Guatemala: Acute Food Insecurity Situation July 2017 (Corredor Seco Ampliado)
RELEASE DATE
01.07.2017
VALIDITY PERIOD
01.07.2017 > 31.07.2017

Key
results


Recommendations
& next steps


Acute
Malnutrition


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

 


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