Join this HPN webinar on 5th July 2017, 15.00-16.30 BST to discuss the challenges of providing humanitarian assistance in Central America.
Contributing chair
- Wendy Fenton @WendyFenton1 – Coordinator, Humanitarian Practice Network
Speakers
- Marc Bosch Bonacasa @MarcBurilla – Program Manager for Latin America, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)
- Wendy Cue @WendyCue – Head, OCHA Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean
- Christian Visnes @chrivis – Country Director, NRC Colombia and region
- Noah Bullock @NoahFBullock – Executive Director, Cristosal (El Salvador)
Over the last decade, organised criminal violence in Central America has resulted in some of the highest homicide rates in the world. Vulnerable communities in the Northern Triangle countries – Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras – have been forcibly displaced within countries, across the region and northwards into the United States and Mexico.
What can humanitarians do to provide greater assistance and protection to victims of violence in the region? How can aid agencies identify and assist people without putting them or assistance providers in danger?
Violence is on a scale unprecedented for countries not at war. But there is a certain reluctance among states and aid providers to acknowledge the humanitarian dimensions of this crisis.
This violence is causing forced displacement of entire communities, interrupting education, preventing access to basic medical services, and compounding issues such as sexual violence as well as child recruitment. Clearly, such large-scale impacts and forced displacement requires a coordinated humanitarian response that provides better protection and assistance for communities.
Read more in the latest edition of our Humanitarian Exchange magazine.
