Peace Corps

Programs to Combat Global Disasters

The USPC has long contributed to a broad range of programs, such as human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) and food insecurity, considered vital components of integrated risk reduction. Epidemics, degradation, and deforestation—events less often recognized as humanitarian disasters due to their slow onset, mixed origins, and daily nature—are regularly targeted by Peace Corps volunteers across the globe. In November 2004, an historic agreement between USPC and the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) was signed to promote food security and rural livelihoods worldwide, thereby focusing on improved resilience to physical disasters such as droughts, locusts, and destructive storms. Education volunteers have long built local capacities and trained future leaders, thereby further contributing to national risk reduction and resilience.

Comprehensive surveys of returned volunteers have highlighted that a vast majority of volunteers would reenlist and, more importantly, 78 percent are actively engaged in domestic service upon their return. Given this proven track record, the last three administrations have all publicly promoted a reinforcement and increase of the efforts of the USPC.

In the event of a disaster (those driven mainly by conflict, but also frequently by natural hazards), USPC typically relocates volunteers to safe areas, which often results in volunteers waiting out the crisis in nearby countries or the termination of volunteer contracts. With few exceptions, prioritizing security results in the inability of volunteers to contribute actively to a community in crisis just before or following a disaster event. Security protocols are prioritized over the desires of some volunteers to remain behind to assist the communities into which they are well integrated.

Partially in response to the unmet needs of those communities left behind, Peace Corps Director Gearan created Crisis Corps to exist within the organization in 1995. Its mandate was to capitalize on the skills of returned Peace Corps volunteers, engaging them in humanitarian action involving both post-disaster and conflict situations. Typically, these deployments are short-term (from three to eight months) and high-intensity, as compared to normal Peace Corps service. The first deployment of Crisis Corp volunteers was in December 1995, to assist in the aftermath of Hurricane Luis in Antigua. By 1998, Crisis Corps volunteers had been sent to dozens of countries. As a response to the influx of refugees into Guinea's forest region at the end of the 1990s, Crisis Corps sent teams to assist NGOs in the humanitarian response, making it the third largest Crisis Corps program even 10 years later. Other large programs include Malawi, Zambia, and Kenya.

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