R 182236Z JUN 08
FM AMEMBASSY GUATEMALA
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 5568
INFO WHA CENTRAL AMERICAN COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS GUATEMALA 000771 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAGR EAID ECON GT PGOV
SUBJECT: A VIEW FROM THE FIELD: THE COLOM GOVERNMENT'S 
POVERTY REDUCTION PLAN IN ACTION 
 
REF: A. GUATEMALA 655  B. GUATEMALA 564 
 
¶1.  Summary.  The Colom government's political fortunes are 
closely linked with its ability to deliver on promises of 
reducing poverty, especially among the rural, indigenous poor 
of Guatemala.  Across the countryside, optimistic technocrats 
are determined to implement new programs announced by the 
Colom Government to reverse decades of chronic malnutrition 
and high maternal mortality rates in Guatemala's poorest 
districts.  Econoff visited four of the forty-five 
municipalities identified for priority programs to observe 
how the conditional cash transfer program and others are 
functioning.  While the transfer program is off to a strong 
start in some areas, much coordination is needed to deliver 
results to the communities that await its arrival.  End 
Summary. 
 
Colom Organizes Government to Address Poverty 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  Shortly after being inaugurated in January, President 
Colom announced the creation of the Social Cohesion Council 
to coordinate the GOG's anti-poverty efforts, led by First 
Lady Sandra Torres de Colom.  The council is composed of 
members from the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of 
Public Health and Social Assistance, the Ministry of Energy 
and Mines, and the secretaries of both Food Security (SESAN) 
and the Office of Social Work (SOSEP).  This council has no 
budget of its own, but it manages roughly USD269 million in 
these agencies' funds, which is 19 percent of Guatemala's 
annual budget. 
 
¶3.  In March, the president created a Rural Development 
Council that will follow the same model as the Social 
Cohesion Council but has a mandate to focus exclusively on 
the country's 45 poorest municipalities, according to 
director Roberto Dalton.  This Council will direct funds of 
the Ministry of Agriculture, SESAN, and the Secretariat of 
Agrarian Affairs (that addresses land issues).  Colom stated 
that together, these councils would form "his left and right 
arms to serve the purposes of the neediest and to reach the 
problems of the lowest in the country."  According to 2007 
statistics, 51 percent of Guatemalans live in poverty, and 15 
percent live in extreme poverty. 
 
¶4.  The Social Cohesion Council determined that its efforts 
would be focused on the forty-five poorest municipalities 
across Guatemala, with the ultimate aim of assisting some 1.7 
million Guatemalans in 5,289 individual communities.  The 
areas were selected through analysis of poverty levels, 
chronic malnutrition, death rates, and education performance. 
 The Social Cohesion Council created an emergency plan that 
outlines how each member will focus existing and planned 
programs on the priority municipalities.  The Council plans 
to expand the number of priority municipalities to 125 in 
¶2009. 
 
Conditional Cash Transfers 
-------------------------- 
 
¶5.  The main effort of the First Lady's Social Cohesion 
Council is implementation of the conditional cash transfer 
program named "Mi Familia Progresa."  Under this program, 
families with school-aged children and/or pregnant mothers 
receive between Q150-300 (USD20-40) each month.  In order to 
participate, the family must be located in a priority 
municipality and the mother must present current vaccination 
records and proof of regular school attendance for each 
child.  This program is modeled after other successful 
programs that have been implemented in Brazil ("Bolsa 
Familia"), Chile ("Chile Solidario") and Mexico 
("Oportunidades"). 
 
¶6.  In May, the Colom government began rolling out this 
program in six municipalities, with a plan to expand to new 
Qprogram in six municipalities, with a plan to expand to new 
areas each week until all forty-five priority municipalities 
are implementing the program by mid-summer.  The first 
municipalities are located in the mostly indigenous 
departments of Solola, Quiche, Totonicapan, and San Marcos. 
Eventually the program will also be introduced in designated 
areas of Huehuetenango, Peten, Alta Verapaz, Baja Verapaz, 
and Chiquimula. 
 
¶7.  Guatemala has the highest rate of child malnutrition in 
the Western Hemisphere.  Forty-nine percent of children 
suffer from chronic malnutrition nationwide, and the rates 
are much higher in Guatemala's poorest communities.  Local 
officials assert that the root causes of malnutrition in 
Guatemala are driven by social and cultural norms rather than 
a lack of food.  This concept was repeated often in Econoff's 
discussions with international organizations, local mayors' 
offices, and the technical experts from SOSEP and SESAN.  In 
Totonicapn, where 70 percent of children are malnourished, 
Father Jacinto Lozano observed that malnutrition is causing 
underdevelopment in local children, and he is worried that 
parents do not keep enough agricultural produce for the 
family's consumption before selling the excess.  Visiting 
doctors and nurses in Solola note that mothers are not 
well-informed about the foods that children should eat. 
Pregnant mothers need to learn to consume healthy foods along 
with the family, instead of following cultural practices that 
guide her to eat what is leftover after her husband and 
children are fed. 
 
