Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbeanhttp://ochaonline.un.org/rolac
- The Latin American and Caribbean region is extremely vulnerable to natural disasters, including recurrent, sudden-onset events (e.g. hurricanes and storms) and gradual-onset hazards (e.g. droughts).
- In 2008, approximately 10 million people were affected by natural disasters in the region, or 25% more than in 2007.
- 2009 was extraordinarily calm in terms of hurricanes and floods. Instead, the year brought drought in areas of Central America due to the effects of El Niño, which is expected to severely impact the Andean region in early 2010.
- Around 80% of the disasters were rooted in hydro-meteorological events, which affected almost equally South America, Central America and the Caribbean.
- One third of the population in the region is exposed to natural catastrophes, many of which are not highly visible. Such events are becoming more frequent and severe, due to the effects of climate change and growing population density.
Due to the present trends, an increasing number of international, regional, sub-regional, and national government partners are involved in humanitarian action. This poses important coordination challenges, and roles in preparedness and response require clarification. Still greater commitment is required from humanitarian agencies in terms of coordinating actions. And there is a necessity for strengthened support from cluster leads and external agencies, particularly with regard to transition and early recovery.
The key challenge for ROLAC is to address an increasing number of emergencies due to an increasingly complex environment with global economic crises, pandemics, food insecurity, urbanization and chronic poverty. The significance of OCHA efforts and activities has not gone unnoticed; however, partner expectations have now been raised. Within its existing capacity, ROLAC must maintain its credibility and ability to lead humanitarian coordination under changing circumstances. ROLAC therefore plans to identify clearer benchmarks for when and where it will engage – and with what resources, tools, services, size and duration. In addition, ROLAC must ensure that its high quality products and services, and its role as facilitator and honest broker, continue to add value.
To tackle these coordination challenges, ROLAC will work with RCs to strengthen partnerships with humanitarian organizations, agencies, governments, and existing networks to ensure more coherent humanitarian response, greater clarity on tools offered, and good information available for decision making.
The office will widen dialogue and support to capacity-building efforts with regional organizations and countries traditionally less involved in United Nations activities in disasters. ROLAC will continue to bring together United Nations agencies and partners. It will share best practices and lessons learned to better facilitate preparedness and response. The office will promote the development of regional and national coordination networks, including the Regional Director Team aimed at inter-agency preparedness and disaster awareness-raising. ROLAC will pursue discussions among partners to provide greater understanding and predictability on institutional roles, responsibilities and accountabilities. ROLAC will explore key regional partnership opportunities and pursue organization-wide strategic partners.
ROLAC will promote the systematic use of humanitarian financing tools, such as CERF and flash appeals, and of the cluster approach. ROLAC will continue to deploy surge capacity of trained disaster management professionals to respond rapidly – at the request of governments and RCs/HCs – to countries affected by sudden or slow onset disasters.
Humanitarian actors from the region will be encouraged to join international response systems, such as the International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG) or the UNDAC. Through its network of Humanitarian Support Units (HSUs) present in seven vulnerable countries, the links between the United Nations system and national authorities will be strengthened during emergency response. Staff of the HSUs can also travel within the region to assist other countries, increasing ROLAC surge capacity.
ROLAC will continue to identify and organize relevant information and provide analysis, particularly through the humanitarian information website Redhum. Meanwhile, through the regional group REDLAC and national HCTs, ROLAC will lead the humanitarian community on advocacy. Finally, ROLAC will systematically and accurately communicate its findings to facilitate decision-making and policymaking on disaster management.
Redhum – Humanitarian Information Network for Latin America and the Caribbean (www.redhum.org)
Completing its second year, Redhum is continuing to grow. This is measured not only by website visits, but also by the interest generated through the networks created with the presence of the Information Assistants at the country level. The project and its achievements include:
- Information Assistants in nine countries located in Local Emergency Management Authorities offices.
- In 2009, there were approximately 224,000 visitors and 426,000 pages visited (a 94% increase in visitors compared to the same period in 2008).
- Coverage of over 64 emergencies and more than 20,000 posted documents since its launch.
- Official recognition of the website as the national information platform from inter-agency country level groups as well as government entities.
- Recognition of local Redhum Information Assistants as strengthening links between the United Nations system and local authorities, and as coordinators of humanitarian information groups.
- Strengthening of IM practices including use of information matrixes and standard reporting practices, with actors present in the 11 most vulnerable countries from the region.