The activities proposed hereafter are still subject to the adoption of the financing decision ECHO/WWD/ BUD/2015/01000
AMOUNT: EUR 20 600 000
1. CONTEXT
This HIP covers response to humanitarian needs as well as disaster preparedness, disaster risk reduction and resilience efforts in the Caribbean, Central America and Mexico. Regarding the response to humanitarian needs, this HIP focuses mainly on Haiti. However, it potentially also covers the Caribbean island states of Cuba, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and the Central American countries El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua as well as Mexico. These countries have been included because of their level of exposure and vulnerability to natural disasters as identified by ECHO1's Integrated Analysis Framework for 2014-2015, combined with their limited resources to face these events. As regards disaster preparedness, disaster risk reduction and resilience, the focus will be on targeted actions in Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Cuba as well as support to regional thematic initiatives, building on past experiences that can bring key elements to improve the coping capacities of the Small Island Developing States (SIDS).
The region is highly disaster prone in terms of threats and recurrence of hazards, their severity and scope leading to significant potential for major disasters (cf the 2010 earthquake in Haiti). Exposure to epidemics is high, with regular outbreaks of dengue fever as well as the risk of expansion of the Caribbean cholera outbreak to Central America.
The physical risk is combined with socio-economic factors, such as high population density, fast demographic growth, inequality and poverty. The combination of these factors results in highly vulnerable communities, with few coping capacities to face the consequences of disasters. As climate change and booming urbanization leave more and more people exposed to hazards, making communities more resilient and reducing their dependence on humanitarian assistance is a priority.
Furthermore, in the Northern Triangle of Central America and Mexico, rapid expansion of non-political organized armed groups has increased the level and intensity of violence. Collective violence in these countries increasingly leads to forced displacement, limited access to basic – in particular health care - services and shrinking humanitarian access in areas under the control of armed groups.
