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이곳의 공기/수진이방

Guatemala: An Assessment of Poverty

멕시코의 대부분 도시에서 특별히 느끼지 못 했던 것들을

멕시코 산크리스토발(치아파스 주)부터 시작해 과테말라에 들어온 이후 계속 생각하게 된다.

 

오늘 무슨 요일이지? 평일인데 길 위에, 집에서 일하는 아이들이 왜 이렇게 많지?

 

그래서 간단히 찾아본 과테말라 Poverty Profile 공유

 

역시 빈곤도 문제고 도시와 시골의 불평등도 극심하고

특히 이번에 지진이 났던 산마르코스, 케찰테낭고, 우리가 있는 산페드로가 포함된 Solola 등 북서부 지방은 

‘poverty belt'를 형성하고 있다고 한다.

 

어제 하루 돌아봤지만 산페드로에서 관광객 대상의 식당, 호텔, 가게 등은 대부분 유럽인 소유인 듯.

 

한가로이 여행을 즐기다 문득 무거워지는 마음 한켠.

그러다 또 여전히 때묻지 않은 순수하고 친절한 현지 사람들의 표정에 절로 번지는 미소.

 

여행자로서 내가 할 수 있는 공정여행에 대해 고민해 봐야겠다!

 

 

 

 

Poverty Profile

 

 

Poverty in Guatemala is both widespread and severe. Approximately 75 percent of the population is estimated to live below the poverty line, which is defined as an income that is insufficient to purchase a basic basket of goods and services. Almost 58 percent of the population have incomes below the extreme poverty line, which is defined as the amount needed to purchase a basic basket of food. Poverty is especially prevalent in rural areas in the North, Northwest, and Southwest and occurs primarily among the poorly educated and indigenous members of the population. More than 90 percent of the indigenous population live on an income that is lower than the poverty line.

There is also a high degree of inequality in income, consumption, and, most acutely, land. According to the most recent agricultural census (1979), only 2.5 percent of Guatemala's farms control 65 percent of the agricultural land, while 88 percent of the farms control only 16 percent of the land. The Gini Index for land distribution was calculated to be 85.9. This unequal pattern dates back to the colonial era when the Spanish crown granted large extensions of land to colonizers.

All of Guatemala's social indicators reflect this widespread poverty and severe inequality. For example, literacy rates are dismal, and gross school enrollment rates are low – 77 percent for primary school and dropping drastically thereafter. In health, the infant mortality rate is 55 per 1,000 live births and the maternal mortality rate is 110 per 100,000 live births. In addition, approximately 16 percent of infants suffer from low birth weight, and approximately 50 percent of all children are malnourished.

The latest World Bank projections are that Guatemala could grow at a sustainable rate of 4.5 percent a year between 1995 and the year 2000. Because of the country's high population growth rate, GDP per capita is projected to increase by only 1.7 percent a year. If this GDP growth happens in a distributionally neutral way, any reduction in poverty will be minimal. A study carried out as part of the poverty assessment suggests that, if the per capita income of every household in the 1989 Household Survey were to grow at a rate of 1.7 percent a year without interruption for 10 years, poverty would decrease from 75 to 69 percent.

 

Incentive and Regulatory Framework

 

During the 1960s and 1970s, the incentive structure, as represented by tariffs, taxes, and the exchange rate, was biased in favor of a capital-intensive production structure that was highly import-dependent. In the mid-1980s, the incentive structure began to change, mainly as a result of exchange rate reform and trade liberalization. Government policies that reallocated and reduced expenditures induced a change in the structure of relative price products to the extent that the real exchange rate depreciated by about 40 percent between 1986 and 1990. This was an important trend as it implied that in the long run the structure of prices would favor the production of exports and efficient import substitutes as opposed to nontradables. The tariff reforms of 1986 and 1990 reduced the average level of nominal protection and compressed dispersion rates, thus reducing to some extent inherent production distortions. The priority now is to work towards eliminating non-tariff barriers.

