The first semester of 2008 saw the real price of the main food staples climb to a 30 year peak. The food riots in Haiti and the highly politicized “Sovereignty and Food Security: Food for Life” Presidential Summit held in Managua, Nicaragua on the May 7th have brought issues of trade, international aid and crisis mechanisms to the forefront of the regional political and economic agenda. Growing concern over food security and price vulnerability was clearly reflected by the Summit’s call for a regional production and distribution strategy for fairly priced food as well as for a review ...   more »

With a 7.9 score on the Richter scale, the earthquake which struck Peru on the 15th August 2007 shook up the country’s entire natural disaster response system. The magnitude of the event revealed the institutional and logistical limitations of Peru’s crisis response system particularly at the regional level.

The international community has been seeking to improve the capacity, predictability and accountability of humanitarian response processes through the implementation of the cluster approach. Approved by the IASC in 2005, it seeks to concentrate expertise, coordinate action and foster partnerships by grouping humanitarian organisations of the same field under the leadership of ...   more »