Major Findings & Recommendations from the “Food Security and Emigration: Why People Flee and the Impact on Family Members Left Behind in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras” Report.
On August 21st, Partners of the Americas’ Agriculture & Food Security (AFS) team had the opportunity to attend a ceremony at the historic Hall of the Americas in Washington, D.C. The event was centered around the launch of a new collaborative report between the the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the Organization of American States (OAS) and the World Food Programme (WFP), titled “Food Security and Emigration: Why People Flee and the Impact on Family Members Left Behind in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras”. As the title of the document shows, the report was focused on the food-related factors that prompt people from Central America’s Northern Triangle region to migrate to other countries, mainly the United States.
As the international development organization in charge of implementing the USAID-funded Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) program in Latin America and the Caribbean, Partners’ AFS team though it would be strategic to deepen our understanding on how challenges in agricultural production and food security can translate into large-scale migration in the countries where we work. As such, we have developed a brief summary of the report’s major findings as well as practical recommendations for addressing food insecurity in Central America’s Northern Triangle region.
While for us, as with many of the entities in charge in developing this report, the rural exodus and consequent emigration flows in Central America is a matter of great concern, nowhere is the sense of urgency more profound than along the region’s Corredor Seco. Throughout this dry corridor, which encompasses most of El Salvador and a great share of eastern Honduras and Guatemala, there are a higher proportion of people immigrating to the United States (and other countries) than in other areas of Northern Triangle. In many ways, the reasons behind these emigration flows (e.g. high unemployment rates, limited or seasonal labor demand, and low wages/salaries) are directly interlinked with poor agricultural yields and food insecurity. According to a separate Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report, the Corredor Seco also suffers very high rates (between 50 and 90 percent) of crop harvest loss. Due to these conditions, the region is now home to more than 1.6 million individuals who are food insecure. These rates of food insecurity, according to collaborative report, are exacerbated by both food availability and prices and, consequently, by adverse climatic events that affect local harvests and, in turn, food security. In terms of food prices, a great proportion (58 percent) of people in the Corredor Seco spends well over 2/3 of their income on food costs. While the food supply are diminishing due to climate change (extremes temperatures and droughts), which are not only having an impact on agricultural output, but also on many rural livelihoods (e.g. smallholder farming).
Another of the major findings of these collaborative reports concerned the impacts and benefits that migration can have on agricultural production and food security in the Central America’s Dry Corridor. One of the negative impacts associated with migration is that because migrating requires substantial economic costs (e.g. supplies, payment to trafficker), many households must often sell or use their homes/land as collateral to pay for these costs. On the other hand, for those households whose family members are able to migrate from the United States (and elsewhere), they can experience nutritional improvements as they are able to purchase more food with the remittances they receive from abroad.
Given the challenges and promises highlight in this report, there are substantial steps that the international community, civil society, the private sector, as well as host governments can do to address the food security that is driving so many (young) Central American to emigrate. Among the various recommendations presented by the “Food Security and Emigration: Why People Flee and the Impact on Family Members Left Behind in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras” report, it is worth highlight the following two strategies:
1) Reducing vulnerability to root causes: In this regards for inter-sectorial efforts are needed to strengthening the resilience of rural communities to adapt to the effects of a changing climate. This could be done through increase investment and capacity building programing for community-driven weather monitoring, soil analysis, and watershed conservation. Moreover, increasing the market access of smallholder producers in the Corredor Seco could also be a viable strategy to curb the unprecedented rates of emigration emanating from these communities.
2) Enhancing International cooperation: In addition, there is much that international and national institutions in the host countries (e.g. El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala) can do collectively to foster opportunity and mitigate emigration along the Corredor Seco. For instance, national institutions (e.g. Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Environment) should adapt their existing programing and projects to ensure that they are in lined with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), among which are the objectives of no poverty (Goal 1), zero hunger (Goal 2), clean water and sanitation (Goal 6), decent work and economic growth (8), climate action (Goal 13), as well as partnership for the goals (Goal 14). Moreover, when formulating public policies and development strategies, national government should also consider the interlinking role between food insecurity and migration. As this internal commitment are consolidated, host government should work to establish meaningful partnership with international donor institutions, finance institutions and civil society in order to widen the support of frameworks that reduce both food insecurity and migration flows.
