by Alejandro Aguirre Batres, Executive Director, CONGCOOP

CONGCOOP with support from Forus, in cooperation with the French Development Agency, produce an alternative civil society report on the status of SDG implementation in Guatemala. This report supported by several allied social organisations, will serve as an input for advocacy at the level of the executive and legislative bodies across the country. But what came out of it?

The Sustainable Development Goals - or SDGs - are on the country's agenda; the Guatemalan state has presented voluntary national reviews in which it "highlights progress". CONGCOOP has produced an alternative or shadow report in which the minimal progress of the SDGs can be seen, especially the setbacks, in the face of the need to promote and fulfil the Agenda 2030.   

The findings of the shadow report show that it has not been possible to overcome the country's serious problems, which are historical and structural, as evidenced by maternal mortality. The country "ranks third in the Americas region in maternal mortality ratio” 

"The Maternal Death Ratio reached 108 in 2015; 113 in 2018; 97 in 2020 and 129.2 in 2021. The trend of the maternal death ratio between 2015 and 2021 showed a 3.3% increase in the annual average.  

In terms of information, education and communication services on the importance of the use of family planning methods, of the current physical target of the Ministry of Health's Annual Operational Plan 2021, of 2,907,302 people, 434,683 (15 %) were left unattended. In access to family planning methods, which began in 2021 with a target of 1,422,973, 166,699 people were left out, and did not have access to these methods (14%).  

As of 31/12/2021, the Ministry of Health reports 98,972 pregnant girls and adolescents between 10 and 19 years of age. The number of pregnant girls aged 10-14 remains high at 2.15 % (2,124). By 2020, there were 4,769 pregnancies in girls in this age range, representing 4.6 % of the 103,970 pregnancies in the 10-19 age group.  

It is undeniable that there are approximately 5,207,365 Guatemalans (30% of the population according to INE's projection for 2021) who do not have any type of health coverage, whether public or private. As a result, little progress has been made towards meeting the goal of universal access to health care and universal health coverage.  

In terms of chronic malnutrition, the country continues to have information based on the results obtained in the VI Maternal and Child Health Survey 2014-2015, which indicated that the national average of chronic malnutrition is 49.8 %, while the percentage of indigenous children living with malnutrition is 65.9 % - around 1.3 million children. Malnutrition has a negative impact on child development, which represents a life sentence not only for this population segment, but for the country as a whole. 

The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated how unprotected the population is in the face of a variety of problems, but especially food insecurity and hunger. As the World Food Programme (WFP) warns: "We must say it loud and clear: Latin America and the Caribbean is facing a critical situation in terms of its food security. There has been an increase of almost 79% in the number of hungry people between 2014 and 2020," said Julio Berdegué, WFP Regional Representative.  

Strengthening family farming through a series of productive activities such as food storage, implementation of irrigation and mini-irrigation systems, as well as the return of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food of Guatemala to the territories was a political commitment that began in 2016 with the programme “Support to Family Farming”, which will disappear in 2022. The constant rains and the passage of storms Eta and Iota severely affected 204,500 families who lost part or all of their food production, without a convincing response for the affected peasants.   

The country has made progress in the construction of public policies, plans, programmes and institutions to address the problem of food insecurity and structural hunger. However, concrete results in reducing the problem among vulnerable populations are still not visible, and as an effect of the consequences of COVID-19, it is estimated that the problem could become even more serious in the coming years.  

Finally, the Guatemalan state is not making the necessary efforts to promote and comply with the Agenda 2030, so the commitment and political will is not evident. Guatemala is a signatory to a series of international agreements that promote the development of the different segments that make up society. In order to comply with the Agenda 2030, it is necessary for the State to promote public policies that are reflected in robust national budgets and quality spending, which guarantee its fulfilment.