In February 2007, the Alliance hosted a visit to Washington, D.C. by Mr. Andrés Botrán, Guatemala’s Secretary for Food Security and Nutrition and chair of their National Front Against Hunger - the U.S. Alliance to End Hunger’s counterpart in Guatemala. As part of the partnership between the two alliances, the U.S. Alliance actively promotes the efforts of Guatemala's Alliance and assists them in making connections within in the U.S. public and private sector that can help Guatemala eradicate hunger. During his visit, Mr. Botran met with Members of Congress, State Department officials, Alliance members and NGOs to share with them Guatemala’s remarkable progress in providing food security for its citizens.
Guatemala’s extraordinary journey towards eliminating hunger began when Mr. Botran, a successful businessman, learned that one half of Guatemala’s children were malnourished. Shocked that millions of Guatemalan children were suffering simply because they didn’t have access to food, Mr. Botran began to use his connections in business and politics to bring the issue of malnutrition, especially among children, to the front of political debate.
Thanks to his determination, he succeeded in making hunger a major issue in the presidential campaign. As a result, in 2003, then President Oscar Berger appointed Mr. Botran the first commissioner of Food and Nutrition Security, an executive branch position that worked with representatives of civil society and the private sector.
Mr. Botran did not stop his efforts with this appointment to the President’s cabinet. Instead he forged collaborative relationships with all of the stake-holders to construct the first strategic plan to address hunger and malnutrition. Overcoming initial distrust and lack of coordination, representatives of government, civil society and the private sector began working together.
Together, they were able to convince the Guatemalan Congress to pass the first Food Security and Nutrition Law. Due to Mr. Botran’s impassioned advocacy, the law passed unanimously and created the Secretariat for Food Security and Nutrition. This cabinet-level post, to which he was immediately appointed, is now a permanent agency within the government and has remained in the new administration. The Commission for Food Security and Nutrition is chaired by the Vice President of Guatemala and includes the Ministers of Agriculture, Education, Finance, Social Development and others. It is responsible for the difficult task of coordinating all of the various actors in reducing hunger and malnutrition.
They have focused their primary efforts on chronic malnutrition, especially among children and their mothers. During the first phase of their plan, they served almost 300,000 women and children with their fortified supplementary food, Vitacereal. There are numerous other complementary inputs that address concerns in health, sanitation, education and rural development that will reach more than half a million of the most vulnerable Guatemalans.
One of Mr. Botran’s most impressive achievements is the inclusion of a sustainable source of funding for these programs. The law requires that a portion of the national sales tax go into mandatory programs of food security. This is similar to Senators George McGovern and Bob Dole’s efforts to establish food stamps as the first line of defense against widespread hunger in our own country. Additionally, the law enshrined every Guatemalan’s right to food.
Finally, Mr. Botran has become a champion for the eradication of hunger throughout the region and the world. Together with Brazilian President Ignacio Lula Da Silva, Mr. Botran and the Government of Guatemala have launched the initiative – Latin America and the Caribbean without Hunger by 2025. Going a decade beyond the Millennium Development Goals, the governments of Latin America have all committed themselves to eradicating hunger among their populations.
This initiative has been adopted by the FAO and its Committee on World Food Security as the primary vehicle for the region to achieve first the goal of cutting hunger in half and then working for its complete eradication. It has been adopted by both conservative and liberal governments, ranging from Columbia and Peru to Brazil and Bolivia. Unlike many Africans, Latin Americans are hungry because of lack of access to food, not lack of availability. Thanks to the leadership of Mr. Botran, that challenge is being addressed.
President Colom inaugurated a new administration in January 2008, but the cabinet position Mr. Botran pioneered remains in place. As a private citizen, Mr. Botran continues his tireless efforts to expand food availability and accessibility to those most in need in his country. The U.S. Alliance to End Hunger continues to support the Guatemala Alliance in their efforts to build the political will to end hunger in Guatemala and throughout Latin America.
 Mr. Andrés Botrán's Letter to the Editor of the Wall Street Journal
Hunger Free Latin America and the Caribbean Action Plan 2007
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