The undersigned organizations consider it necessary to express our concerns in regards to the serious weaknesses of the Humanitarian Response Plan for Venezuela published last Wednesday, August 14, by the United Nations and prepared by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Caracas, under the leadership of the Humanitarian Coordinator (HC) in the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT). According to its formulation, this plan provides for a 6-month implementation period, from July to December 2019, with financial requirements of $223 million to meet a goal of 2.6 million people with humanitarian needs in 10 Priority Venezuelan states, through 98 projects submitted by 61 partners.
First, the plan is proposed as a continuation of the United Nations response initiated in October 2018 when it reacted belatedly to a humanitarian emergency that had already been alerted by civil society organizations and senior UN spokespersons since 2015. In this initial phase emergency funds were allocated mostly for the relief of the needs of 3.4 million refugees and migrants who had fled Venezuela massively between 2017 and 2018 (11% of the population); by 2019, this number reaches 4 million people. At the time, some UN agencies in Venezuela also expanded on their cooperation agreements, scaling up but with severe operating restrictions due to the government’s refusal to recognize the emergency and to provide access to official data. From this 2018 phase, the HRP highlights as achievements some endowments of which no evidence is offered to assess the extent to which they can be considered as such achievements, nor to what extent they have contributed to reducing the impacts of the emergency.
Second, the plan is based on a baseline of at least 7 million people with humanitarian needs in Venezuela (25% of the population), whose estimate was made in March 2019. However, this figure presents considerable underestimations due to the lack of national data and given that secondary indicator sources and information from the field indicate profound impacts at the structural level, leaving millions of people deprived of essential goods and services in all sectors (health, food, water, education, services basic, among others), making evident that the emergency has continued to increase humanitarian needs and that for August there are greater numbers of people affected than those estimated in March 2019. Although this baseline is transcendental for the development of a plan, to date the evaluation document from which it is extracted has not been made public in Venezuela, leaving the population again without access to information on which the protection of their rights and the fulfillment of the objectives of the essential humanitarian principles and norms depend.
Third, the HRP´s text admits that the plan is limited to cover only 37% of the 7 million people with humanitarian needs. Regarding these limitations, we must add that: a] it is not explained in what time frame or how the remaining 4.4 million people will be covered for new plans as of 2020, which require an urgent and effective response, given that having humanitarian needs means being deprived of one or more essential minimums that endanger life, integrity and human security; b] the plan was drawn up within a short timeframe for a period of just 6 months and was published a month and a half into this period, which limits its real possibilities of execution; and c] requires $223 million for its implementation which, in addition to being an extremely insufficient amount to meet the humanitarian needs of the 2.6 million people, are resources that must still be obtained among potential donors during the short period of execution, compromising the viability of the plan.
Fourth, the plan contemplates that 73% of the required financing will be allocated to projects of the United Nations agencies in Venezuela and 27% to national and international civil society organizations. It is unknown how much of these resources is available and what will be the procedure to collect the remaining funds, leaving in uncertainty
the civil society organizations which have done a hard job to participate in the coordinated humanitarian response through project formulation.
In view of these weaknesses, we demand that the United Nations authorities to:
- Inform about the results of the humanitarian response implemented since October 2018, beyond the amount of endowments, in order to examine how much that response has contributed to cover the existing humanitarian needs, by states, resources obtained and responsible agencies.
- Publish the Humanitarian Needs Overview, prepared in March 2019, so that the population knows the dimension and the necessary scope of the response from the assessments carried out in populations and territories by sectors, as well as making public subsequent analysis of needs that imply adjustments to the Humanitarian Response Plan for the year 2020.
- Reconsider the planning procedures to include all people with humanitarian needs and vulnerable groups, as well as the actual financing required within a time horizon that allows for assessing the gaps and progress of the response.
- Include in all plans an analysis of concerns about human rights violations in all sectors affected by the emergency and context restrictions that prevent compliance with protection mandates and traditional humanitarian principles.
- Communicate to civil society organizations clearly and transparently, in the respective instances of coordination, the conditions to obtain the funds required for projects of which a large number of people at risk await response.
