Guatemala - Digitalising food security

Stable access to food in Guatemala is an issue driven by various environmental factors ranging from soil erosion and floods to deforestation. This phenomenon has been but exasperated by the circumstantial droughts caused by El Niño over the past 35 years.

Faced with these issues, TSF has upped its support to the ECHO (European Commission Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection)-funded Consortium project led by Acción contra el Hambre (Action Against Hunger) and established in 2015 to contribute to strengthening nutritional security in Guatemala. With several food security operations underway in the country, it is essential for TSF to produce a common data collection tool to standardise the response for all NGOs.

With a particular focus on matriarchal households and those with little food reserves, TSF's solution targets two principal needs:

Digitalising assessment and monitoring

NGO consortium members leading evaluations are provided with a standardised tool that enables data collection via digital forms and real-time calculations allowing for immediate action for vulnerable families.

Information dashboard

The various data collected amongst households will be centralised onto an information dashboard with maps and charts displaying and localising different indicators.

To date, over 1,550 households have been surveyed representing approximately 7,750 individuals.

These information tools are allowing for a faster and more accurate identification of the most vulnerable households, to whom humanitarian aid in the form of cash transfer will be targeted. They also enable more thorough monitoring of the food security conditions amongst beneficiaries based on key indicators automatically calculated by the instruments themselves.