Security & Strategic Review - September 2024

In late July Guatemala’s national council for food security and nutrition (Conasan), the inter-ministerial body that leads policy direction on food and nutritional security, approved its annual operative plan for 2025, which earmarks funding of Q$14.2bn (US$1.84bn), up 33% on the 2024 budget. Addressing food insecurity – an issue which successive governments have declared a priority but failed to tackle – is a key pledge of the left-of-centre government led by President Bernardo Arévalo which took office in January, promising to reduce malnutrition by 10%. An April 2024 update by the World Bank highlights that Guatemala’s child malnutrition rate was 47%, putting Guatemala among the worst ten countries in the world.