Disaster risk in informal settlements project

Florida International University – Extreme Events Institute (FIU-EEI), Disaster Risk and Resilience in the Americas (DRRA) Program

Disaster risk in informal settlements project

From 2012 to 2022, Florida International University’s Extreme Events Institute (FIU-EEI) had the opportunity to lead evaluations of several projects supported by U.S. Agency for International Development’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (USAID/BHA) that target marginal urban communities in the Latin American and Caribbean region, specifically aimed at reducing disaster risks and intervening in social determinants that contribute to the high vulnerability of these populations. In developing these evaluations, FIU-EEI was able to delve into different topics, explore metrics to measure problems, and design methodologies to investigate the effectiveness and sustainability of interventions and practices geared at reducing or transferring risks.

We commissioned Evidence-Aid to prepare independent short summaries on each of the 11 articles selected (see flowchart below), and to assess what the project means as a whole (using the articles referred to above) in terms of evidence going forward inside as well as outside the Latin American and Caribbean region (where the studies were done). This included sections on implementation and impact. You can read the full evidence synthesis here.

On completion of the project, Professor Juan-Pablo Sarmiento said “this evaluation conducted by Evidence-Aid seeks to reach-out two different audiences 1) the academic and research community and, 2) a more general public made up of professionals and technicians who work in public, private and civil society sectors, responsible for the design, implementation, and evaluation of projects/activities of social interest in precarious urban settlements where a high level of risk prevails in the face of natural and man-made hazards, characterized by a communities with high vulnerability and exposure”.