Special Initiatives

Humanitarian Assistance
Inclusive Development
Presidential Initiatives
Women in Development
Economic Growth
Democracy and the Rule of Law
Health
Education
Fast Facts

Humanitarian Assistance

For information on Disaster Response click here

Presidential Initiatives
USAID/Guatemala is working on the following Presidential Initiatives:

• Centers for Excellence in Teacher Training (CETT) in Latin America and the Caribbean to improve the quality of classroom-reading instruction in grades 1-3. The initiative targets poorer countries and disadvantaged communities.
• Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) – USAID partners with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to provide technical assistance and training to build the trade capacity of governments and the private sector in Central America.
• President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a five-year, $15 billion, multifaceted approach to combating HIV/AIDS, is the largest commitment ever by a single nation to an international health initiative. The U.S. government is working with international, national, and local leaders worldwide to promote integrated prevention, treatment, and care programs with an urgent focus on 15 countries that are among the most afflicted by the disease.
• Trafficking in Persons (TIPS) seeks to rehabilitate women and children who have been exploited. It combats trafficking through prevention, protection, and prosecution.

For more information on the partners we work with to implement these initiatives in Guatemala, please see: USAID in Guatemala/Where we Work

For more information on Presidential Initiatives see: USAID Presidential Initiatives: Status of Presidential Initiatives FY 2004

Women in Development
Guatemala is Central America’s largest economy and is implementing democratic reforms, though women and marginalized populations have not benefited equitably from their country’s economic and political progress. To reach all citizens, USAID/Guatemala supports programs in economic growth, democracy and the rule of law, health, and education. (For further information on WID in other countries consult: USAID - Women in Development.

Economic Growth
To reduce inequalities between the rich and the poor, USAID/Guatemala supports activities to strengthen the competitive sectors within the country, such as the handicraft industry. Through micro-credit programs, trade promotion, and business development initiatives, rural communities are expanding their opportunities and forging linkages at the national and international levels.

• ATA/AGEXPRONT: ATA/AGEXPRONT is building the capacity of small craft businesses by improving handicraft product design and development and forging linkages between local and international markets. Implemented by Aid to Artisans and AGEXPRONT, an association of exporters, the activity targets Guatemala’s extensive artisan sector, in which 10 percent of Guatemala’s population works. A majority of the artisans, three quarters of whom are women, reside in the rural areas, subsisting on an average monthly income of approximately $100. Through the program, local exporters gain access to larger international markets, and micro-enterprises are able to expand their links with local exporters, resulting in greater income and sales potential for all participants.
• Asociación Ajpatnar Chortí: After the collapse of the coffee market and the severe drought of 2001, USAID assisted 30 Chortí Mayan women weavers to start a local weaving association, the Asociación Ajpatnar Chortí, and provided them with business and marketing training. Working through AGEXPRONT, USAID then helped the Asociación to form a supply chain alliance with the Botran Rum Distillery and a local artisan NGO, and women who once made grass mats to sell at the local market now provide woven palm fiber sleeves for Zacapa Centenario rum bottles. Today the Asociación employs 400 Chortí women who produce 20,000 palm fiber sleeves for rum bottles every month. Annual sales of over $200,000 are the result of product diversification as the women also have begun producing a range of items for local hardware stores as well as department stores and factories in Guatemala City.
• The Biodiversity and Sustainable Forestry-BIOFOR Project: With support from USAID, Chemonics is providing advice on forest management, certification, marketing, financial administration, and management to community forestry concessions in the tropical rainforests of the Maya Biosphere Reserve in northern Guatemala, helping these new business ventures succeed. One of the key elements of the Project is to foster greater equality of participation among males and females in the processing and commercialization of timber and non-timber products and in managing their concessions as businesses. Activities include: (a) drafting revisions to the community forestry concession by-laws that guarantee women’s participation on the Board of Directors and organizational sub-committees; (b) training women to produce handicraft products using non-timber forest resources; (c) initiating a pilot program to establish a day care center in one concession; and (d) assisting in handicraft marketing by developing web sites and supporting women’s participation in national handcrafts exhibitions.
• Foundation for Financial Advice to Development and Social Service Institutions (FAFIDESS): This microfinance program provides poor rural women with access to credit necessary for sustaining their livelihoods. With USAID support, FAFIDESS has increased its client base and loan portfolio such that, in the past year, the program has benefited over 800 women in 40 community banks and 20 solidarity groups, with loans totaling over $400,000.
• Nutrition Institute of Central America and Panama (INCAP): USAID has been working with the Nutrition Institute of Central America and Panama (INCAP) to help alleviate the economic suffering of Mayan women and children in the highlands of Guatemala. Due to long distances between villages and bakeries, families in this isolated region traditionally received fresh bread only once or twice a week. With support from USAID, INCAP, local bakeries, and supply companies, villagers constructed their own bakeries, purchased needed equipment and ingredients, and were trained in baking and maintaining their new, local bakeries. Within two months, the village bakeries were producing over 10,000 pounds of bread daily and providing the women of the region not only with bread, but also with a new source of income for themselves and their families.
• Quality Coffee Program: The Quality Coffee Program supports the competitive transformation of the coffee sector in Central America and the Dominican Republic by improving coffee quality, business practices and market linkages, and the policy environment. Through a Cooperative Agreement with the Quality Coffee Institute, the USAID/Guatemala-Central America Program will support the institutional capacity of Central American countries, including Guatemala, through a leadership development program for women. The program will leverage the technical expertise of women in consuming countries by creating a mentoring relationship with women in producing countries. In addition to strengthening the leadership and technical skills of women in producing countries, the program will also foster new commercial relationships by enabling women in Central America to access the extensive network of women engaged in the specialty coffee industry in the U.S.

