Evaluating and food security dynamics in Guatemala

Who it's for: Ideal for learners who are looking for an example of innovative, participatory methods for understanding and addressing complex socioeconomic and environmental issues.

Why we love it: This paper describes a novel approach to combine participatory methodology with causal systems mapping: participatory causal loop diagrams. The authors use this methodology to study the malnutrition crisis and food insecurity across diverse regions of Guatemala. The results of the paper show how participatory methodology can be combined with systems mapping to investigate complex socio-political relationships.

Citation: Isaac, J., Carrera, J. L., Monterroso Rivas, O., Gálvez Ruano, J., Rueda Martínez, M., Khowaja, A., Russell, J., Malard-Adam, J., Monardes, H., Adamowski, J., & Melgar-Quiñonez, H. (2023). Evaluating and mitigating locally and nationally variable food security dynamics in Guatemala through participatory causal loop diagram building. System Dynamics Review, 39(3), 239–276. https://doi.org/10.1002/sdr.1739\