Situation assessment in Villa Nueva: prospects for an urban disaster risk reduction program in Guatemala City’s precarious settlements
This document reports on a situation assessment of two informal communities in the outskirts of Guatemala City, Guatemala. It assesses the potential for developing an urban disaster risk reduction program within the metropolitan’s precarious settlements - informal settlements along the steep embankments of ravines. The report includes 65 household surveys, a physical risk assessment, community focus group discussions, and meetings with national emergency management representatives, local universities, research institutions, and municipal planning department.
The report gives a brief overview of informal settlements in Guatemala, and in El Mezquital in particular. This is followed by a detailed analysis of the household survey, a summary of the focus group discussions, three case studies of settlement households, and a brief institutional analysis. It concludes with a brief synthesis of the work, through a discussion of 4 emerging themes and a brief discussion about prospects for urban disaster risk reduction (DRR) in Guatemala City.
The report forms a basis on which the Resilience Institute has worked with Oxfam-Great Britain in Guatemala to formulate an initial DRR framework. This framework is applicable for many communities in Guatemala and the rest of Latin America, and is elaborated on in a separate document.