Democracy and the Rule of Law
USAID’s democracy and rule of law activities provide training and technical assistance to increase the capacity of Guatemala’s legal system to foster and protect women’s rights. In addition, by creating the environment for a more responsive government, USAID will provide opportunities for all citizens to benefit from an improved legal system characterized by greater accountability and transparency without regard to gender, race, religion, or ethnic background. At the same time, USAID/Guatemala recognizes that there are key areas where the experiences of women and men differ, and activities need to take those differences into account. These concerns have been built into a series of activities such as those below:

• Women’s Legal Rights Initiative (WLR): USAID’s Women in Development (WID) Office supports the Women’s Legal Rights Initiative (WLR), implemented by Chemonics and its local partners the University of San Carlos Law School (USAC) and the Public Ministry in Guatemala. WLR developed and successfully implemented a graduate-level curriculum that focuses on gender and the law for judges, lawyers, and women’s organizations, including indigenous women’s organizations. As of April 2005, the program’s 47 graduates had implemented 26 advocacy projects in their home institutions and achieved impressive results. For example, graduates working in the judicial sector have incorporated gender-based standards that provide all women, including those that have committed crimes, with greater access to the judicial system. Within the Public Ministry, WLR worked with the Ministry’s training academy (UNICAP) and the Prosecutor for Women’s Issues to train prosecutors across the country on how to implement the Domestic Violence Law, taking into account gender and multicultural concerns. UNICAP continues to monitor prosecutors and report its findings to the Attorney General. WLR also worked with the Public Ministry to develop a public awareness campaign including the production of posters, brochures, and 10 radio spots, five in Spanish and five in the Mayan languages of Q’eqchu’, Kich’e, Cakchiquel, Mam, and T’zutuji’l. The public awareness campaign has been so successful that the Public Ministry now displays the violence against women brochure on its web site, radio programs reaching audiences nationwide are broadcasting the new spots, and the USAID/Justice Center’s network of committees on violence against women is using WLR’s posters and brochures.
• Crime Prevention/Rule of Law Programs: Crime prevention efforts and assistance to improve efficiency and effectiveness in the justice system will take into account crimes that particularly affect women, such as rape, domestic violence, and the apparent recent targeting of young women in serial killings. Under the Rule of Law Program, a Gender and Ethnicity Plan will develop specific interventions aimed at women and indigenous groups.
• Anti-corruption and Transparency Program: Although men and women are both victims of corruption, their experiences of this vice are often based on role differentiation. Surveys conducted with victims of corruption are being designed to provide additional data that will further illuminate gender differences and help suggest appropriate interventions. A Gender Action Plan is being developed as part of the Program to ensure that gender considerations are integrated into the program activities.
• Decentralization and Local Governance. Political participation of women at the municipal level is significantly lower than that of men. USAID assistance in implementing the Municipal Code, increasing participatory decision-making, and improving management systems will look for opportunities to promote women’s political participation and leadership, especially indigenous women whose participation rate is the lowest of all groups. The Program will identify gender barriers and include ways to address these barriers in its annual work plans.

