Publication: Poverty in Guatemala
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Published
2004
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2013-08-14
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Poverty in Guatemala is high and deep. In 2000, over half of all Guatemalans lived in poverty. About 16 percent lived in extreme poverty. Available evidence suggests that poverty in Guatemala is higher than in other Central American countries. Although poverty has fallen over the past decade, its trend recently declined due to a series of economic shocks during 2001 and 2002. The drop of poverty incidence since 1990 is slightly slower than what would have been predicted given Guatemala's growth rates, suggesting that growth has not been particularly pro-poor. This pattern arises largely because growth in the rural sectors-where the poor are largely concentrated-has been slower than in other areas. Poverty and vulnerability are mainly chronic whereas only a fifth were transient poor. Likewise, while 64 percent of the population could be considered vulnerable to poverty, the majority of these are vulnerable due to low overall expected consumption rather than high volatility of consumption. The chronic nature of poverty and vulnerability highlights the importance of building the assets of the poor, rather than focusing primarily on the expansion of public safety nets or social insurance. Nonetheless, some public transfers (social assistance) could indeed be desirable to alleviate the poverty and suffering of the extreme poor, particularly when linked to participation in health and education activities. The Peace Accords represented a turning point for Guatemala's development path, paving the way for a transformation to a more prosperous and inclusive nation. Key areas related to economic development and poverty reduction include: a focus on human development, productive and sustainable development, modernization of the democratic state, and strengthening and promoting participation. The rights of the indigenous and women were also highlighted as cross-cutting themes throughout the accords, in an attempt to reverse the historical exclusion of these groups.
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“World Bank. 2004. Poverty in Guatemala. World Bank Country Study;. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/15066 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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Publication Poverty in Guatemala(Washington, DC, 2003-02-20)This poverty assessment report has three main objectives: 1) to conduct an in-depth, multi- dimensional analysis of poverty building on the framework of the World Bank's World Development Report (WDR) for 2000/2001 using both quantitative and qualitative data; 2) to examine the impact of government policies and spending on the poor in key sectors; and 3) to use the empirical findings to identify options and priorities for poverty reduction in the future. Policy options are outlined not only in general, but for the specific themes and sectors covered. Chapter 2 examines the poverty "problem" using an array of monetary and social indicators, as well as perceptions of poverty identified by Guatemalan communities and households themselves. In general, poverty is determined by key household endowments and characteristics. These are analyzed in Chapter 3. Yet historical forces and contextual factors also play a crucial role in shaping patterns of poverty. These factors are discussed in Chapter 4. Chapter 5 examines the relationship between poverty and economic growth in Guatemala from a "macro" perspective. Chapter 6 builds on this macro-economic context to further examine the livelihoods and earnings opportunities of the poor at the household level ("micro" perspective), with a focus on rural livelihoods. The poor also rely on a portfolio of assets in order to forge opportunity, including education (Chapter 7), health (Chapter 8), basic utility services (Chapter 9), land and financial assets (Chapter 6), and access to transport (Chapter 10). Generally, the poor suffer from an unequal distribution of these assets. Chapter 11 provides an operational assessment of vulnerability, while Chapter 12 reviews existing social protection and social risk management mechanisms to assess their adequacy and offer insights into ways in which to strengthen them. As discussed in Chapter 4, one of the key remaining challenges for the Peace Agenda is the modernization of the state and a strengthening of community and social participation. Chapter 13 also considers the role of other important actors in development, namely the private sector, NGOs, and religious organizations. Finally, Chapter 14 builds on the empirical findings in the rest of the report to build an agenda for poverty reduction in Guatemala. 