As the international development organization in charge of implementing the USAID-funded Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) program in Latin America and the Caribbean, Partners’ AFS team though it would be strategic to deepen our understanding on how challenges in agricultural production and food security can translate into large-scale migration in the countries where we work. As such, we have developed a brief summary of the report’s major findings as well as practical recommendations for addressing food insecurity in Central America’s Northern Triangle region.
While for us, as with many of the entities in charge in developing this report, the rural exodus and consequent emigration flows in Central America is a matter of great concern, nowhere is the sense of urgency more profound than along the region’s Corredor Seco. Throughout this dry corridor, which encompasses most of El Salvador and a great share of eastern Honduras and Guatemala, there are a higher proportion of people immigrating to the United States (and other countries) than in other areas of Northern Triangle. In many ways, the reasons behind these emigration flows (e.g. high unemployment rates, limited or seasonal labor demand, and low wages/salaries) are directly interlinked with poor agricultural yields and food insecurity. According to a separate Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report, the Corredor Seco also suffers very high rates (between 50 and 90 percent) of crop harvest loss. Due to these conditions, the region is now home to more than 1.6 million individuals who are food insecure. These rates of food insecurity, according to collaborative report, are exacerbated by both food availability and prices and, consequently, by adverse climatic events that affect local harvests and, in turn, food security. In terms of food prices, a great proportion (58 percent) of people in the Corredor Seco spends well over 2/3 of their income on food costs. While the food supply are diminishing due to climate change (extremes temperatures and droughts), which are not only having an impact on agricultural output, but also on many rural livelihoods (e.g. smallholder farming).
Another of the major findings of these collaborative reports concerned the impacts and benefits that migration can have on agricultural production and food security in the Central America’s Dry Corridor. One of the negative impacts associated with migration is that because migrating requires substantial economic costs (e.g. supplies, payment to trafficker), many households must often sell or use their homes/land as collateral to pay for these costs. On the other hand, for those households whose family members are able to migrate from the United States (and elsewhere), they can experience nutritional improvements as they are able to purchase more food with the remittances they receive from abroad.
Given the challenges and promises highlight in this report, there are substantial steps that the international community, civil society, the private sector, as well as host governments can do to address the food security that is driving so many (young) Central American to emigrate. Among the various recommendations presented by the “Food Security and Emigration: Why People Flee and the Impact on Family Members Left Behind in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras” report, it is worth highlight the following two strategies:
1) Reducing vulnerability to root causes: In this regards for inter-sectorial efforts are needed to strengthening the resilience of rural communities to adapt to the effects of a changing climate. This could be done through increase investment and capacity building programing for community-driven weather monitoring, soil analysis, and watershed conservation. Moreover, increasing the market access of smallholder producers in the Corredor Seco could also be a viable strategy to curb the unprecedented rates of emigration emanating from these communities.
2) Enhancing International cooperation: In addition, there is much that international and national institutions in the host countries (e.g. El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala) can do collectively to foster opportunity and mitigate emigration along the Corredor Seco. For instance, national institutions (e.g. Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Environment) should adapt their existing programing and projects to ensure that they are in lined with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), among which are the objectives of no poverty (Goal 1), zero hunger (Goal 2), clean water and sanitation (Goal 6), decent work and economic growth (8), climate action (Goal 13), as well as partnership for the goals (Goal 14). Moreover, when formulating public policies and development strategies, national government should also consider the interlinking role between food insecurity and migration. As this internal commitment are consolidated, host government should work to establish meaningful partnership with international donor institutions, finance institutions and civil society in order to widen the support of frameworks that reduce both food insecurity and migration flows.
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