Country Snapshot: Guatemala and Economic Growth
 Bread Brings Hope to the Guatemala Highlands
The bakery produces 10,000 lbs of bread daily, increasing income and providing
greater food security. New bakeries bring work opportunities to rural Mayan women
and improved nutrition for their families.
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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
Asociación Ajpatnar Chortí
The Biodiversity and Sustainable Forestry-BIOFOR Project
Foundation for Financial Advice to Development and Social Service Institutions (FAFIDESS)
Nutrition Institute of Central America and Panama (INCAP)
Quality Coffee Program
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 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: drafting revisions to the community forestry concession
by-laws that guarantee women’s participation on the
Board of Directors and organizational sub-committees;
training women to produce handicraft products using
non-timber forest resources; initiating a pilot program
to establish a day care center in one concession; and
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
building 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.
Guatemala Program Objectives:
Economic Growth
Democracy and the Rule of Law
Health
Education
Selected Activities:
ATA/AGEXPRONT
Asociación Ajpatnar Chortí
The Biodiversity and Sustainable Forestry-BIOFOR Project
Foundation for Financial Advice to Development and Social Service Institutions (FAFIDESS)
Nutrition Institute of Central America and Panama (INCAP)
Quality Coffee Program
Women’s Legal Rights Initiative (WLR)
Crime Prevention/Rule of Law Programs
Anti-corruption and Transparency Program
Decentralization and Local Governance
La Asociación Pro-Bienestar de la Familia de Guatemala
(APROFAM)
Calidad en Salud 2
The POLICY II Project
Proyecto Pro Redes Salud en el Altiplano
Private Sector alliances
Proyecto Acción SIDA de Centroamérica (PASCA)
Asocation Guatemalteca de Educacion Sexual (AGES)
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