Powered by IFAD

Poverty in the Republic of Guatemala is widespread and deeply entrenched. Approximately 51 per cent of the population lives in rural areas, and the rural population accounts for a large majority of the country’s poor people. Guatemala ranked 131 out of 187 countries on the United Nations Development Programme’s 2011 Human Development Index – a comparative measure of life expectancy, literacy, education and standards of living for countries worldwide.

Young people and those living in rural areas are the most vulnerable, and poverty is highly concentrated among indigenous communities, which comprise over 40 per cent of the total population. In fact, government figures indicate that 7 out of every 10 people of indigenous descent live in poverty. Households headed by women also suffer from a lack of assets and access to resources, as do people who own no land, wage labourers, agricultural and non-agricultural micro-entrepreneurs, and traditional handicraft artisans.

Agriculture plays an important part in the national economy, accounting for a fifth of GDP and employing about 40 per cent of Guatemala’s total labour force, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization. Indigenous and rural communities are primarily involved in smallholder family agriculture based on either subsistence or emerging market-oriented production.
While poverty is clearly a national problem in Guatemala, poverty rates are significantly higher in the ‘poverty belt’ of the western plateau and the northern region, comprising the departments of Huehuetenango and Quiché (north-western region); San Marcos, Quetzaltenango, Sololá and Totonicapán (south-western region); and Alta Verapaz and Baja Verapaz (northern region). These areas were severely affected by more than three decades of civil war up to the mid-1990s.

The territorial variations in poverty across Guatemala are reflected, for example, in primary school enrolment. The country has an overall enrolment rate of 39 per cent, but in the urban centres it is 48 per cent, compared to 35 per cent in rural areas. In Quiché and Alta Verapaz, two of the poorest departments, the enrolment rate is just 20 per cent, while it is 65 per cent in Guatemala City, the capital.

A combination of social and environmental challenges compounds the problems of poverty. Although Guatemala is a multi-ethnic country, indigenous groups have traditionally been excluded from its social, economic and political mainstream. This situation is exacerbated by Guatemala’s complex topography. The rugged terrain and lack of roads have kept rural communities remote from the rest of the country, and centuries of isolation and neglect have resulted in chronic poverty.

The terrain also presents challenges to farming. High mountains and dense forests provide little agricultural space, and farming takes place predominantly on steep slopes. With few reliable water sources, farmers must rely on rainfall to irrigate crops.

Additionally, the degradation of natural resources in the country is intense, particularly as a result of the illegal exploitation of forests and slash-and-burn subsistence agriculture. The overexploitation of land and water resources has resulted in lower productivity of basic crops, which has increased food insecurity for poor smallholder families. Food insecurity is compounded by volatile food prices, which severely affect subsistence farmers, day labourers and non-farming poor rural people.

At the same time, many studies show an increase in droughts – as well as hurricanes and even diseases such as malaria – linked to changing weather patterns in Guatemala and the rest of Central America. To adapt to climate changes, poor rural people have to change the way they plant crops, use forests and think about the environment.

Source: IFAD