Breaking the cycle of extreme poverty in Guatemala: Reaching up, Not trickling down

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Breaking the cycle of extreme poverty in
Guatemala Reaching up, Not trickling down

• Kelly K. Hallman, Ph.D.
• Consejo de Poblacion
• Reducir la Pobreza es un Hecho y un Derecho!
• Encuentro Latinoamericano
• Nuevas Estrategias para Reducir la Pobreza
  Extrema
• Cuidad de Guatemala, 1-2 de Abril 2009

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The context

• Middle income country, yet one of the poorest in
  Latin America
• Income inequality among highest in the world
• Indigenous peoples twice as likely as
  non-indigenous to be poor
• 36 years of internal conflict
• Support systems within indigenous communities
  left decimated
• Indigenous peoples historically marginalized and
  discriminated against

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Demographics

• 13.3 million total population
• 52 rural
• Large indigenous population
• 38 Mayan
• Young population
• 41 under age 15
• 25 of population aged 10-19
• 69 under 30
• Total girls ages 10-19 1.6 million
• 39 of these girls are indigenous

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Guatemalas indigenous population

• 38.4 of population
• Reside primarily in rural areas
• Politically underrepresented
• 75 of indigenous people are poor compared to 36
  of non-indigenous
• 27 of indigenous poor live in conditions of
  extreme poverty

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El decenio de las/os indígenas

• En 1993, las Naciones Unidas declararon el
  Decenio Internacional de las/os Indígenas a
  partir de diciembre de 1994
• En el mismo año, un análisis encontró evidencia
  sistemática de que esta población padecía niveles
  altos de pobreza, exclusión social y acceso
  limitado a educación y servicios de salud
  (Psacharopoulos y Patrinos, 1994)

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Qué avances ocurrieron desde esa declaración?
Fuente Hall y Patrinos, 2005
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Media de años de escoloridad (individuos de 15
años y más)
Fuente Hall y Patrinos, 2005
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Barriers confronted by indigenous peoples

• Lower levels of educational attainment
• Only 5 of indigenous girls complete their
  primary education
• Lower returns on education than non-indigenous
• Lower quality education
• Longer periods of unemployment
• Discrimination in wages and access to jobs
• Indigenous females face double burden
• Gender-related cultural barriers
• Lack of Spanish literacy limits social
  participation and overall well-being

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Media de años de escoloridad - indígenas
(individuos de 15 años y más)
Fuente Hall y Patrinos, 2005
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Qué pasa con la generación más joven?

• La situación está mejorando?

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Porcentaje de niños/as que trabaja (a los 10
años de edad)
Fuente Hall y Patrinos, 2005
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Porcentaje de niños/as que asisten a la escuela
Edad 7-14 5-18
10-14 7-14
Fuente Hall y Patrinos, 2005
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Inequalities faced by indigenous girls

• Distinct and interactive effects of ethnicity,
  gender, poverty and geography
• 14 of indigenous adolescents have access to
  secondary school
• Maternal mortality among indigenous girls and
  women is three times higher than non-indigenous
• More than half of indigenous girls have had a
  pregnancy before age 20
• 7 out of 10 indigenous girls without primary
  education have had pregnancy by age 20

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Porcentaje de niños/as indígenas que asisten a
la escuela
Edad 7-14 5-18
10-14 7-14
Fuente Hall y Patrinos, 2005
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Proportion currently enrolled, by sex,
ethnicity, and year of age
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Mayan female activity, by age Sharp increase in
school leaving between age 13 and 14
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Mayan female activity, by poverty level, aged
1315 Poorer less likely to be in school
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The lives of rural, indigenous girls

• Early school dropout
• Limited opportunities to build vocational and
  productive skills
• Lack of social and recreational activities
• Heavy domestic and productive work burden
• Limited mobility and autonomy
• Reduced access to information and social services
  
• Decreased peer and social networks
• Increased risk of social violence and insecurity
• Early marriage
• Early and repeat pregnancies

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Status of Mayan girls, by ageSchooling decreases
quickly while other responsibilities steadily
increase
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Incompatibilitad entre asistencia a la escuela y
matrimonio
Fuente Hallman et al. 2005
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Conocimiento de las mujeres sobre métodos
anticonceptivos modernos
Fuente ENSMI 2002
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What is the situation of a 12-year-old rural,
indigenous girl?

