Press release number: IFAD 17/06

Rome, 20 April 2006 - Guatemala's indigenous Mayan people, who have often been marginalized, will now play a role in planning, managing and supervising their own development activities. The first phase of the National Rural Development Programme worth US$38 million is partly financed by a US$30 million loan from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

More than 300,000 Guatemalan people, about 50 per cent of them from indigenous groups, are expected to benefit from the first phase of the programme.

The loan agreement was signed on Tuesday 11 April at IFAD headquarters in Rome by IFAD's Vice-President, Cyril Enweze and the Republic of Guatemala's Ambassador in Rome, Francisco Bonifaz Rodríguez.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is also providing a loan of US$10 million.

The programme will focus on five areas in the west of Guatemala, where 60 per cent of the country's indigenous people live. For many years, discrimination and exclusion have contributed to the poverty and inequality of Mayan people. Poverty among the Mayan people is also linked to poor access to natural resources including land and water, as well as to technology and financial services.

The civil war that ended in 1996 also left more than 100,000 widows and 250,000 orphans, resulting in a high number of women-headed households. One aim of the programme is to draw these people into the mainstream of Guatemala's social and economic progress.

Improvements in basic infrastructure are planned that will help address problems experienced by all people. Health, education, communications and services will be improved through skills training and support particularly for women, rural youth, farmers and landless farmers. At present, about 40 per cent of the economically active people in rural areas do not own land.

Up to 6,000 rural youth will be given skills training and 9,000 people from different groups will be trained in small business management, particularly those involving traditional handicrafts.

A key idea is to involve people in planning, managing and supervising activities themselves, so that they can fully participate in the programme and express their own needs and concerns. They will be trained in how to participate in community planning councils, and mechanisms will be set up to give people the chance to express their views.

With this programme, IFAD will have invested a total of US$96.2 million in seven programmes and projects in Guatemala. Since 1984, IFAD has supported projects in Guatemala to reduce poverty in areas seriously affected by the war and, more recently, to address the extreme poverty and poor social conditions of vulnerable groups in the country.

---

IFAD is a specialized agency of the United Nations dedicated to eradicating poverty and hunger in rural areas of developing countries. Through low-interest loans and grants, it develops and finances projects that enable rural poor people to overcome poverty themselves. There are 187 ongoing IFAD-supported rural poverty eradication programmes and projects, totalling US$6.2 billion. IFAD has invested more than US$2.9 billion in these initiatives. Cofinancing has been provided by governments, beneficiaries, multilateral and bilateral donors and other partners. At full development, these programmes will help nearly 80 million rural poor women and men to achieve better lives for themselves and their families. Since starting operations in 1978, IFAD has invested US$9.0 billion in 705 programmes and projects that have helped nearly 300 million poor rural men and women achieve better lives for themselves and their families. Governments and other financing sources in the recipient countries, including project participants, have contributed almost US$8.8 billion, and multilateral, bilateral and other donors have provided another US$7.0 billion in cofinancing.