 

Public Expenditures

 

Both households and the government have failed to invest enough in education, health, and nutrition. About three-quarters of Guatemala's population are poor and, given their low incomes, the poor tend to underinvest in the human capital of their children. At the government level, whenever a financing crisis has occurred, as happened in the early 1980s and again in 1989-90, social sector expenditures have usually been the first targets for cuts. As a result, the level of social sector investments fell sharply from 1980 to 1992. By 1992, the cumulative effect of these cuts was to push real health expenditure down to 80 percent below its 1980 level, while real education expenditure was down to some 33 percent below its 1980 level. Infrastructure investment also declined considerably, which has constrained the viability and productivity of producers and, thus, has indirectly affected labor demand. There is a particularly desperate need for investment in rural roads.

Years of underinvestment have been aggravated by low internal efficiency and an inequitable and inefficient allocation of expenditures biased towards urban areas and the nonpoor. For example, the 1986 Constitution earmarks 5 percent of all tax revenue to San Carlos University, and in 1990, the operating expenses of the two largest hospitals in the metropolitan area exceeded the operating costs of all of the country's health posts and clinics.

It is important to identify the key source of Guatemala's low social expenditures. In fact, as a percentage of total government spending, Guatemala's health and education expenditures are similar to those of other Latin American countries because it raises much lower taxes as a percentage of GDP than do its neighbors. This should be borne in mind in devising a poverty reduction strategy.

 

Safety Net

 

Because such a large proportion of Guatemala is population is poor, broad-based social initiatives rather than targeted safety nets are the most effective mechanism for reducing poverty in the short term. However, two recent developments present promising approaches to financing infrastructure improvements and supporting rural areas, both of which primarily benefit the poor. The government has established the Fondo de Inversion Social (FIS), supported by the World Bank, which finances but does not run labor-intensive projects proposed by local groups. The Fondo Nacional para la Paz (FONAPAZ) does a similar job but targets those affected by the armed conflict in the country. Both funds offer assistance in the areas of social services, economic and social infrastructure, and institutional strengthening.

 

Poverty Strategy

 

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, an explicit poverty reduction strategy began to be implemented, although much fundamental change is still needed. The first concern is to pursue policies that generate macroeconomic stability and to manage the economy so as to make efficient use of the poor's most abundant asset – labor. This objective cannot be achieved unless the government is able to raise taxes and to make good use of the revenue it does receive. At present, the private sector is understandably reluctant to give resources to a public sector that it views as inefficient at best and corrupt at worst. A second key element is to increase the access that the poor have to land. This requires not only making it easier for the landless poor to acquire land but also strengthening the tenure of smallholders who already own land. Experience in other countries in the region shows that consensus-building is likely to be an important element in making this possible.

A third element is to structure public investment so that it enhances the earning potential of the poor, either by increasing their human capital or by making their existing human capital more productive. Ideally, there should be increased public financing of human capital investments, which may or may not be feasible in the short term. In terms of service delivery, the government should explore ways to make providers more accountable for the quality of the services they provide. These mechanisms can include: (i) subcontracting the provision of health and education services to private companies through open competitions, (ii) operating public facilities under management contracts; and (iii) introducing performance-based budget allocations, internal markets, and greater community participation in local budget decisions.

 

Statistical Systems

 

The principal deficiency in the national information system with respect to poverty reduction is the lack of a permanent system of household surveys to collect socioeconomic data. However, currently there are no plans to develop such a system. Because the latest poverty figures date from 1989, it is impossible to tell whether the major policy changes that have taken place since 1989 are associated with an increase or a decrease in poverty levels.

The National Statistical Institute (INE) was planning to conduct a census in April of 1994 although, as of November 1993, funding had not been secured. Also under consideration for 1994 were an agricultural census, an income and expenditure survey (last fielded in 1980/81), and a repeat of the health, nutrition, and family planning survey previously conducted in 1984 and 1987. A large portion of the funding for the health survey would come from USAID, while the financing for the other surveys was not clear at the time the poverty assessment was written. INE also carries out the National Socio-Demographic Household Survey and its companion module, the National Employment Survey, but this survey was last fielded in 1989 and did not contain any data on consumption.