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For each Vietnam Development Goal, the authors describe recent trends in relation to the trajectories implied by the MDGs, outline the intermediate targets identified by the government, and discuss the challenges involved in meeting these. Relative to other countries of similar per capita expenditures, Vietnam has made rapid progress in a number of key areas. Poverty has halved over the 1990s, enrollment rates in primary education have risen to 91 percent (although there is a quality problem), indicators of gender equity have been strengthened, child mortality has been reduced, maternal health has improved, and real progress has been made in combating malaria and other communicable diseases. In contrast, Vietnam scores worse than other comparable countries in the areas of child malnutrition, access to clean water, and combating HIV/AIDS. A number of important crosscutting issues emerge from this analysis that need to be addressed. 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Seizing the opportunity afforded by the oil boom, Azerbaijan initiated large public sector investment programs and supportive policies to increase wages and social protection transfers to the population, and institutional reforms aimed at modernizing the economy. These efforts translated into double-digit growth and an impressive reduction in poverty. The report underscores that the government's targeted social assistance program has been successful in channeling public transfers to the most needy. On the other hand, high dependence on oil revenues, compounded by the current global economic crisis, presents challenges to maintaining growth and could jeopardize the gains made in poverty reduction. Moreover, while Azerbaijan has made significant progress in building capacity to redistribute the benefits of growth, significant challenges remain in developing the human capital of the population to participate actively in future growth and to close the productivity gap with its comparators in the post crisis world.Publication Turkey Poverty Policy Recommendations, Volume 2(Washington, DC, 2005-08)This report sets out a new poverty line methodology for Turkey, as the basic measure of poverty in the country. However, several poverty lines are calculated for the purpose of international comparability, and comparability to the Bank's poverty measures, using the 1987 and 1994 data. The basic data used in Volume One are from the official 2002 Household Budget Survey (HBS). The analysis refers generally to the new poverty line methodology that results in 27 percent poor. This line is called "complete" poverty line, and is referred to as "Total poverty" in statistical tables. An in-depth analysis of the 2002 Household Budget Survey (HBS) compared to that from 1994, shows that living standards in Turkey remained almost unchanged. Poverty based on the previous methodology declined gradually from 1987 to 2002, from 38.5 percent to 34.5 percent. Poverty based on the updated methodology declined from 28.3 percent to 27 percent from 1994 to 2002. On the other hand, marginal inequality increased. Extreme poverty, already low, further declined from 1994 to 2002. Food poverty declined from 2.9 to 1.4 percent, while $1 per person per day poverty, depending on purchasing power parity (PPP) used, was 2-3 percent, or even negligible (0.2 percent). The poverty-growth decomposition demonstrated that while economic growth was a main driving force in poverty reduction, much of the gains from growth were offset by inequality, which slightly worsened from 1994 to 2002. The timing of the two major surveys in Turkey - 1994 and 2002 - dictates the frame for the comparisons. Unfortunately, due to the macroeconomic instability, living standards between these two years have not improved. The conclusion that stems from this analysis is therefore that growth between 1994 and 2002 was not sufficiently strong to produce any sizable reduction in poverty, and the impact of the little growth there was, was dampened by an increase in inequality.Publication Guatemala - Poverty assessment : good performance at low levels(World Bank, 2009-03-18)This report is organized into three sections with seven chapters. The first section assesses poverty levels and changes over time within Guatemala and compares both the levels and changes to those of other countries. It summarizes the overall conditions and changes in Guatemala (chapter one); presents the country's poverty profile and analyzes the evolution of poverty over time and space using monetary and non-monetary indicators, population changes and inequality (chapter two); and benchmarks Guatemala's social progress against other countries in the region and the world (chapter three). The second section analyzes social programs and considers how existing policies and programs could improve their impact on poverty. It highlights some of the key features of social programs in education, health, and social assistance (chapter four); and estimates the potential impact of an expansion of a conditional cash transfer program on poverty (chapter five). The third section focuses on the sources of income of the poor. It documents the evolution of the sources of income examines regional specific characteristics that promote or hinder households potentials (chapter six); and carries out a preliminary analysis of shocks and vulnerability influencing household wellbeing covering the impact of hurricane Stan, a potential reduction in remittances, food price increases, and crime and violence (chapter seven).
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