Crisis overview
Guatemala faces a complex humanitarian crisis driven by food insecurity, climate-induced crop failures, acute malnutrition, and increased human mobility, putting increasing pressure on vulnerable communities. The crisis stems from systemic poverty and is exacerbated by recent environmental and economic shocks, demanding urgent action to prevent further human suffering.
The humanitarian needs analysis targets areas most impacted by climate events and human mobility. This shock-based geographical approach has reduced the estimated number of people in need of assistance from last year, to 2.2 million people.
Guatemala’s food insecurity crisis affects millions, primarily due to prolonged droughts and disrupted agricultural cycles, especially in the Dry Corridor. In 2023, El Niño devastated crops–particularly maize, beans and other stapes–on 54,000 hectares, impacting 160 municipalities and 9.2 million people. As crop yields decline, families face rising food prices and shortages, worsening malnutrition, especially among young children. By October 2024, reports from the Food Security and Nutrition Secretariat, indicated 25,000 cases of acute malnutrition in children under five—21 percent classified as severe, and 50 associated deaths. The hardest-hit departments are Alta Verapaz, Huehuetenango, and San Marcos.
Currently, an estimated 2.9 million people face crisis (IPC Phase 3) and emergency (IPC Phase 4) levels of food insecurity, with nearly 386,000 people in Phase 4. In Alta Verapaz, nearly 34 per cent of the population experiences food insecurity, while people in other vulnerable regions including Huehuetenango, Quiché, and San Marcos, also struggle. The crisis creates a vicious cycle, as malnutrition increases susceptibility to illness, limits educational and work productivity and deepens poverty.

Quiché, Guatemala
UNICEF works to improve nutrition in the most vulnerable areas.
UNICEFBetween January and September 2024, IOM reported 223,000 people entering Guatemala, often concentrated in transit points like Tecún Umán on the Mexican border and Esquipulas near Honduras. This flow includes women and children, who face heightened risk of exploitation and trafficking. Guatemala's 2023 migration policy states in its first chapters, “in the last decade, Guatemala has gone from being essentially a country of origin of migrants, to being increasingly a territory of transit and return, and to a lesser extent, a place of destination.”
This convergence of crises calls for urgent global humanitarian support. Guatemala faces a critical need for food assistance, agricultural aid, and emergency nutrition programmes. Targeted interventions are essential for drought-affected communities, particularly in Alta Verapaz, Huehuetenango, and San Marcos, where food insecurity and malnutrition are acute. Immediate relief in these areas will be crucial to mitigating the risk of widespread health issues and potential malnutrition-related deaths.
There is also urgent need to protect and support the thousands of migrants and displaced people moving through Guatemala, who face severe physical, economic, and psychological hardships. Strengthening migration management, establishing safe transit points, and providing legal and social services for vulnerable people are essential to meeting these communities’ humanitarian needs.

Livingston, Guatemala
Amanda is part of the Community Protection Agents Network, an initiative born from a partnership between UNHCR, UN Women, and the Center for Research, Training, and Support for Women and Youth. This network empowers women and girls in rural Livingston to understand and exercise their rights.
UNHCRResponse priorities in 2025
In 2024, Guatemala's humanitarian response targeted the dual crises of food insecurity and human mobility, prioritizing immediate assistance to the most vulnerable. The multisectoral approach focused on key regions, including Alta Verapaz, Chiquimula, Escuintla, Huehuetenango, Izabal, Petén, Quiché and Jutiapa, along with strategic migration zones like Esquipulas, Ayutla, Malacatán, Flores, La Libertad, Guatemala City and Puerto Barrios. The response provided essential food aid, health services, and support for displaced and transient populations in these hard-hit areas.
In 2025, the response strategy will target approximately 60 municipalities of the 81 identified critical municipalities. This strategy is guided by two key objectives: delivering a coordinated, multisectoral response to the most affected municipalities, and ensuring cohesive humanitarian assistance. This approach, which avoids disparate efforts, aims to maximize impact for people grappling with food insecurity, malnutrition, and significant levels of human mobility.
The 2025 response plan sets geographic and demographic boundaries based on severity levels across affected regions. Of the 81 municipalities identified with severity level 3 and above, the 60 prioritized for the multisectoral support were chosen for their heightened vulnerability to food insecurity, climate-induced crop failures and substantial pressures from human mobility. Municipalities like Alta Verapaz and Huehuetenango, where malnutrition rates are critically high, remain central to food security interventions. Meanwhile, support for migration and displacement will concentrate on entry and transit municipalities of Ayutla, Esquipulas, and Guatemala City, which bear a substantial share of migrant flows. This targeted prioritization aims to deploy resources more effectively to areas most in need, optimizing limited funding allocations.

Huehuetenango, Guatemala
Health workers provide family consultations and distribute nutritional supplements to combat child malnutrition. In Guatemala, nearly half of children under age five suffer from chronic malnutrition, one of the highest rates globally.
PAHO/WHOFinancial requirements
With this prioritized, shock-based geographical focus, financial requirements stand at US$101 million, a reduction of 21 per cent compared to 2024. The target for this year’s HNRP is 1.2 million people, covering 57 per cent of the total people in need.
In Guatemala, the HNRP is project-based. Some sectors have raised their per-person funding costs to accommodate enhanced sector-specific assistance.
Guatemala
2024 in review: Response highlights and consequences of inaction
Response highlights
Food security
The food security sector is responding with cash transfers, vouchers and food rations in prioritized municipalities. These measures have helped ensure food access for the most vulnerable families and provided economic resources to improve household living conditions. By the end of 2024, 209,871 people in need will be reached—89 per cent of whom live in hard-to-reach areas—with the majority from indigenous communities.
Camp Coordination and Camp Management
Between January to September 2024, the Camp Coordination and Camp Management cluster, through a UNHCR project, coordinated with six implementing partners, provided shelter solutions for 61,240 people across 12 collective shelters in strategic locations, including Esquipulas, Tecún Umán, Guatemala City, Flores, Huehuetenango, and Entre Rios. Shelter assistance was tailored to needs, offering stays from a single night to up to six-months, depending on the specific profile.
Nutrition
In 2024, within mixed migration flows, 1,875 children under 5 received comprehensive nutritional care, including supplementation, deworming, therapeutic zinc, caloric supplementation, and counseling for parents and caregivers.
Protection
Over 340,000 people received protection assistance in at least 189 municipalities in all 22 departments, supporting both Guatemalans and migrants within the country.
Nutrition
Nutrition services reached 13,583 people, including school-age children, adolescents, women of childbearing age–especially pregnant and lactating women—and men.
Education
800 educational kits were distributed to children in transit, while six host communities received scholarships, furniture, equipment, teaching resources and community libraries, benefiting 1,525 children (753 girls and 772 boys).
Consequences of inaction
Protection
As of October 2024, due to funding shortages, the protection sector reached only 230,297 people out of a targeted 810,000, leaving 579,703 people without essential support.
Nutrition
118,125 children under age five missed comprehensive nutrition care in both migration settings and areas of acute malnutrition, delaying identification and treatment of those in need.
Nutrition
A total of 378,705 women of childbearing age were not able to receive comprehensive maternal and child health and nutrition care due to insufficient funding.
Gender-based violence
Planned radio campaigns in four Mayan languages to raise awareness of gender-based violence risks and prevention during emergencies could not be broadcast due to funding shortages.