El Salvador

Fueled by poor access to nutritious food, scarcely diversified diets – poor consumption of vegetables and fruits – and a lack of nutritional awareness, three major nutritional problems overlap in El Salvador:  stunting (caused by malnutrition) in children under five years of age; anaemia in women of reproductive age; and obesity and overweight in adults (also seen increasingly in children).

Vulnerability to volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and severe weather conditions – also exacerbated by El Niño which causes alternating floods and droughts – affects the sustainability of El Salvador’s food systems.  The country is heavily dependent on import for main staples like rice, beans and corn. All the wheat and rice consumed nationally is imported. Farmers only account for 14 percent of the economically active population, and the vast majority of them are subsistence smallholders farmers producing mainly staple food – maize and beans -- and living on less than US$ 200 a month.

As most people live in cities and towns – with one quarter of the total population concentrated in the capital San Salvador – urban poverty is one of the main areas of focus for the World Food Programme (WFP). WFP is supporting the Government of El Salvador in placing nutrition and food security at the heart of social protection systems and expanding coverage of priority groups including young children, pregnant and nursing women, adolescents and vulnerable men and women affected by insecurity. Recognizing that economic hardship is one of the main drivers of violence, WFP is linking its cash-based food assistance to vocational training programmes, to prepare teenagers and youths for the labour market.

In rural areas, efforts concentrate on enabling smallholder farmers to enter formal markets, linking them to the procurement chains of government programmes as well as the private sector.

WFP in El Salvador works closely with the government, providing support for policy development as well as institutional capacity strengthening on food security, nutrition, emergency preparedness and response. A range of private-sector partners – including retail networks, small businesses, banks and private corporations – enable WFP to run efficiently its cash-based assistance programmes as well as support integration of smallholder farmers in formal markets and provide internships for participants in vocational training programmes.