Food and Water Programme

In Latin America, small-holder farmers are insufficiently prepared for the effects of climate change. Lack of knowledge, financial vulnerability and exhausted soil prevent them from exploiting their potential. Furthermore, small-holder farmers have limited access to the market. By changing these conditions in cooperation with the farmers themselves, we aim to improve food security and fight hunger, as well as creating rural areas with a future.

Our goal is to promote the livelihood strengthening of these low-income farming families by providing them with necessary tools and knowledge to use their water resources, forests, and soil in a sustainable manner – thus increasing their resilience towards the negative effects of climate change.

PDF Flyer Food and Water Programme (available in German only)
PDF Vivamos Mejor Strategy 2019-2023 (available in German only; see p. 4 for the Food and Water Programme)

Our contribution to the SDGs

With the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the international community has created a framework for joint solutions to overcome the major challenges we are currently facing – such as migration, climate change, environmental destruction, poverty and hunger. The Agenda names 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which define social, economic, and environmental policy milestones that should be reached worldwide by 2030. These goals apply to all countries – including Switzerland.

With the Food and Water Programme, we are contributing to the following SDGs:

Food and Water Projects in Guatemala

Mit Wetterdaten zur Klimaresilienz: Kleinbauernfamilien in Zentralamerika passen sich Klimaveränderungen an

(Available in German). Im zentralamerikanischen Trockenkorridor leben viele Kleinbauernfamilien in Armut. Die Klimakrise verschärft ihre Situation zusätzlich. Unser lokales Fachteam schult Kleinbauernfamilien darin, täglich Niederschlag und Temperatur an Wetterstationen zu erheben und vernetzt Organisationen aus Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras und El Salvador, um Wetterdaten gemeinsam zu nutzen und regionale Klimaanalysen zu erstellen.

Food security despite climate change: farming families in the Atitlán highlands produce sustainably and protect their forests

The majority of the indigenous rural population in the department of Sololá depend on subsistence farming. 70% of these farming families are poor. Their small fields produce little yield, because they overuse their natural resources. With our project, we are helping 2,500 small farming families to make their land use more resource-efficient while still improving their crop yields. They learn agroecological farming methods as well as beekeeping and mushroom cultivation that helps them to generate income.

More than calories: Food diversity and improved health for Maya children in Santa Cruz La Laguna

In the village communities of Jaibalito and Santa Cruz La Laguna, over 70% of indigenous infants are malnourished. Families have unbalanced diets because of a lack of knowledge about what a healthy diet is. Many children can’t get enough nutrients from the limited amounts of food. The families learn in culturally adapted and practical workshops how they can widen the range of their diet with important foods by growing fruit and vegetables in their gardens.

Food and Water Projects in Honduras

Bauernfamilien erhalten Mangrovenwälder: nachhaltige Ressourcennutzung am Golf von Fonseca

(Available in German). Die Menschen an der trockenen Südküste von Honduras leben mehrheitlich von dem, was sie auf ihren Äckern anbauen. Die natürlichen Ressourcen Wald, Wasser und Böden sind vielfach übernutzt, die ökologisch wertvollen Mangrovenwälder des Golfs von Fonseca akut gefährdet. Mit diesem Projekt lernen die Bauernfamilien agroökologische Anbaumethoden, welche die kurzfristigen Bedürfnisse nach besseren Erträgen mit den langfristigen Bedürfnissen des Ressourcenschutzes in Einklang bringen.

Where forests grow, water flows: Strengthening indigenous village communities and ecosystems in western Honduras

Our project supports 120 smallholder families to improve farming on their existing land using agroecological methods in such a way that they do not fell any new forest areas. In addition, we strengthen the organisational capacities of the communities, in order to secure their right to control the water conservation areas, through community land purchases. Furthermore, we work on jointly elaborating water and land-use plans with the communities,
to ensure the security of water supply for the future.

SDC support

Our programmes are co-financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation SDC, Federal Department of Foreign Affairs FDFA.

Securing livelihoods through sustainable water and agriculture