Health
USAID/Guatemala continues to increase access to and improve the quality of health care delivery systems for women and children. The Mission supports initiatives to strengthen the capacity of health care networks and improve cooperation among the many groups involved in the health system, including local communities. USAID/Guatemala also promotes the development of effective campaigns to address reproductive health problems and violence against women.

• La Asociación Pro-Bienestar de la Familia de Guatemala (APROFAM): APROFAM, now the second largest family planning provider in Guatemala, offers family planning and maternal and child health services to lower income families. APROFAM continues to receive USAID assistance to become fully sustainable while maintaining its social mission of delivering gender equitable services to rural populations. The organization provides training to service providers and support staff to guarantee that men and women using APROFAM services make free and informed decisions to improve family health. APROFAM also focuses on gender equity during household visits, educational discussions, and through its programs for young adults. The organization also conducts campaigns to sensitize the public about violence against women and women’s rights, and its telephone helpline aids women in precarious situations seeking emotional and legal support.
• Calidad en Salud 2: With the assistance of USAID/Guatemala, University Research Corporation Calidad en Salud 2 (Quality in Health 2) is helping the Ministry of Health improve the quality of health care services for women and children, particularly in the highland regions. The activity promotes collaboration between NGOs, government agencies, and representatives from local health care services, targeting male and female health promoters and emphasizing community involvement and empowerment. The previous program, Calidad en Salud 1 (Quality in Health 1), achieved successful results, including a decline in child mortality and national fertility rates and an increase in the number of women obtaining health information through a radio and television social communication campaign. Together, the Quality in Health programs have used information, education, and communication (IEC) and behavior change activities to improve the standards of family planning services, including male involvement and women’s empowerment. A diploma course on responsible parenthood is being supported to disseminate IEC materials and to increase awareness of equitable male and female roles in raising their children. Additionally, a very successful model for integrating health care among young adults has been implemented at Hospital San Juan de Dios, providing approximately 15,000 men and women with reproductive health counseling that incorporates a gender equity approach.
• The POLICY II Project: Through this project, USAID assists a network of women’s NGOs called Instancia Salud Mujer (Instance Health Women) to use policy dialogue and social auditing processes to improve women’s health. The network presented an integrated women’s health proposal focusing on reproductive health and family planning, as well as gender approaches to delivering quality health care services, to the Ministry of Health and other government agencies. Since 2004, this group has been actively monitoring the Ministry of Health’s Reproductive Health Program and also works with the Health Commission of Congress to monitor the implementation of the Social Development Law requiring the integration and participation of women in socioeconomic, political, and cultural development processes.
• Proyecto Pro Redes Salud en el Altiplano: With USAID support, JSI Training and Research Institute, Inc., and its local partners improved the delivery of reproductive and child health services to Mayan Communities in the highlands. Through the Pro Redes (Pro Networks) Project, NGO networks providing health care delivery services received technical assistance and training to build their capacity and enhance the quality of the reproductive health services offered to these communities. The project promoted women’s participation as beneficiaries and providers of health services. Although USAID support ended in September 2004, the Pro Redes Salud networks created an umbrella network, the first federation of NGO health networks in Latin America, which includes over 80 NGOs serving residents of the Mayan highlands.
• Private Sector alliances: USAID/Guatemala is working with the Research Triangle Institute (RTI) and its sub-contractor the University Research Corporation (URC) to support public-private health alliances in Guatemala. The alliances will increase access to and improve the quality, equity, efficiency, and use of basic health, nutrition, and education services in the country. The program is also responsible for addressing gender inequity at the managerial as well as the service delivery level, sensitizing the staff to gender inequalities and creating mechanisms to promote and ensure the participation of women and women’s groups.
• Proyecto Acción SIDA de Centroamérica (PASCA): USAID/Guatemala-Central America Program is working with the Academy for Educational Development and The Futures Group International to promote public awareness of HIV/AIDS and strengthen local NGOs’ efforts to combat the epidemic. Through this program, USAID is assisting La Casa de la Mujer, a shelter run by the Oblate Sisters of the Holy Redeemer, to provide rehabilitation support, including counseling, medical care, and vocational education to trafficking victims in the border area of Tecún Umán and surrounding San Marcos, Guatemala. The sisters also travel throughout the area speaking with prostitutes and at-risk women and girls about health issues, the importance of education, the dangers of trafficking, and their legal rights. The Casa also provides 160 victims and vulnerable women with skills training in sewing, cosmetology, and sales and fosters other income generating activities.