The inability of INE to produce current socioeconomic data is a reflection of several factors. First, the severe budgetary restrictions that characterize the entire public sector limit funding for statistical data gathering. Second, relatively low priority is given to collecting socioeconomic data. Third, insufficient consideration is given to using the data as an input for policy decisions once they have been collected.

From a poverty reduction perspective, the highest priority should be to conduct the census and to institute a permanent system of household surveys. Issues of design and efficiency will be important considerations for maximizing the usefulness of data collection given the prevailing budget constraints. Deficiencies in the administrative records and management information systems in the line ministries should also be corrected.

 

Source: World Bank

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rural poverty in Guatemala

 

 

Poverty in the Republic of Guatemala is widespread and deeply entrenched. Approximately 51 per cent of the population lives in rural areas, and the rural population accounts for a large majority of the country's poor people. Guatemala ranked 131 out of 187 countries on the United Nations Development Programme's 2011 Human Development Index – a comparative measure of life expectancy, literacy, education and standards of living for countries worldwide.

 

Young people and those living in rural areas are the most vulnerable, and poverty is highly concentrated among indigenous communities, which comprise over 40 per cent of the total population. In fact, government figures indicate that 7 out of every 10 people of indigenous descent live in poverty. Households headed by women also suffer from a lack of assets and access to resources, as do people who own no land, wage labourers, agricultural and non-agricultural micro-entrepreneurs, and traditional handicraft artisans.

 

Agriculture plays an important part in the national economy, accounting for a fifth of GDP and employing about 40 per cent of Guatemala's total labour force, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization. Indigenous and rural communities are primarily involved in smallholder family agriculture based on either subsistence or emerging market-oriented production.


While poverty is clearly a national problem in Guatemala, poverty rates are significantly higher in the ‘poverty belt' of the western plateau and the northern region, comprising the departments of Huehuetenango and Quiché (north-western region); San Marcos, Quetzaltenango, Sololá and Totonicapán (south-western region); and Alta Verapaz and Baja Verapaz (northern region). These areas were severely affected by more than three decades of civil war up to the mid-1990s.

 

The territorial variations in poverty across Guatemala are reflected, for example, in primary school enrolment. The country has an overall enrolment rate of 39 per cent, but in the urban centres it is 48 per cent, compared to 35 per cent in rural areas. In Quiché and Alta Verapaz, two of the poorest departments, the enrolment rate is just 20 per cent, while it is 65 per cent in Guatemala City, the capital.

 

A combination of social and environmental challenges compounds the problems of poverty. Although Guatemala is a multi-ethnic country, indigenous groups have traditionally been excluded from its social, economic and political mainstream. This situation is exacerbated by Guatemala's complex topography. The rugged terrain and lack of roads have kept rural communities remote from the rest of the country, and centuries of isolation and neglect have resulted in chronic poverty.

The terrain also presents challenges to farming. High mountains and dense forests provide little agricultural space, and farming takes place predominantly on steep slopes. With few reliable water sources, farmers must rely on rainfall to irrigate crops.

 

Additionally, the degradation of natural resources in the country is intense, particularly as a result of the illegal exploitation of forests and slash-and-burn subsistence agriculture. The overexploitation of land and water resources has resulted in lower productivity of basic crops, which has increased food insecurity for poor smallholder families. Food insecurity is compounded by volatile food prices, which severely affect subsistence farmers, day labourers and non-farming poor rural people.

 

At the same time, many studies show an increase in droughts – as well as hurricanes and even diseases such as malaria – linked to changing weather patterns in Guatemala and the rest of Central America. To adapt to climate changes, poor rural people have to change the way they plant crops, use forests and think about the environment.

 

Source: IFAD

 

 

 

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