UN Humanitarian Response Plan for Venezuela presents serious weaknesses that compromise its viability

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LÉELO EN ESPAÑOL

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:

 

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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

 

  1. A.C. Médicos Unidos de Venezuela
  2. A.C. María Estrella de la Mañana
  3. Acceso a la Justicia
  4. Acción Campesina
  5. Acción Ciudadana Contra el SIDA – ACCSI
  6. Acción Solidaria
  7. ACOANA
  8. Aconvida
  9. Alianza Venezolana por la Salud
  10. Amigos Trasplantados de Venezuela
  11. Asociación Civil Impulso Vital Aragua ACIVA
  12. Asociación Civil Mujeres en Línea
  13. Asociación Civil Movimiento Vinotinto
  14. Asociación de Derechos Humanos Amigos de Margarita – ADHAM
  15. Asociación Venezolana para la Hemofilia
  16. Aula Abierta
  17. AVESA. Asociación Venezolana para una Educación Sexual Alternativa
  18. Caleidoscopio Humano
  19. Cátedra de DDHH de UCLA
  20. Cátedra de la Paz de la Universidad de los Andes
  21. CDH-UCAB
  22. CECODAP
  23. Cendif-Unimet
  24. Centro de Acción y Defensa Por los Derechos Humanos – CADEF
  25. Centro de Animación Juvenil
  26. Centro de Derechos Humanos de la Universidad Metropolitana
  27. Centro de Formación Para la Democracia – CFD
  28. Centro de Justicia y Paz – Cepaz
  29. Ciclovías Maracaibo
  30. Ciudadanía con Compromiso A.C
  31. Civilis Derechos Humanos
  32. Clima21 – Ambiente y Derechos Humanos
  33. Creemos Alianza Ciudadana Carabobo
  34. Codevida
  35. Comisión para los Derechos Humanos del Estado Zulia – Codhez
  36. Comisión para los Derechos Humanos y la Ciudadanía – Codehciu
  37. Comisión Nacional de DDHH de la Federación del Colegio de Abogados de Venezuela del estado Lara
  38. Comisión Nacional de DDHH de la Federación de colegios de abogados de Venezuela del estado Táchira
  39. Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos de la Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Políticas de la Universidad del Zulia
  40. Comisión de DDHH de la Federación de Colegios de Abogados de Venezuela del estado Mérida
  41. Comisión de DDHH de la Federación de colegios de abogados de Venezuela del estado Monagas
  42. Comité de derechos humanos de la guajira
  43. Comité Popular de DDHH de Coche
  44. Comunidad en Movimiento A.C
  45. Conciencia Ciudadana A.C
  46. Control Ciudadano para la Seguridad, la Defensa y la Fuerza Armada Nacional
  47. Convite A.C.
  48. Defensa en Acción
  49. Defiende Venezuela
  50. Democracia emprendedora
  51. ECCOS de Paz
  52. EDEPA A.C.
  53. Epikeia Observatorio Universitario de Derechos Humanos
  54. Equipo Voluntario de Ayuda Humanitaria EVAH
  55. Espacio Humanitario
  56. Espacio Público
  57. EXCUBITUS Derechos Humanos en Educación
  58. Federación Colegios de Bioanalistas de Venezuela
  59. Federación Nacional de Sociedades de Padres y Representantes -Fenasopadres-
  60. Funcamama
  61. FUNDACION AGROINLACA
  62. Fundacion Aguaclara
  63. Fundación Ayudate
  64. Fundación Emprendedores Solidarios
  65. Fundación Incide
  66. Fundación La Tortuga
  67. Fundación Mavid
  68. Fundación Papagayo
  69. Fundación Pro Bono Venezuela, ProVene
  70. Fundación prodefensa del derecho a la educación y la niñez
  71. Fundación Rehabilitarte
  72. Fundación Red Venezolana de Hombres Positivos RVH+
  73. Gran Familia de la Salud
  74. Gente & Ciudad Corp
  75. GobiernateC
  76.  Grupo de trabajo sobre Asuntos Indígenas – GTAI
  77. Instituto Mead de Venezuela A.C
  78. Instituto Venezolano de Estudios Políticos y Sociales-INVESP
  79. Justicia y Paz OP VENEZUELA
  80. Labo Ciudadano
  81. Laboratorio de Paz
  82. Madres y Padres por los Niños en Venezuela – Mapani Venezuela
  83. Monitor Social A.C. (Nueva Esparta)
  84. Movimiento Ciudadano Dale Letra
  85. Movimiento SOMOS
  86. Mulier
  87. MUV Capítulo LARA
  88. Observatorio de Derechos Humanos de la Universidad de Los Andes
  89. Observatorio Global de Comunicación y Democracia – OGCD
  90. Observatorio Venezolano de la Salud
  91. ONG DEMOCRACIA EMPRENDEDORA
  92. Organización StopVIH
  93. Padres Organizados de Venezuela
  94. Prepara Familia
  95. Promoción Educación y Defensa en DDHH – PROMEDEHUM
  96. Provea
  97. Proyecta Ciudadanía A.C
  98. PSICODEHU
  99. Red de Activistas Ciudadanos – REDAC Venezuela
  100. Red de Activistas Ciudadanos – REDAC Internacional
  101. Red por los Derechos Humanos de Niños, Niñas y Adolescentes – REDHNNA
  102. RVG+ Red Venezolana de Gente Positiva
  103. Red Naranja
  104. RedOrgBaruta
  105. Revista SIC del Centro Gumilla
  106. Sinergia, Red Venezolana de Organizaciones de Sociedad Civil
  107. Sociedad Hominis Iura (SOHI)
  108. SOS PACIENTES RENALES
  109. Superatec AC
  110. Transparencia Venezuela
  111. Un Mundo Sin Mordaza
  112. Una Ventana a la Libertad
  113. Unión Afirmativa de Venezuela
  114. Unión Vecinal para la Participación Ciudadana A.C
  115. Venezolanos en Acción
  116. Voto Joven
  117. 100% Estrógeno

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