Guatemala: Humanitarian Needs and Response Summary 2023

NEEDS OVERVIEW

The convergence of longstanding vulnerabilities and the shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic and extreme weather events in late 2020 left 3.8 million people in Guatemala in need of assistance in 2021. Millions of people facing dire conditions are now dealing with the pandemic’s long-term impacts and the global consequences of the war in Ukraine, as growing food, fuel and fertilizer prices continue to hinder a full recovery.

As such, food and nutrition insecurity have reached historic highs. Some 4.6 million people are facing Crisis (IPC Phase 3) or worse levels of food insecurity and require urgent food assistance, especially subsistence farming families and low-income households. Moreover, about 1.9 million people have needs related to acute undernutrition, including children under age 5, women of childbearing age and pregnant women.

Violence, in all its forms, is having a disproportionate impact on women, girls and adolescents, with the number of female homicide victims and disappearances continuing to grow. As a whole, protection needs remain a significant priority, as the number of returned migrants who had ostensibly fled Guatemala to safer environments has more than doubled in 2022.

Many of the vulnerable communities still reeling from hurricanes Eta and Iota in November 2020 took on the impact of 2022’s tropical storms Julia and Lisa. The National Coordinator for Disaster Reduction (CONRED) civil protection body indicates that the 2022 rainy season affected 6.1 million people, while also driving thousands to shelters, affecting 25,000 homes and causing damage to key roads, thus affecting basic service access.

The combined effects of these impacts have left 5 million people in need of assistance in 2023. The most vulnerable include children under age 5 affected by chronic acute undernutrition and their families, food-insecure families in rural and indigenous communities, people on the move, including children and adolescents and LGBTIQ+ people and people with disabilities. These populations require life-saving response actions complemented with actions that empower them and build their resilience.