ReliefWeb

Executive Summary:
During March 2012, HelpAge undertook a humanitarian needs assessment in the departments of Valle del Cauca and Nariño in southwest Colombia, covering the municipalities of Buenaventura, Tumaco and the areas of the indigenous Awá population in the municipality of Barbacoas. The assessment was carried out by an interdisciplinary team made up of staff from the HelpAge Colombia office; the regional office for Latin America based in La Paz, Bolivia; and personnel from the World Wide Emergencies Team in London. The assessment demonstrated the most urgent needs of older people and other vulnerable population groups, as part of the population affected by the internal armed conflict in the country. The main results of the assessment include:

• Both the Afro-Colombian population and the Awá population define an older person as being over 50 years old.

• The population over 50 years old in the designated areas makes up between 6.6% and 13.5% of the total population.

• Older people are one of the most vulnerable groups affected by the internal armed conflict and recurrent natural disasters. Therefore, it is necessary to guarantee that they have equal access to humanitarian aid services ensuring a differentiated approach; where necessary and relevant older people should be provided with specific interventions that are adapted to their needs.

• In all the areas assessed food security and livelihoods are sectors in need of immediate assistance. Recovering traditional cultivation systems, assistance to improve productive and income generation activities, analysis of possible access to markets and even food aid in specific cases, are defined as priority actions to be considered within this sector.

• Protection is the second intervention priority for the three areas visited.
  Community based initiatives with a special focus on older people would allow to improve self-protection mechanisms and transfer of important traditional knowledge to new generations. The most suitable mechanism to develop the protection sector has shown to be the integration of a differentiated approach for older people when creating and revising community contingency plans.

• Interventions to support access and accessibility to health services as enshrined in the Universal Right to Health should be considered in all areas, , particularly in Buenaventura. Temporary remedial actions should be complemented with support to advocacy initiatives to ensure the implementation of institutional policies at different levels of the Colombian health system, to guarantee that needs are met. A differentiated approach should be applied in the care and treatment of older people, in addition to promoting their affiliation to the Subsidised Health System.