This document outlines PAHO’s regional priorities for the year 2023 to sustain and scale up health emergency and humanitarian assistance in the Americas, with a focus on five priority countries currently facing a prolonged ...o-highlight medbox">humanitarian crisis and recovering from recent acute emergencies: Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, and Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of). These goals align with and build on the World Health Organization’s Global Health Emergency Appeal for 2023, its principles, priorities, and strategies.
more
Fills a gap in current guidance on how to implement humanitarian standards in urban situations. In Arabic, English, French and Spanish available
Reflections and a call for action after a two-year exploration of emergency response in acute conflicts
There is general consensus that the humanitarian sector is failing to mount timely and adequate responses in the acute phase of conflict-rel...ated emergencies, according to the two-year Emergency Gap Project by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).
The Project has explored what works for or against effective emergency responses. Its final report, Bridging the emergency gap, draws on the Project’s thematic papers and case studies, and consultations with more than 150 senior-level representatives from 60 key organisations across the humanitarian sector.
more
Carried out by humanitarian and human rights actors in armed conflict and other situations of violence
This guideline (third edition) constitutes a set of minimum but essential standards aimed at ensuring that protection work is safe and effective.... The standards reflect shared thinking and common agreement among humanitarian and human rights practitioners
more
Unprecedented humanitarian needs, the COVID-19 pandemic, a worsening economic crisis, and funding shortfalls converge to create life-threatening challenges for people in need throughout the region.
In March 2022, the Syria crisis entered its 12th... year, marking another grim milestone for Syrians throughout the region. For women and girls, the cumulative impact has been catastrophic, upending decades of progress on women’s issues and bringing unprecedented risks that have fundamentally altered their realities.
more
A consolidated set of reproductive health kits for use by humanitarian agencies. These kits are intended to speed up the provision of appropriate reproductive health services in emergency and refugee situations.
Humanitarian NGOs have made increased use of Private Security Providers (PSPs) over the last decade. There is a gap between the ways that NGOs actually use PSPs and the regulation of this engagement. These guidelines aim to assist ...bute-to-highlight medbox">humanitarian NGOs in reaching an informed decision about when, how and under what conditions to seek PSP services. The guidelines are aimed at operational managers of NGOs, from headquarter to field level. The guidelines do not only cover armed guarding or armed protection, but can be applied to the wide range of services provided by PSPs. Document also available in French.
more
UNICEF Child Alert | February 2018
Back in Myanmar, an estimated half million Rohingya remain largely sealed off in their communities and displacement camps, fearful that the violence and horror that had driven so many of their relatives and neighbours to fl ee would engulf them too.
Today, t...here are an estimated 720,000 Rohingya children in southern Bangladesh and Myanmar’s Rakhine State, in dire need of humanitarian assistance and protection – and looking to the outside world for help.
more
The Monitoring Report, which covers the first two months of the response from 25 August to 31 October, highlights the work of the Government of Bangladesh, in cooperation with humanitarian partners who are working to provide relief services for the ...refugee population and Bangladeshi host communities. Of the 1.2 million people in need, around half have been reached with assistance. The Report also explains the challenges and gaps that remain. The risk of disease outbreak is high, and the impact of a cyclone or heavy rain would be massive. There is not enough land to provide adequate living conditions for the more than 830,000 refugees that now crowd Cox’s Bazar.
more
UNICEF CHILD ALERT May 2018
As part of a UNICEF series highlighting the challenges faced by children in current crisis situations, this Child Alert examines the situation of children affected by violent conflict in Kasai region, Democratic Republic of the Congo. The alert outlines what UNICEF a...nd its partners have achieved to date in providing humanitarian assistance to children in Kasai affected by malnutrition and lack of access to health care, safe water and education. It calls upon all parties to the conflict – and the international community – to take urgent action protecting the lives and futures of children at risk, before it is too late.
more
In April 2018, Refugees International (RI) conducted a mission to Bangladesh, to research the GBV (gender-based violence) response for Rohingya women and girls. RI found that the entire humanitarian system is struggling under tremendous constraints ...in Bangladesh, and protection and health actors do deliver lifesaving services to survivors in an incredibly challenging environment. This report, however, focuses on key gaps and challenges in GBV programming, as communicated by practitioners deployed to Bangladesh at various stages of the emergency, by local organizations, and by the affected women and girls themselves.
