the analyzed population) were classified in Crisis (IPC Phase 3).

Key Results for most affected areas (Chiquimula, Huehuetenango, Quiché, San Marcos and Totonicapán):

• In the five departments between 25% and 41% of the population that was analyzed presents a limited food consumption (based on the Food Consumption Score);
• This situation has caused between 26% and 37% of the affected population to adopt emergency coping strategies 
• The result of the Integrated Phase Food Security Classification (IPC), of the Nutritional Status, valued with the prevalence of acute malnutrition in children under five years, is around 0.1%. This percentage is lower than expected in the population of reference (2.3%), according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
• The mortality rate of children below the age of five is lower than 1.0 / day for every 10,000 live births.
• The problem is greater in food insecurity than in its immediate effects of acute malnutrition or mortality.

The main drivers of food insecurity in Guatemala are:

• Insufficient grain reserves for households relying on subsistence agriculture and self-consumption
• Climatic events like hurricanes, storms and tropical depressions impacting households relying on self-consumption of corn and beans
• Low incomes from unskilled work, basic crops (corns and beans), vegetables and coffee

Although the Quiché department was classified in IPC Phase 2 (Stressed), between 5 and 10% of households in that department are classified in Phase 3 (Crisis). The situation of these households facing critical acute food insecurity is driven by:

• Limited or poor food consumption
• Adoption of coping strategies (crisis or emergency) due to accelerated exhaustion of their livelihoods

• Implement the National Strategy for Prevention of Chronic Malnutrition
• Give continuity to the Seasonal Hunger Monitoring Plan
• Even though 1.3 million people (28%) of the analyzed departments were classified in Phase 2, it was estimated that more than 0.5 million people (more than 10%) were classified in Phase 3.