In 2012, Oxfam and IDS initiated ‘Life in a time of food price volatility’, a four-year joint research project which aims to document poor people´s experience in a time of food price volatility and to generate policy-relevant insights for protecting the vulnerable, the poor, and the food insecure.
In each of the 10 participating countries, qualitative research is carried out every year in 2 communities, one rural and one urban. For the case of Guatemala, the participating communities are: Chugüexa Primero (rural) and Santo Tomás Chichicastenango (urban). Both are located in El Quiché province (departamento) in western Guatemala, where poverty and food insecurity is widespread.
In addition, the project incorporates quantitative analyses that feed from and feed into the qualitative research component. The mixed method approach is used in order to contest and triangulate qualitative findings with nationally representative data and to complement the information that only each of the approaches can provide towards a more complete and deeper wider picture.