Panel details

Panel organiser(s) will be presenting	In-Person & Online
Number of paper presentations	3

Abstract

***Panel organisers
Dr Rodrigo Mena
Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Email: mena@iss.nl
Dr Juan Ricardo Aparicio Cuervo
Universidad de Los Andes, Colombia
Email: japarici@uniandes.edu.co
Gabriela Villacis
Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Email: villacisizquierdo@iss.nl

***Panel description
Introduction: Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) have seen a variety of crises during the past ten years, including the forced migration of Venezuelans and the so-called caravan of migrants traveling from Central America to the north. Humanitarian action has been required to address various disasters and crises; however, the notion of humanitarian aid is only occasionally or subtly employed in the Latin American setting. Humanitarian relief in LAC is in many ways comparable to what is observed in other latitudes, such as Asian or African countries, but it also appears to be highly distinct. Is humanitarian action in Latin America and the Caribbean, as we question on a blog post (see here), “same, same, but different” from humanitarian action in other hemispheres? How is humanitarian action coordinated and governed in the region considering that, despite all its challenges and fragilities, the region has strong and functional governments? Which are the peculiarities of humanitarian action in LAC? Are there important distinction on how humanitarian action is conceived in the different countries or sub-region of LAC?
Aim: This panel seeks to open a space to discuss and reflect about humanitarian action in Latin America and the Caribbean. Particularly, seek to unveil what is humanitarian action in the region, who is defined as a humanitarian actor, who is identified as a humanitarian subject, and, above all, how humanitarian aid is governed and coordinated in our region. We invite presentations and papers that address these questions and present cases of humanitarian interventions in LAC.
Motivation: The motivation of the panel raises form the fact that there is still limited knowledge on what humanitarian action is in LAC and how it is governed, particularly how humanitarian action in the region is different from humanitarian actin in other latitudes of the planet and its particularities, especially in relation to the cultural, historical and governance contexts of LAC.
Outputs: The panel foresee the panel participants and other actors to submit their papers as chapter contribution to an edited volume in development on Humanitarian Action in LAC.

Organisations: This panel is hosted by the Humanitarian Observatory of Latin America and the Caribbean (see here: https://cienciassociales.uniandes.edu.co/observatorio-humanitario-de-america-latina/), an initiative of the Humanitarian Governance ERC project (https://www.iss.nl/HumanitarianGovernance) and IHSA.

Paper presentations