Climate Resilience

Guatemala

As part of Central America’s Dry Corridor, Guatemala is highly vulnerable to climate impacts including drought and high temperatures, which threaten farmer livelihoods and agricultural production. CGIAR researchers under the Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security (CCAFS) built strong relationships with relevant stakeholders in the region through the implementation and scaling of 41 Local Technical Agroclimatic Committees in 10 Latin American countries including Guatemala, which successfully enhanced farmers’ capacities to co-produce, translate and use climate information.

Guatemala is part of the Central American Integration System, which adopted a Climate-Smart Agriculture Strategy to combat threats from these impacts. The Strategy has four pillars, or axes, each with several activity areas, which the CGIAR Initiative on Climate Resilience will support. Initiative efforts will focus on improving agricultural livelihoods via improved climate information, early warning systems, climate security analyses that consider drivers of migration, and policy pathways to mainstream practices that potentially transform food systems.

Here are some key highlights of ClimBeR’s work in Guatemala from 2022 to 2024:

• Together with the CGIAR Initiative on Livestock and Climate, ClimBeR supported the Meteorological Department (INSIVUMEH) in developing its National Framework on Climate Services, guiding the dissemination of climate information to farmers nationwide.
• A combination of radio bulletins and WhatsApp reached an estimated 557,325 farmers who received agroclimatic information through radio, and 35,000 farmers (50.5 % women) who received climate information via Local Technical Agroclimatic Committees (LTACs), in collaboration with other CGIAR Initiatives such as AgriLAC Resiliente, and Livestock and Climate.
• Monitoring and evaluation studies have assessed the impact of Climate Information Services (CIS) in Guatemala, with further studies planned for other countries in Latin America through the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT.
• ClimBeR’s Disruptive Seeds’ approach – where the “seeds” are bottom-up initiatives with the potential to grow and provide alternative ways that spur food systems transformation, has advanced the Bejuco network – a coalition of small-scale initiatives – and its collaboration with the Ministry of Environment, thus enabling the development of strategies addressing land, water, and food access.

Partnerships

Building on a series of national engagements from 2022 – 2024 in ClimBeR’s six focus countries (Guatemala, Kenya, Morocco, the Philippines, Senegal, and Zambia), the Initiative facilitated the integration of capacities across CGIAR centers on climate resilience, catalyzing a system-wide partnership through its work with five CGIAR centers (ICARDA, IFPRI, IWMI, IRRI, The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT) and partners, to ensure that work plan activities remain tailored to partners’ needs and opportunities for impact in each country. As a result of these efforts, ClimBeR now has a diverse portfolio of partners, including ministries, national and regional agencies, financial institutions, private sector organizations, farmer organizations, NGOs, and research centers.

A partnership between the Guatemala Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Food (MAGA) and INSIVUMEH has advanced the participatory extension of climate information services in the country. These collaborations have directly reached farmers and contributed to policy development, including Guatemala’s National Framework for Climate Services (NFCS).

ClimBeR has also been working closely with various Initiatives and bilateral projects across six focal countries- Guatemala, Kenya, Morocco, the Philippines, Senegal, and Zambia- in line with the CGIAR research portfolio’s integration strategy. These collaborations have helped align activities with complementary research areas, foster synergies, and enhance coordination to maximize CGIAR’s impact while ensuring efficient resource use and minimizing duplication.

Joint research efforts have also provided evidence supporting climate-peace-security policies at national and regional levels in collaboration with AgriLAC Resiliente and Livestock and Climate. The Initiative’s collaboration with Livestock and Climate has also guided the dissemination of climate information to farmers nationwide to enhance climate information delivery for actionable outcomes.

2025 and beyond…

The Disruptive Seeds approach from Guatemala also brought together diverse groups in Kenya. A food systems analysis helped identify impactful seed initiatives, and results were presented to policymakers, comparing nutritional outcomes with current policies, demonstrating how ClimBeR science can be applied to different countries, and the breadth of the Initiative’s partnerships in implementing such solutions to create sustainable impact.

ClimBeR’s work in Guatemala builds on work and partnerships developed through the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), demonstrating the continuity of CGIAR research and relationship development. By working in partnership to disseminate climate information services and build smallholder resilience and its impact through the Disruptive Seeds approach, which has advanced small-scale initiatives, the Initiative leaves a legacy that has enabled the development of strategies that address land, water, and food access as levers for equitable adaptation.

The Initiative’s science, innovations, and strategic partnerships will continue through the CGIAR Climate Action Science Program and other bilateral projects to foster collaborative climate research and accelerate climate adaptation strategies.

Learn more about the Disruptive Seeds approach here.

Read about the Initiative’s work in other target countries:

• Kenya
• Morocco
• The Philippines
• Senegal
• Zambia