The interim executive director of World Food Program (WFP) of the United Nations, Carl Skauconsider that the El Niño phenomenon threatens to strike ahard hit” to food security in Central Americawith special emphasis on the Dry Corridor of Guatemala and El Salvador.
During an interview with EFE in the Guatemalan capital, Skau explained that, despite the progress made in recent years in addressing child malnutrition in the region, the forecast of prolonged droughts and extreme rains poses the risk of losing the ground gained if anticipatory measures are not implemented.
He Dry Corridor Central America is a territorial strip extended vertically along the Pacific coast and the east of the region – from southern Mexico to Costa Rica – highly vulnerable to extreme climatic variations and covering large areas of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua.
Around 10.5 million people reside in this area, most of them dedicated to subsistence agriculture. corn and beanwhose survival and feeding depend directly on the regularity of seasonal rains.
“What worries us now is that El Niño is going to take us back.. That is why it is so important that we take early action to mitigate and avoid a delay.“said the international representative at the end of his tour of El Salvador and Guatemala, where he visited affected agricultural communities.
During his field trip, Skau verified that the lack of rainfall has already destroyed basic crops in several communities dedicated to agriculture. subsistence agriculture.
“We visited communities that had not seen rain for four weeks and the planting has already been lost. If you depend on these plants for food, there is now a serious food problem.”Skau explained, pointing out the urgency of distributing food support and supplies before food availability worsens.
The person responsible for WFP He stressed that the climate forecasts for the coming months anticipate a complex scenario not only for the Central American region, “but also at a global level (…) with drought in one part and heavy rains in others”.
In the opinion of the representative of the UNthe response to the climate eventuality must be accompanied by a coordinated preventive approach between public institutions, municipalities and international cooperation to protect the livelihoods of the rural population.
To consolidate this response, the WFP maintains close work with the Guatemalan authorities that ranges from the formulation of public policies to direct interventions in the most vulnerable communities, with the aim of strengthening the state structure so that the country gradually assumes comprehensive attention to hunger and nutrition.
In this framework, Skau specified that the WFP designs its programs from a perspective of progressive withdrawal, aimed at local institutions acquiring full operational and budgetary autonomy.
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“We have to work with a 10-year exit strategy in Guatemala. When we are no longer here, I hope that we will have achieved a situation where all children have enough to eat and the nutrition they need to live a healthy life.“, he explained.
However, the official warned of the difficulty posed by the widespread reduction of financial contributions for humanitarian programs at the international level, which is why he stressed the need for the countries of the region to increase national budget allocations to sustain nutrition interventions.
“What is worrying are the resources, because at a global level contributions to these types of interventions are being cut, and then domestic resources must be mobilized to be able to implement these types of programs.”Skau concluded.
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