The countries of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) are highly vulnerable to a range of natural hazards, including droughts, earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, landslides, and volcanic eruptions. Some countries have also suffered civil unrest and associated humanitarian impacts.
Between FY 2004 and FY 2013, USAID provided more than $980 million for emergency humanitarian assistance to affected populations and disaster risk reduction (DRR) programming in hazard-prone communities in the LAC region. Of the total, USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA) provided more than $525 million, including more than $406 million in response to the January 2010 Haiti earthquake and more than $41 million in response to the October 2010 cholera outbreak in Haiti. USAID’s Office of Food for Peace (USAID/FFP) assistance between FY 2004 and FY 2013 included more than $455 million in emergency food aid.
In the last decade, USAID deployed humanitarian assessment and crisis response teams throughout the LAC region, including 11 Disaster Assistance Response Teams to the Bahamas, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guatemala, Haiti, and Jamaica.