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Current Requirements (US$)$1.59 billion
Analysis of context, crisis and needs
Five years after the first Regional Inter-Agency Response Plan for Refugees and Migrants from Venezuela (RMRP) was launched, humanitarian needs remain and departures from Venezuela still significantly outnumber returns, resulting in more than 7.7 million leaving their homeland. In countries of destination and transit, Venezuelan refugees and migrants – including new arrivals, those engaged in onward movements, and those struggling to achieve stability in their host countries – have significant humanitarian assistance, protection and integration needs. The Refugee and Migrant Needs Analysis (RMNA) for 2023 estimates that 4.2 million (67.8 per cent) of the more than 6.5 million refugees and migrants from Venezuela who reside in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), have unmet needs such as food, shelter, access to documentation, decent employment and education.
Integration, protection, and food security are among the three most urgent needs for Venezuelan refugees and migrants, with 15 RMRP countries prioritizing integration, 12 emphasizing protection and 10 focusing on food security. In terms of integration, barriers to accessing the formal labour market and income-generating opportunities prevent refugees and migrants from earning decent livelihoods and becoming self-reliant, but also make them more susceptible to exploitation and abuse. They need protection from these and other threats to their safety and dignity, including human trafficking and smuggling, gender-based violence (GBV), and detention and deportation, with those in an irregular situation facing elevated risks. Although many host countries have facilitated access to legal status or initiated regularization initiatives for Venezuelans, some 40 per cent of refugees and migrants in-destination remain in an irregular situation.
Darien, Panama
Record number of refugees and migrants are crossing the Darien Gap looking for a better future.
IOM/Gema CortesIn addition, the region is seeing an unprecedented trend of onward movements of refugees and migrants, in particular on a northward trajectory, through Central and North America: a growing number (up to 60 per cent) represent new departures from Venezuela, while the remainder (some 40 per cent) are onward movements of refugees and migrants who have been unable to integrate in host countries such as Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Chile. As of end-September 2023, over 400,000 refugees and migrants had crossed irregularly from Colombia to Panama through the perilous Darien jungle, out of whom over 260,000 were Venezuelans. These in-transit movements have resulted in unprecedented pressures on host communities’ capacities to receive and address the needs of refugees and migrants along these routes. This has also resulted in the RMRP response expanding to cover the needs of other nationalities of refugees and migrants in-transit in Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, an estimated 86 per cent having unmet needs in areas such as humanitarian transportation, shelter, WASH, and protection.
Peru
Peru: Daniel and Fiorella traveled to Peru for job opportunities and a better future for their children. On the journey they say there were times when they were very hungry and thirsty, but they never lost their faith and kept moving. They have received a cash transfer, and will use the money to find lodgings where they can eat, take a shower and rest. Then they will continue their journey.
Save The Children/Hanz PengeStrategic objectives and sectoral priorities 2024
Under the current multi-year RMRP (2023-2024), as of October 2023, over 1.8 million people across 17 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have received some form of assistance, representing 51.5 per cent of the target for 2023. More than 830,000 people received general protection support, over 800,000 received food assistance, and more than 470,000 received health assistance from RMRP partners so far in 2023.
Based on the needs identified through the RMNA 2023, the RMRP update for 2024 will focus on providing urgent humanitarian assistance to refugees and migrants in-transit (including multiple nationalities using the same transit routes) and on stabilization and integration support for Venezuelan refugees and migrants in-destination. The response strategy is also based on planning assumptions determined through consultation with more than 230 R4V partners across the region. These include anticipated ongoing departures from Venezuela, increasing by 10 per cent in 2024 in comparison to 2023. onward movements from/among host countries, increasingly northwards and along irregular routes, given the challenging socio-economic situation in host countries (which limit stability and integration). Planning also assumes limited regular pathways (which prevent regular movements and enhance human trafficking and smuggling networks) and limited and largely exploratory returns to Venezuela, in addition to the direct removals/deportations from the USA and other countries.
Tumbaco, Ecuador
Wilneydis helps her father Wilfredo to make a chair from reused tires in their backyard. They are originally from Venezuela. Their family is part of the Integral Protection Program promoted by UNICEF, which seeks to protect Venezuelan children, adolescents and their families in situations of human mobility in Ecuador.
