FAO is a UN specialized agency that has direct custodianship over 21 indicators spanning six Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and contributes indirectly to another six indicators.

Guatemala. “Ensuring that no one is left behind. That is the commitment of the 2030 Agenda and of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG),” points out Guatemala’s country Representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Diego Recalde, in light of the 5-days capacity development seminar taking place earlier this month that touched on “Measuring food and nutritional security in the era of the Sustainable Development Goals.”

Eradicating hunger and all forms of malnutrition: SDG 2

The 5-day gathering, organized by FAO in Guatemala and the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Food (MAGA), centered on the two indicators under SDG Target 2.1, whose aim is to, by 2030, end hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and peoples in vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious, and sufficient food all year round.

The 2-session seminar started off by outlining the food insecurity indicator measured by the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES). It is an indicator derived from the Latin American and Caribbean Food Security Scale (ELCSA, in Spanish) as a tool for the aforementioned measurement. A second session ensued and built on previous exercises with FIES and ELCSA in order to present to Guatemalan government institutions the methodology to measure the prevalence of undernourishment (PoU) indicator, a measurement that is likewise a prioritized goal in Guatemala’s 2016-2020 General Government Policy and, is more specifically part of one of Guatemala’s country strategic results on food security. Statisticians from FAO’s Statistics Division (ESS) in headquarters and FAO’s Subregional Office for Mesoamerica (SLM), working specifically on the FIES and PoU indicators visited Guatemala for the 5-day workshop to which some 25 participants took part, spanning over 10 different ministries and departments whose work relates to food and nutrition security statistics and evidence-based policy making.

This marked the second technical workshop on SDG Target 2.1 indicators as prioritized by Guatemala in the last two months based on joint collaboration between FAO and the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food (MAGA), the first one of which featured FAO’s Regional Statistician for Latin America and the Caribbean and a senior statistician from ESS in FAO headquarters. Their collaboration with government counterparts helped identify and propel forward the ensuing technical capacity strengthening workshops on FIES and PoU indicators as Guatemala prepares to build its statistical and institutional capacities to duly measure, monitor, and report the country’s state of affairs towards SDG Target 2.1.

These initiatives and the technical assistance coming from them are geared specifically to those government institutions responsible for monitoring and providing these data to FAO, who in turn will transmit country-level statistics to the UN Statistics Division, charged with carrying out a global progress report on these and all other SDG indicators.

“In order to carry out the tracking and monitoring of advancements towards the 2030 Agenda goals, a systematic process of measurement of countries’ indicators is necessary. To this end, Guatemala has prioritized its own SDG targets and indicators, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) provides support and guidance by way of capacity development workshops aimed at those government institutions charged with the measurement of these indicators in Guatemala,” explained Diego Recalde.

Gender equality: SDG 5

During the first week of November a national workshop took place to validate, with a host of Guatemalan government actors, the draft methodology for SDG indicator 5.a.2, over which FAO has custodianship. 

SDG Target 5.a thrives to propel reforms that bestow women – based on equality of conditions – equal and fair access to economic resources and access to and control over land. This same target likewise prioritizes the access to financial services, inheritance schemes, and natural resources.

SDG Indicator 5.a.2, on which the piloting of the draft methodology and validation workshop took place, seeks to measure the proportion of countries where the legal framework (including customary law) guarantees women’s equal rights to land ownership and/or control. The validation workshop presented the draft methodology, which is based on six proxy questions that helped define and identify key findings and shortcomings as far as legal frameworks working in favor of gender-conscious and equal access to and control over land are concerned.

The draft methodology was in charge of facilitating the compilation of key inputs to better identify legal frameworks and customary laws at country level. It was designed by FAO’s Social Policies and Rural Institutions Department (ESP), from which gender, policy, land tenure, and legal experts developed its main components and purpose, in close collaboration and consultation with thematic focal points in the Organization’s regional offices. The result of extensive and systematic desk research and systematization of globally accepted good practices, the methodology and its six proxy questions were drawn in particular from the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land (VGGTs) and in line with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

Guatemala is part of a group of 10 countries where the piloting of the SDG 5.a.2 draft methodology and its guidelines were documented (those countries that have been implementing the VGGTs).

Women are active participants in agricultural production across the globe. However, they seldom have their labor contributions formally recognized and they do not tend to enjoy access to land or to natural resources in an equal and fair fashion. Land is a very important resource and asset in rural areas, even more so in Guatemala where approximately half its population lives in rural areas (50.5 percent of the total population). Moreover, it is in these rural areas where more than half of Guatemalans work in agriculture as their main and oftentimes only livelihood.

On the road towards the 2030 Agenda

These country-level activities are the continuation to a wider process that FAO in Guatemala is carrying out in the interest of having Guatemalan government institutions better prepared to monitor and report on progress made towards the goals outlined in the 2030 Agenda. Countries and their respective feats and challenges will be better visualized in this global process report insofar they are able to make these data available as part of this global framework of indicators. 

Having said that, as an added support to countries’ commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals, FAO will be responsible for compiling data from national statistics sources, making indicator-specific documentation and guidance readily available to government counterparts, and working on the improvement and/or development of measurement methodologies and contribute to the overall strengthening of country capacities in this respect.

FAO is a UN specialized agency that has direct custodianship over 21 indicators spanning six Sustainable Development Goals (2, 5, 6, 12, 14 and 15) and contributes indirectly to another six indicators alongside other UN funds, agencies, and programmes and other institutions.