'Creeping humanitarian crisis' in Central America? Droughts lead to crop loss.
A full 80 percent of farmers in the worst-hit areas of El Salvador have reported losing all of their crops, while 75 percent of corn and bean crops in Honduras and Guatemala have failed.
A full 80 percent of farmers in the worst-hit areas of El Salvador have reported losing all of their crops, while 75 percent of corn and bean crops in Honduras and Guatemala have failed.
On Friday, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)聽warned聽that 2.5 million people in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador had been forced into conditions of food insecurity.
Every time I get slightly optimistic about the near future of Central America, some news story comes along and wallops me back to reality. Central America is one of the world's most vulnerable regions when its comes to the effects of climate change. Unstable weather patterns lead to drought and flooding, often at the same time. Roya is devastating the region's coffee crops. I'm not sure if the region has stopped shaking after last week's series of earthquakes and tremors.
Hopefully, the $460 million that the Honduran government will聽receive聽from the International Monetary Fund to be invested "largely" on "infrastructure鈥� projects will help.
In the past, I've said that one of the challenges that the US has in delivering large-scale assistance to Honduras (and Guatemala) is that they do not qualify for a Millennium Challenge Corporation Compact. The MCC is the vehicle through which the US will provide several hundred million dollars to El Salvador (FOMILENIO I and II). While this $460 million might be totally separate with no connection to the MCC at all, I can't help but think that this is a bit of a workaround.