See the Humanitarian Response Plan in: https://reliefweb.int/report/venezuela-bolivarian-republic/plan-de-respuesta-humanitaria-venezuela-julio-2019-diciembre
- A.C. Médicos Unidos de Venezuela
- A.C. María Estrella de la Mañana
- Acceso a la Justicia
- Acción Campesina
- Acción Ciudadana Contra el SIDA – ACCSI
- Acción Solidaria
- ACOANA
- Aconvida
- Alianza Venezolana por la Salud
- Amigos Trasplantados de Venezuela
- Asociación Civil Impulso Vital Aragua ACIVA
- Asociación Civil Mujeres en Línea
- Asociación Civil Movimiento Vinotinto
- Asociación de Derechos Humanos Amigos de Margarita – ADHAM
- Asociación Venezolana para la Hemofilia
- Aula Abierta
- AVESA. Asociación Venezolana para una Educación Sexual Alternativa
- Caleidoscopio Humano
- Cátedra de DDHH de UCLA
- Cátedra de la Paz de la Universidad de los Andes
- CDH-UCAB
- CECODAP
- Cendif-Unimet
- Centro de Acción y Defensa Por los Derechos Humanos – CADEF
- Centro de Animación Juvenil
- Centro de Derechos Humanos de la Universidad Metropolitana
- Centro de Formación Para la Democracia – CFD
- Centro de Justicia y Paz – Cepaz
- Ciclovías Maracaibo
- Ciudadanía con Compromiso A.C
- Civilis Derechos Humanos
- Clima21 – Ambiente y Derechos Humanos
- Creemos Alianza Ciudadana Carabobo
- Codevida
- Comisión para los Derechos Humanos del Estado Zulia – Codhez
- Comisión para los Derechos Humanos y la Ciudadanía – Codehciu
- Comisión Nacional de DDHH de la Federación del Colegio de Abogados de Venezuela del estado Lara
- Comisión Nacional de DDHH de la Federación de colegios de abogados de Venezuela del estado Táchira
- Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos de la Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Políticas de la Universidad del Zulia
- Comisión de DDHH de la Federación de Colegios de Abogados de Venezuela del estado Mérida
- Comisión de DDHH de la Federación de colegios de abogados de Venezuela del estado Monagas
- Comité de derechos humanos de la guajira
- Comité Popular de DDHH de Coche
- Comunidad en Movimiento A.C
- Conciencia Ciudadana A.C
- Control Ciudadano para la Seguridad, la Defensa y la Fuerza Armada Nacional
- Convite A.C.
- Defensa en Acción
- Defiende Venezuela
- Democracia emprendedora
- ECCOS de Paz
- EDEPA A.C.
- Epikeia Observatorio Universitario de Derechos Humanos
- Equipo Voluntario de Ayuda Humanitaria EVAH
- Espacio Humanitario
- Espacio Público
- EXCUBITUS Derechos Humanos en Educación
- Federación Colegios de Bioanalistas de Venezuela
- Federación Nacional de Sociedades de Padres y Representantes -Fenasopadres-
- Funcamama
- FUNDACION AGROINLACA
- Fundacion Aguaclara
- Fundación Ayudate
- Fundación Emprendedores Solidarios
- Fundación Incide
- Fundación La Tortuga
- Fundación Mavid
- Fundación Papagayo
- Fundación Pro Bono Venezuela, ProVene
- Fundación prodefensa del derecho a la educación y la niñez
- Fundación Rehabilitarte
- Fundación Red Venezolana de Hombres Positivos RVH+
- Gran Familia de la Salud
- Gente & Ciudad Corp
- GobiernateC
- Grupo de trabajo sobre Asuntos Indígenas – GTAI
- Instituto Mead de Venezuela A.C
- Instituto Venezolano de Estudios Políticos y Sociales-INVESP
- Justicia y Paz OP VENEZUELA
- Labo Ciudadano
- Laboratorio de Paz
- Madres y Padres por los Niños en Venezuela – Mapani Venezuela
- Monitor Social A.C. (Nueva Esparta)
- Movimiento Ciudadano Dale Letra
- Movimiento SOMOS
- Mulier
- MUV Capítulo LARA
- Observatorio de Derechos Humanos de la Universidad de Los Andes
- Observatorio Global de Comunicación y Democracia – OGCD
- Observatorio Venezolano de la Salud
- ONG DEMOCRACIA EMPRENDEDORA
- Organización StopVIH
- Padres Organizados de Venezuela
- Prepara Familia
- Promoción Educación y Defensa en DDHH – PROMEDEHUM
- Provea
- Proyecta Ciudadanía A.C
- PSICODEHU
- Red de Activistas Ciudadanos – REDAC Venezuela
- Red de Activistas Ciudadanos – REDAC Internacional
- Red por los Derechos Humanos de Niños, Niñas y Adolescentes – REDHNNA
- RVG+ Red Venezolana de Gente Positiva
- Red Naranja
- RedOrgBaruta
- Revista SIC del Centro Gumilla
- Sinergia, Red Venezolana de Organizaciones de Sociedad Civil
- Sociedad Hominis Iura (SOHI)
- SOS PACIENTES RENALES
- Superatec AC
- Transparencia Venezuela
- Un Mundo Sin Mordaza
- Una Ventana a la Libertad
- Unión Afirmativa de Venezuela
- Unión Vecinal para la Participación Ciudadana A.C
- Venezolanos en Acción
- Voto Joven
- 100% Estrógeno
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