Emphasis on Women, Health, and Education 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶8.  Development of a network of women leaders is a core 
element of the Social Cohesion Council's plans, which will 
rely on this network to implement future social development 
projects.  This group of women, one from each neighborhood in 
the municipality, would volunteer to help coordinate 
implementation of the cash transfer program.  Some of the 
identified women previously worked as volunteers for the 
"Growing Well" program coordinated by SOSEP, a smaller 
nutrition program under the previous administration.  In 
Santa Cruz La Laguna, in the department of Solola, this 
network of women is fully engaged in coordinating 
implementation of the "Mi Familia Progresa" program with the 
mayor's office, the health center, and the local schools.  In 
Totonicapan, SOSEP representatives are working to create a 
municipal level Office of Women that will eventually 
formalize the networks.  The SOSEP representative there 
explained that this is the plan for every identified 
municipality, and Offices of Women will be established 
throughout the summer. 
 
¶9.  In the Santiago municipality of Solola, the mayor's 
office told us that the conditional cash transfer program is 
the most important assistance seen in Panabaj since Hurricane 
Stan in 2005.  At the health center that serves the crowded 
temporary housing complex, the nurse estimates that 
approximately 200 families will be eligible for Mi Familia 
Progresa.  Of these, 73 families have already qualified, 30 
are waiting to obtain complete vaccination information, and 
over 100 have not yet started the process.  Antonia Garcia 
Hernandez, the Women's Coordinator for the area, explained 
that many mothers are unfamiliar with the process of 
accounting for prior vaccinations, and some cannot find the 
records.  At the health center, Doctor Gabriel Juarcas 
pointed out that the conditional cash transfers are changing 
views of vaccinations amongst indigenous mothers; where 
vaccinations were once feared because the population believed 
they caused sterilization, they are now viewed more readily 
as a requirement for improving a child's life. 
 
¶10.  Schoolteachers are also reporting greater participation 
by parents as the conditional cash transfer program gets 
underway.  In Cerro de Oro of Santiago municipality, one 
school principal claims to have met with every parent of the 
69 families that have qualified in her school.  She believes 
that the attendance reporting requirement of the Mi Familia 
Progresa program will incentivize parents to keep their 
children in school throughout the coffee harvest season. 
Currently, many of the 149 students in her school are pulled 
out of classes for two or three months at a time to help 
their parents work. 
 
A Long Term Plan 
---------------- 
 
¶11.  In Solola and Totonicapan, representatives from SOSEP 
and SESAN are candid and determined when talking about the 
poverty reduction initiatives of the Colom government.  The 
complexity of project implementation is compounded by the 
Qcomplexity of project implementation is compounded by the 
reality that every person employed in the effort accepted his 
or her job within the past three months.  Francisco Noj, a 
SESAN employee in Totonicapan stated, "This is not a short 
term effort, we will not know the results in even four years. 
 This is a long-term project, for the next twenty years."  In 
Solola, another SESAN representative said, "We'll know we 
have succeeded when this is a program that continues after 
our term, under another president, no matter what political 
party." 
 
¶12.  A representative from "Accion Ciudadana", the Guatemalan 
chapter of Transparency International, believes that the 
conditional cash transfer program will succeed, mainly 
because similar programs have been implemented with success 
in other Latin American countries.  This echoes the praise 
for the program that was expressed by economist Francis 
Fukuyama when he visited Guatemala this spring.  While few 
argue with the initiative to assist Guatemala's poorest 
communities, some openly state that the cash transfers will 
not be sufficient to create the change that is needed.  Many 
insist that much more is needed before Guatemala's cycle of 
poverty and malnutrition will be broken. 
 
¶13.  Comment:  The Colom Government has appropriately 
identified chronic malnutrition as not only an urgent 
humanitarian priority, but also as an imperative for the 
country's economic growth and competitiveness.  Nascent 
assistance programs reflect President Colom's efforts to 
follow through on his campaign promise to address 
long-ignored health, education, and rural development 
concerns.  However, the short-term impact of the programs has 
already been affected by the recent rise in food and energy 
prices and the lack of government resources to increase 
funding. 
 
Derham