The soup kitchen program of the Ministry of Development (Mides) has been the subject of criticism for the governments in power. The project began operating in 2008 under the Social Cohesion Council during the administration of Álvaro Colom.
This project has been accused of being clientelistic and not providing a fundamental solution to the problem of malnutrition. There are currently 67 soup kitchens operating nationwide.
Abelardo Pinto, Minister of Development, explained that all the social programs in the portfolio are being re-evaluated. This also includes the soup kitchen program, which has a budget of Q140 million.
The head of the portfolio recognized that there is a weakness in said project and it is the location of some of the dining rooms, since they do not coincide with the places most affected by malnutrition.
“Right now we are trying to redesign those criteria so that they allow us at some point to be certain of where we are going to open a dining room and it is the place that really needs it,” he explained.
Will continue
Based on the redesign being worked on, it will be possible to establish whether any changes will be made to the program. “I think that there are going to be relocations -of dining rooms- yes the number is going to increase or reduce, it will depend on this redesign of the criteria that we are establishing, but it does depend on the logic of reaching the prioritized places in our government plan,” he stated.
Last year, the Comptroller General of Accounts (CGC) revealed in a finding that the former minister of development, Héctor Melvyn Caná Rivera, was sanctioned, since the audit found that the location of 46 of the 79 soup kitchens that operated last year, It wasn’t the right one.
The then official paid a fine of Q3,193.25 for poor management in the execution of the program. In addition, five other people were sanctioned for the same case.
According to the explanation of the portfolio holder, the dining rooms will continue to function and he ruled out the closure of the program. The program is under the direction of Luisa Calderón and the vice minister of social protection, Bertha Zapeta.
In the same way, he pointed out that at the moment all social programs are under evaluation and the closure of any of the programs he manages is not planned.
Pinto added that in order not to slow down the functions of the dining rooms, the contract with the supplier Presto: Banquetes de Guatemala was extended for six more months, but they are also seeking to redirect those tenders.
“We are making every effort to launch bidding processes, if I am not wrong, where we are going to do it, but in a regionalized manner, based on the new redistribution that we are going to make of the dining rooms,” he described.
During a meeting with the VOS bench, the deputies questioned the operation of the program because they assured that the prices of each meal time are high. Given this, the authorities responded that the prices vary by region and that they were established by the National Institute of Statistics in 2017.
Another question arose when the authorities detailed that since 2017 the supplier has been Presto, Banquetes de Guatemala. According to Vice Minister Zapeta and Director Calderón, it works through an open contract since the program began, since extensions have been granted and there are protections that oblige the entity to guarantee food until there is a tender or another contract.
Aim
The former secretary of food security, Luis Monterroso, commented that the purpose of the program should be to improve the quality of life of the age group to which it is directed, rather than respond to a logic of malnutrition.
“They do not have a technically sustainable intention to reduce chronic malnutrition. We should not fall into that temptation of thinking that with soup kitchens we are going to have a reduction or prevention of malnutrition,” he advised.
Monterroso added that the goals to be achieved with said program must be correctly set to achieve tangible and satisfactory results.
“There should be that precision, that clarity of who you want to reach so that the desired effect can be measured in the result that is achieved over the months and years,” he said.
Following the same line, Luis Linares, Association of Research and Social Studies (ASIES) spoke out, who believes that it should be evaluated whether it may be more beneficial to readjust the funds in other projects.
“They are a more demagogic measure with little impact. What the government should do is evaluate and continue with the model or if they use those resources in actions that have a greater impact or that are more effective in reducing chronic malnutrition,” he said.
Linares added that the program has also been pointed out in previous administrations for having clientelistic purposes and poor management of resources.
“Based on the needs identified in the baseline of the Great Crusade for Nutrition, how can these resources be better directed and with a better destination than those soup kitchens,” he insisted.
Without accurate data
Monterroso also addressed the risk of not having updated statistics, the most recent studies are from 2014-2015 with the latest Maternal and Child Health Survey.
The former secretary suggested that since there is no data, an alternative might be to use the information from the epidemiological weeks because in the house where there is a child with chronic malnutrition, the family is probably in a situation of food insecurity.
“There is a high risk of not having precise data and committing double vulnerability and double discrimination, which means that children who are further away and more involved in the communities are not helped,” he warned.
In addition, he added that the Secretariat of Food and Nutrition Security (Sesan) should already work on a proposal for data collection and rapid studies with the other institutions in charge to have more updated figures and projections regarding malnutrition are correctly focused.
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