Children and disasters in Latin America and the Caribbean

Recent decades have seen a significant global increase in the occurrence of disasters, and Latin America and the Caribbean has been no exception. Today, natural and man-made disasters are considered to be social phenomena due to their impact on people’s lives and the fact that there is scope for preventing and mitigating the damage they cause and thus reducing or at least controlling their effects. Households living in poverty are extremely vulnerable to disasters and are disproportionately exposed to their impacts, which have affected them increasingly and for longer and longer periods. Child…