Education
USAID/Guatemala helps improve access to education for all children who do not have the opportunity to attend schools. The success of pilot programs has encouraged other donors to become involved, resulting in greater educational equity. Current programming focuses on closing the gender gap in access to education between boys and girls.

• Asocation Guatemalteca de Educacion Sexual (AGES): With support from USAID, the Guatemalan NGO AGES provides scholarships to needy girls in selected communities in the country, ensuring the involvement of both families and local groups in the selection and implementation process. The program provides training on sex education and human development to girls, teachers, and parents and has been successful in decreasing the drop-out rate among girls in these communities. A total of 289 girls, 96% of the original cohort of 300, successfully graduated from junior high due to the scholarships they received, and 165 (55%) completed the three grades in three years, surpassing the national retention rate for all junior high schools by 45%. While in school, the girls helped 1,750 of their family and community members become literate as well.

Half of Guatemalan women have a child before the age of 19 and 20% have two or more children by their 18th birthday. By their early 30's, many women have given birth to seven or eight children. More...

Women and girls face a general culture of machismo (a strong sense of masculinity stressing attributes such as physical courage, virility, domination of women, and aggressiveness), exclusionary policies in land, income, and education, and extremely high levels of maternal mortality. More...

One hundred and seventy women were murdered during the first five months of 2004, and at least 26 were tortured and raped. Crime and insecurity persist as the legacy of the country’s 36-year civil war. More...

ADULT LITERACY RATE¹
2002: 38.9%, Female; 24%, Male
1980: 55.1%, Female; 39%, Male

SCHOOL ENROLLMENT
Primary school enrolment ratio (net)²
2000: 82%, Female; 86%, Male
1995: 69%, Female; 76%, Male

LIFE EXPECTANCY AT BIRTH, 2002³
2002: 68, Female; 62, Male
1980: 59, Female; 55; Male

TOTAL FERTILITY RATE (births per woman) ⁴
2000 – 05: 4.4
1970 – 75: 6.5

WOMEN IN THE ADULT LABOR FORCE⁵
2000: 29%
1980: 22%

ESTIMATED EARNED INCOME (Purchasing Power Parity US$), 2002⁶
$2,007: Female
$6,092: Male

YEAR WOMEN RECEIVED RIGHT TO VOTE⁷
1946

YEAR FIRST WOMAN ELECTED TO PARLIAMENT⁸
1956

SEATS IN PARLIAMENT HELD BY WOMEN⁹
8.2 % of total in 2004

(See USAID - Women in Development for more information on USAID women in development focus in other countries where we work.)