HumVenezuela: Venezuelan civil society and the right of access to public information

A lack of access to public information has dogged the humanitarian response in Venezuela since the beginning. In fact, it was Venezuelan human rights organisations that were the first to warn, in late 2015 and early 2016, that the country was facing a humanitarian crisis, drawing on extensive documentation of human rights violations. At the time, the Venezuelan state had an obligation to update several reports to United Nations (UN) treaty bodies, as well as going through the second cycle of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). In addition, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights had granted hearings to civil society organisations on rights violations. Alternative and follow-up reports on the human rights situation presented by more than 150 organisations made clear that the severity and scale of harm to the Venezuelan population, in terms of access to food, health services and livelihoods, amounted to a humanitarian crisis.

At the time, European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO) was also producing its own documentation, which corroborated the concerns of Venezuelan organisations. However, several UN agencies in the country either did not report what was already evident, or drew on official information that did not show the reality. In July 2016, more than 80 organisations sent a letter to then UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressing their ‘indignation and rejection of the conduct and silence of several agencies of the United Nations System in Venezuela, in particular with regard to those responsible for health and food … in a context of accelerated increase[s] in poverty, economic and social fragility, political and institutional instability, as well as in the face of a massive and severe shortage of food, medicines and medical supplies throughout Venezuela and the absence of internal capacities to solve this situation in the medium term’. The letter closed by warning that ‘the United Nations System cannot continue failing in the fulfillment of its responsibilities in Venezuela, to prevent irreparable consequences in loss of life and a greater escalation of the deterioration of food and sanitary conditions, which affects especially the most vulnerable population, if a mechanism for cooperation and international assistance of a humanitarian nature is not implemented as quickly as possible’.

The following August, in an interview with Argentinian newspaper Diario la Nación, Ban Ki-moon expressed his concern ‘about the current situation, in which basic needs cannot be covered … food, water, sanitation, clothing, are not available. That creates a humanitarian crisis in Venezuela. This whole situation is created by political instability. And, first of all, there must be political stability. The UN is ready to help, but the powers and regional bodies are already committed’.

Changes in the leadership of some agencies began to produce a response, but it was not until massive waves of people were forced to migrate between 2016 and 2017, mainly to Colombia, that it was understood that Venezuela was facing a humanitarian emergency, and that a response was imperative. When the Venezuelan government finally admitted the severity of the situation and authorised the formal installation of the UN humanitarian architecture in Venezuela in mid-2019, Venezuelan civil society organisations had been implementing their own humanitarian programmes for three years, with the support of ECHO and donors including Canada, the United States and several European nations.

The initial implementation of humanitarian programmes was guided by information collected in the field by Venezuelan civil society organisations. The lack of essential data, as well as the reluctance of the Venezuelan government to admit the magnitude and complexity of humanitarian needs, meant delays in the publication of the first Humanitarian Response Plan and the Humanitarian Needs Overview in 2019, and prevented the timely publication of subsequent plans in 2020 and 2021. These have been published in the second half of each year, and have maintained a constant figure of 7 million people in need, which does not correspond to other analyses even from the UN system itself. The publication of part of the results of a field study by the World Food Programme (WFP) between July and September 2019 was of enormous importance. Despite the resistance of the Venezuelan government, data gathered by the study clearly showed that 9.3 million people (32% of the population) were in acute food insecurity, with the risk that 17 million more (almost 60%) could be affected. A few months later the coronavirus pandemic arrived.

It is possible that this lack of data is part of the reason for the very poor funding of Humanitarian Response Plans. If we compare the global funding of HRPs reported by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the Financial Tracking System, we see that, of the 23 global plans in 2019, Venezuela received the second lowest proportion of requested funds after Haiti, at 33.8%. In 2020 it was again the second least funded out of 25 global plans. In 2021, the Venezuela plan was 36% funded, among the 10 least-funded of 30 global plans.

Without information it is not possible to make decisions to activate, plan, implement and evaluate actions to adequately respond to a crisis. The large-scale and multidimensional impacts of most complex emergencies demand data with certain levels of aggregation, in order to achieve a view of the magnitude and dimensions of these crises. Data must be sufficiently disaggregated to identify the specific needs and vulnerabilities of different groups.

In Venezuela, gathering sufficient and timely information on the impact, response and complexity of the emergency has involved multiple actors and joint efforts given the effects of the emergency on national and local information systems. For several years no statistics or government documents have been published in Venezuela, and information from independent sources is censored or blocked. Obtaining accurate information is even more problematic in areas of Venezuela that are difficult to reach or where the authorities have restricted access to affected populations.

The urgent need for reliable information on the emergency led a group of Venezuelan organisations to create HumVenezuela in 2019. HumVenezuela’s objective is to provide relevant information regarding the situation of people affected by the complex humanitarian emergency in Venezuela, and thus contribute to assessments determining its profile, magnitude, dimensions and response requirements.

HumVenezuela monitors existing information and generates its own research data to measure standardised categories and indicators of the humanitarian situation. The information collected undergoes a rigorous process of review and verification of quality, consistency and coherence. The data is recorded in each dimension and category according to aggregation criteria, and then disaggregated according to the levels of deterioration or severity that the data itself shows. All the information corresponding to the data and its sources are available in downloadable Excel tables on the website. There are four sources of information:

1. Sectoral records and statistics. More than 8,000 sources from local, national and international actors, both official and independent, were reviewed. Sources used comprise studies and research, records, monitoring and situation alerts and statistics, and are cited in data tables that can be downloaded from the HumVenezuela website.
2. Consultations with informed actors. During the research process, 25 of the organisations participating in HumVenezuela consulted with actors working in specific sectors or areas where there were information gaps. An interdisciplinary team cross-checks and validates all data and evidence collected to ensure a more accurate and holistic analysis and to facilitate consensus on how best to respond to the needs identified. 
3. Community diagnostics. The measurements are supported by field data collected through community diagnostics in 16 Venezuelan states. Assessments were carried out between May and June 2021, to collect data on access to food, water and other basic services, education, health, human mobility, violence and community problems. A total of 4,489 people were surveyed and reported on their family groups, allowing for the collection of data related to 15,175 people. The sample included different populations, such as women, children and adolescents, the elderly, people with disabilities, indigenous people, LGBTI people, producers and farmers, and people with chronic and acute health conditions, including Covid-19.  
4. Demographic information. With reference to population data and demographic information, HumVenezuela uses Latin American and Caribbean Demographic Center (CELADE) estimates, since Venezuela’s official census projections do not consider the impact of migration on the size and composition of the Venezuelan population and households.

Data on the HumVenezuela website is designed to help ensure that responses are proportionate to the situation, and that actors with decision-making power comply with the requirement to include all affected populations in responses. Data and indicators can be viewed and downloaded directly from the HumVenezuela website, along with graphical representations of the most relevant results. Information provided by HumVenezuela can be followed through its two Twitter accounts, in Spanish and English: @HumVenezuela and @HumVenezuela_en.

Feliciano Reyna Ganteaume is the founder and Executive President of the Acción Solidaria, which works to reduce the social impact of the HIV epidemic in Venezuela and other Spanish-speaking countries.  He founded and is a key actor in several other civil society-based human rights initiatives in Venezeuela including CodeVida and Civilis Derechos Humanos and serves on the ICNL Board of Directors.