FAO requests funds to provide humanitarian aid to more than half a million people in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador

October 28, 2021, Santiago de Chile - The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) called for the mobilization of US $ 37.7 million to give an immediate response to 507 thousand people in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, who have seen their food security seriously affected by extreme weather events and the impact of the pandemic.

The requested funds will go towards humanitarian response plans in the three countries, which seek to rapidly restore agricultural livelihoods.

FAO interventions will seek to improve the resilience of affected households and their ability to cope with future crises. They will place special emphasis on indigenous communities, women, girls, boys and adolescents, internally displaced persons and people with disabilities.

“We seek to diversify production, improve productive infrastructures, implement good agricultural practices, restore soils, and provide technical assistance and training to local and national governments,” said FAO’s Subregional Coordinator for Mesoamerica, Adoniram Sanches.

Additionally, FAO proposes to better monitor food security indicators so that governments know more about the number of people at risk of food insecurity and its trends, which would provide key information for the making of appropriate decisions.

The interventions proposed by FAO for the humanitarian response plans were made based on the reality set out in the Regional Overview of Humanitarian Needs prepared by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA, for its acronym in English).

Guatemala

In Guatemala, the FAO component of the Humanitarian Response Plan would benefit 286,000 people, and requires more than US $ 1.5 million by 2021, and almost US $ 15 million by 2022.

During the last decade, Guatemala faced a considerable increase in the recurrence and magnitude of disasters and humanitarian crises. Food insecurity affects not only vulnerable households in the Dry Corridor but also poor families in the central-western highlands, particularly indigenous communities dedicated to subsistence agriculture and day laborers.

In addition, migratory flows are also triggering an increase in humanitarian needs, both within the country and along the Guatemala-Mexico migration corridor, and on the southern border of the United States of America.

Among other actions, FAO will provide training of local authorities, personnel of the Ministry of Agriculture, municipal governments, the Secretariat of Food and Nutritional Security, the National Coordinator for Disaster Risk Reduction, and national non-governmental organizations in order to improve future crisis management.

El Salvador

In El Salvador, the COVID-19 pandemic, tropical storms Amanda and Cristóbal, and hurricanes Eta and Iota significantly impacted vulnerable populations, exacerbating existing needs. The FAO component of the Humanitarian Response Plan plans to reach almost 61,000 people, with a budget of US $ 5 million for 2021, and US $ 4.2 million for 2022.

This plan considers providing inputs for the production of short-cycle vegetables, training processes and the improvement of the productive infrastructure and water storage.

Honduras

In Honduras, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic affected food systems, which has led to a reduction in the purchasing power of households that cannot meet their basic needs. Hurricanes Eta and Iota in 2020 exacerbated the current situation of multidimensional crisis in the country, further eroding the resilience of the population, and significantly affecting their local economies.

The FAO component of the Humanitarian Response Plan in this country could benefit 160 thousand people and requires US $ 3.5 million by 2021 and US $ 8.5 million by 2022, destined to training coordination with key actors and leaders , the rehabilitation of productive infrastructure damaged by the hurricanes, the provision of kits of micro irrigation systems to 3,200 households, the support of 9,600 households to establish community seed banks, and the training of 32,000 male and female heads of households in risk mitigation.