Peru - IOM Peru, in close coordination with the UN’s Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is this week holding two training sessions aimed at strengthening the capacity of all Peruvian actors involved in emergency assistance in preparation for disasters.

The first workshop, starting today, is bringing together staff of all UN agencies in the country to learn and discuss camp coordination and camp management and how to apply each agency’s expertise, along with IOM and other international organizations, to provide a coordinated response.

The second two-day workshop starting on Thursday, will focus on capacity building to respond to emergencies and on the use of the SPHERE standards (http://www.sphereproject.org/)  to improve the quality of humanitarian assistance and the accountability of humanitarian actors to the affected populations.

“As the lead of the UN Cluster on Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM), it is vital for IOM to ensure that all agencies involved in humanitarian assistance be properly trained to assist the government to respond to natural disasters,” said José Iván Dávalos, IOM Chief of Mission in Peru.

According to an OCHA report, the threat of natural disasters had been a constant source of insecurity for vulnerable rural communities living in the Andean Mountains of Peru.  In particular, the provinces of Quispicanchis and Carabaya had faced repeated cycles of severe drought, frost, snowstorms, landslides, earthquakes and forest fires.

Official reports indicate that the country has been hit by three major earthquakes in the last decade. One of the largest in 2007 recorded at 7.9 on the Richter scale and killed more than 500 persons and caused damages totaling more than USD 1.4 million.  In 2012, heavy rains and floods in the Loreto region affected more than 200,000 persons.

More than 40 participants from UNDP, UNICEF, UNFPA, UNAIDS, WFP and UNOPS, as well as officials of Peru’s National Institute for Civil Defense (INDECI), the Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations, and OXFAM, Save the Children, CARE, World Vision, PREDES and Plan International will take part in the two workshops. The workshops are funded by IOM Peru.

For more information, please contact

Carolina Santos
IOM Peru
Tel: +51 968 216 777
Email: casantos@iom.int