Crisis in Honduras

Poverty, violence and climate crisis

“We were expecting a good harvest this year. But then heavy rains set in and destroyed everything.” - Teresa

Teresa is a smallholder farmer and women’s rights activist in Honduras. She is a member of a CARE-supported group in which 17 women and four men are working together to test new farming methods to counter the effects of a changing environment. Teresa’s village is located in an arid region where irrigation techniques are important in agriculture. But recently, hurricanes were followed by heavy rains that caused flooding in large parts of the country.

Teresa and her group, called “Caminando juntos y juntas” (“We move forward together”), grow corn, beans, sweet potatoes, and plantains on their fields. Extreme weather conditions are a challenge, but they are facing the problem together. “We are learning to adapt and work with the changes,” says Teresa. Her group is part of the Farmer Field and Business Schools that CARE supports nationwide.

Triple crisis

In Honduras, more than half of the population lives below the poverty line. Women in rural areas are particularly affected. Rapid environmental changes are most evident in Central America’s “Dry Corridor,” with drought threatening the livelihoods of over a million families in Honduras. These changes lead to crop failures, rising food prices, and migration. People are leaving their villages because, despite their best efforts, they cannot make a living from agriculture.

Honduras is facing a triple crisis: environmental changes, hunger, and inequality. Poverty and structural inequality increase the risks for women and girls. In 2024, CARE Honduras conducted a rapid humanitarian analysis which found that 61 percent of the women surveyed, compared to only 10 percent of the men, had suffered from hunger in the previous month.

The threat of sexual violence

Violence against women is widespread. Women not only face physical violence, but also emotional abuse, sexual assault, and economic control that rob women of their freedom. When women lose their crops, cannot find work, or have no access to land and resources, they become more financially dependent. This often exposes them to a higher risk of control, abuse, or exploitation.

In the CARE survey, women stated that they are afraid to leave their daughters alone because of the risk of sexual violence. They said that domestic violence increases during periods of drought or economic hardship.

CARE in Honduras

In 2025, CARE Honduras and its partners reached over 160,000 people in 23 projects, with almost three-quarters of them being women. Almost 15,000 rural households living in poverty received support, which included activities to increase food production, health, WASH, and nutrition.

More than 10,000 farmers (including 8,000 women) like Teresa were part of “Farmer Field and Business Schools.” This enabled them to increase their yields and strengthen their resilience to environmental shifts by adopting good agricultural practices and technologies like irrigation systems.

CARE works with local women’s organizations such as the Council for the Integral Development of Rural Women (CODIMCA), which strengthen women’s rights and promote their participation in decision-making processes.

Additional context and data are available via the Honduras Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan 2025, the ITU DataHub country profile, and a podcast episode on Honduras.

Forgotten crises

The CARE Crisis Report is published annually and highlights the ten crises that receive the least media attention. In 2025 Honduras ranked as the fifth least reported crisis in the world.