Belize: Country Profile (as of June 2022)

KEY ISSUES

HURRICANES ETA & IOTA

In November 2020, back-to-back hurricanes Eta and Iota triggered unprecedented flooding across the country, affecting some 60,000 people – around 15 per cent of the population.7 The administrative districts of Belize, Cayo, Stann Creek and Toledo were most affected. The twin storms caused extensive damage to homes, farms and critical infrastructure, including road networks, temporarily cutting off access to some of the worst-affected communities.7 A Red Cross assessment carried out across 42 communities found that 87 per cent of households had their main source of income affected by floods, with 38 per cent of households witnessing a reduction in income of 50 per cent or more, while 43 per cent reported suffering crop losses.7

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

There are significant disparities in socioeconomic conditions and access to critical services among different ethnic groups in Belize. Indigenous peoples live mainly in rural areas largely concentrated in the districts of Stann Creek and Toledo. Poverty disproportionately affects these groups, reaching nearly 60 per cent in rural areas and almost 80 per cent among Maya indigenous people.5 Indigenous livelihoods depend largely on agriculture which is vulnerable to recurrent climatic shocks, while logging and petroleum development on traditional Maya lands threatens indigenous culture and livelihoods.

MIGRATION

Belize simultaneously experiences high levels of emigration and immigration. Chronic poverty and unemployment stimulate the emigration of highly educated people from cities, while rural areas attract migrants seeking to escape a lack of economic opportunity and violence in Northern Central America. For more than a decade, increasing levels of violence and recurrent climatic shocks in neighbourng countries have driven a surge in asylum-seekers arriving in Belize, jumping from just 31 in 2010 to nearly 2,250 in 2020.4