In the analyses and recommendations provided in this report, RI draws in part from the framework of the international initiative to safeguard women and girls in emergencies — the Call to Action on Protection from Gender-Based Violence in Emergencies — and urges the donors and humanitarian organizations that are Call to Action partners to implement it more effectively and with urgency during this emergency.
more
This gender analysis was conducted to understand the different risks and vulnerabilities but also opportunities and skills for Rohingya and host community women, men, boys and girls. Data collection was conducted over three weeks from 8 April to 29 April 2018. The work aimed to identify the differen...t needs, concerns, risks and vulnerabilities of women, girls, boys and men in both Rohingya refugee communities and host communities in the Cox’s Bazar district of Bangladesh. The analysis shows various gaps in the humanitarian response for both communities, especially in terms of accountability, communication with affected communities and disaster preparedness, but also in equitable access to services, in particular for women and girls, and especially for the Rohingya community. The key findings are presented below, along with recommendations for action.
more
Research results of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) prevention and response before, during and after disasters in Indonesia, Lao PDR and the Philippines
This report contributes new evidence on why and how sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) risks increase during ...-to-highlight medbox">humanitarian disasters. It details how humanitarian actors can better prevent and respond to such escalation of SGBV, and better meet the needs of affected women, girls, men and boys. This research is based on community views of disaster-affected women, adolescent girls, men and adolescent boys in three South-East Asian countries: Indonesia, Lao PDR and the Philippines.
more
Circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 in Angola
Ebola virus disease in Democratic Republic of the Congo
Dengue fever in Côte d’Ivoire
Humanitarian crisis in north-east Nigeria.
This paper aims to provide aid agencies with initial analysis and guidance to inform the design, implementation and adaptation of conflict-sensitive humanitarian and development responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. It presents a series of overarching... considerations to take into account when determining how to build a conflict-sensitive approach into COVID-19 response activities, before outlining some initial, sector-specific considerations. Recommendations are presented throughout.
more
2 March 2021
Protracted displacement, socio-economic crises aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic, dire humanitarian needs and protection threats continue to affect the Palestine refugees in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.
In Syria, the protracted confli...ct has left 91 per cent of the 438,000 Palestine refugees1 estimated to remain in the country in absolute poverty2 and 40 per cent displaced.
more
The regional Migrant Response Plan (MRP) for the Horn of Africa and Yemen includes urgent life-saving humanitarian and protection interventions to improve safe and dignified access to basic services for migrants and host communities while ensuring m...edium- to long-term actions aimed at addressing the drivers of migration.
more
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is appealing for USD 158.9 million to respond to the urgent humanitarian needs of millions of Afghans and to support recovery and resilience within the country and the region.
IOM’s Comprehensi...ve Action Plan for Afghanistan and Neighbouring Countries aims to help the most vulnerable populations by combining humanitarian, development and peace interventions, known as the HDP nexus.
more
After more than three years without cases, Haiti reported on 2 October 2022 a cluster of cholera cases in the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince, just as the country was on the verge of being declared cholera- free.
This cholera resurgence in Haiti is happening in a complex operational context, ...amid a volatile socio- political environment marked by blockades, fuel shortages, criminal gang activity and rampant insecurity. Civil unrest and lack of access to the affected communities are deepening the complex humanitarian crisis and hindering emergency response efforts.
more
For the past years, Haiti has been engulfed in a socioeconomic, political, and humanitarian crisis that has reached critical levels since mid-September 2022 with the intensification of gang violence and social unrest. The widespread insecurity and
...political instability have drastically affected the country’s access to essential goods and services, including food, water, and health. The current fuel supply crisis has affected the water and electricity supply to the population, health centers, and hospitals. Due to problems of insecurity and violence, patients and health personnel have difficulty accessing hospitals and health services.
In parallel, the public health system and international partners face limited response capacity due to reduced international personnel in Haiti, logistics issues, and difficulties in importing supplies. Indeed insecurity, roadblocks, and lockdowns are affecting the importation of internationally procured goods, which may slow the arrival of essential lifesaving supplies to support cholera response efforts. This scenario is particularly problematic, as cholera recently resurfaced in early October.
Armed gangs now control over 60% of the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince, affecting at least 1.5 million people, and have expanded their influence outside of the capital city, interrupting vital humanitarian programs in most of the national territory,
including COVID-19 vaccination campaigns.
more