UNICEF/Misha VallejoThe Plan is structured around three strategic objectives:
- Provide and improve safe and dignified access to essential goods and critical services in synergy with sustainable development assistance.
- Enhance the prevention and mitigation of protection risks and respond to corresponding needs through supporting the protection environment in affected countries.
- Increase resilience, socio-economic integration opportunities, social cohesion, and inclusive participatory processes to improve living standards of affected populations.
The 2024 update of the RMRP will target 2.9 million refugees and migrants and affected host community members in 17 countries to receive assistance through 14,829 activities of 248 appealing partners, with total financial requirements of US$ 1.59 billion. This is a growth of 8.8 per cent in the number of partners compared to last year, including 66 refugee- and migrant-led organizations (or 26.6 per cent of partners). The growth in refugee- and migrant-led organizations participating in the RMRP reflects the commitment to localization and accountability to and empowerment of affected populations to act as main agents of change in their communities.
Moreover, protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) remains a priority in the 2024 response, with four key activity areas for its prevention and two for the response to SEA organized at the regional level by the PSEA Task Force. Activities for prevention of SEA include conducting joint SEA risk assessments, supporting R4V partner organizations in their commitment to establish or enhance policies, strategies, tools and guidance to prevent SEA. Activities also include disseminating PSEA information to affected populations and institutionalizing PSEA as the core business of R4V National and Sub-regional Platforms. To improve the SEA response, activities will include working together with Child Protection, GBV and Human Trafficking & Smuggling Sub-Sectors to promote the inclusion of referral pathways for survivors of SEA at the national and local levels. Efforts will also include promotion of the development of PSEA inter-agency SOPs and community-based complaints mechanisms (CBCMs) through a practical step-by-step toolkit. Given severe underfunding of PSEA initiatives in the RMRP 2023, several multi-year strategies originally envisioned need implementation in 2024.
Boa Vista, Brazil
Venezuelan refugees and migrants from the Warao ethnicity living at the shelter Waraotuma a Tuaranoko, in Boa Vista (Brazil). The shelter is managed by UNHCR and partners, and is part of Brazil’s Welcome Operation, the government’s led response to the influx of Venezuelans to the country.
UNHCR/Jeoffrey GuillemardMultiple countries, Ecuador and Peru in particular, anticipate the impacts of a strong El Niño in 2024 affecting their response dynamics, including by aggravating needs among refugees and migrants and vulnerable host communities, and complicating humanitarian access (due to flooding, landslides and other extreme weather events). These countries outline in their respective RMRP chapters how activities for 2024 will take these environmental dynamics into account. Meanwhile, at the regional level, there will be renewed efforts to better mainstream environmental considerations across the RMRP response, including by working to move from a sector-centered environmental mainstreaming model to a country-centered one. This will be done by analyzing and mapping existing structural environmental vulnerabilities – both in the natural and built environment – at the country and local level and building response solutions and community resilience together with refugees and migrants and host communities. Focus will also be placed on promoting “nature-based solutions” such as green job initiatives as part of local integration efforts. This will be accomplished through capacity-building and advocacy facilitated by the regional R4V environmental focal point, as part of a multi-year strategy.
Details of all RMRP 2024 response activities, including partner organizations, geographical areas, thematic sectors, and targeted beneficiaries (with disaggregation by age/gender/population group), are available on the Data and Information Page of R4V.info and on the R4V Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX). A searchable database of all activities included in the RMRP (the Activity Explorer), as well as a 5Ws Monitoring Dashboard to track implementation of the response provide further transparency and promote accountability to all stakeholders.
Venezuela Regional
References
- Updated population statistics, reported by host countries and compiled by R4V are available at: https://www.r4v.info/en/refugeeandmigrants
- According to the number of people in need identified per sector in each country in the RMNA 2023, https://rmrp.r4v.info/rmna2023/
- See hereto: R4V Movements Report: Third Quarter 2023, https://www.r4v.info/en/movements-report-q3-2023
- Refugees and migrants of other nationalities who are in-transit in Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama and Peru are also targeted under the RMRP response in 2024. Country specific in-transit figures (PiNs and targets) are available in the RMRP, available at: https://r4v.info.