• Around puberty, indigenous females tend to be
  withdrawn from the social sphere
• At this stage, the paths of girls and boys
  diverge boys lives continue to widen and girls
  lives contract
• Young females begin to experience social
  isolation
• Restricting girls access to social services and
  opportunities contributes to chronic cycles of
  intergenerational poverty and poor health in the
  poorest communities

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Social isolation is associated with

• Low self-esteem
• Limited personal and social resources
• Early sexual initiation
• Often forced or coerced
• Early marriage and high-risk pregnancy
• Limited negotiation and decision-making power
• Increased poverty and poor health and social
  outcomes

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Evidence for policy

• Poverty,
• high and unwanted fertility,
• poor health
• have common roots
• in the early adolescence of girls
• from the poorest communities

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Program platforms for poor, indigenous or rural
girls
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These girls require

• Targeted strategies that reach them where they
  live
• Programmatic interventions that are age, gender,
  ethnic and life-cycle specific
• Safe spaces in their communities to gather,
  learn, and recreate
• Strengthened peer and social support networks
• Alternative positive role models
• Exposure and access to increased life options
• Health, education, social/citizenship, livelihoods

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Health capabilities

• Information /Skills
• Family planning for delaying/spacing pregnancies
• Recognition appropriate responses to
• Pregnancy complications
• Domestic abuse/violence
• Measurement of blood pressure
• Condition-specific knowledge of nutrition and
  exercise
• Communitys emerging cadre of health aides

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Education capabilities

• Incentives for entering school on time
• Bilingual education to increase retention in
  early grades
• Taps skills of local youths who have gone beyond
  primary level
• Bilingual teacher aides
• Study coaches/mentors
• Role models for younger children

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Social/citizenship capabilities

• Culturally acceptable approaches to expand
  strengthen social networks
• Knowledge of human rights
• skills and responsibilities for exercising them
• Obtaining ID documents

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Livelihood capabilities

• Gender- and life-cycle specific financial
  education
• Spanish language skills
• Establishing a financial goal
• Budgeting and saving
• Opening a savings account
• Developing an aspiration (Learning to Dream!)
• Drafting a lifeplan

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Livelihood capabilities

• Bridging the artificial divide between
  child/student and adult/guardian roles
• Many girls will head households care for
  siblings due to absent
  parents who migrate to work

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Delivery mechanisms

• Cascading leadership model
• Adolescent girl leaders recruited/trained
• Each adolescent leader mentors a groups of
  younger girls
• Mothers of girls meet on regular basis to
  interact learn skills
• Interlinking of three generations breaking
  cycle of female social isolation and poverty

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Delivery mechanisms

• Possible conditionalities
• Community-level
• Community pact Creation of safe social spaces
  for girls/women Inclusion of adolescent mentors
  and girl groups in community development forums
• Girl group-level
• Peer transfer model Savings/educational
  assistance based on cohesion of group (like a
  ROSCA)

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Delivery mechanisms

• Possible conditionalities
• Household-level
• Incentive based on group participation of
  multiple generations within a household
• Individual-level
• Cash/saving/educational assistance based on
  individual participation in group and skills
  acquisition

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Expected changes among girls

• Assets acquired

• Indicators of impact

• Increased self-esteem
• Revised educational, employment, and citizenship
  aspirations
• Consideration of later marriage and smaller
  family
• Greater agency
• Increased capabilities

• Safe public space for girls in community
• Larger and stronger peer network
• Access to positive role models and mentors
• Opportunity to learn new knowledge and skills
• Life plan
• Identity card
• Financial literacy

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Potential contributions to the MDGs

• Comprehensive strategies to identify and support
  the most vulnerable girls contribute to national
  development goals and six of the eight MDGs
• Poverty eradication
• Universal primary education
• Gender equality
• Improved maternal health
• Reduction of child mortality
• Combat HIV and other diseases

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Toward effective policy and program design

• Recommendations

• Conclusions

• Target policies and programs to address age,
  gender, and ethnic inequalities.
• Test innovative strategies that combine skills
  acquisition with social interaction in safe local
  spaces.

• Indigenous girls are a large, highly vulnerable
  and largely neglected sub-group.
• There are very limited strategies currently in
  place that address the particular barriers they
  face.
• Targeted, evidence-based strategies for girls may
  contribute importantly to meeting the MDGs and
  other national development goals.

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Thank you!