USAID Joins International Coalition to Prevent Violence in the Americas

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has joined a coalition of international agencies that are involved in helping countries to prevent violence at the community and national levels.

The Inter-American Coalition for the Prevention of Violence was created in 2000 to deal with a problem that reportedly encompasses about 300,000 people, most of them young men, who die each year in the Americas due to homicides, suicide, and motor vehicle accidents.

USAID Administrator Andrew Natsios, who announced April 12 that his agency was joining the coalition, argued that "socialization of young men is the key issue" in preventing violence, which he said has increased markedly since the end of the Cold War.

USAID joins the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the Organization of American States (OAS), the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in the coalition. The coalition said it has developed a "systematic plan" to prevent violence in the Americas by working to collect data, design new programs, and develop best practices.

A major problem related to violence in the region is said to be psychological and physical abuse of women at the hands of their domestic partners. Violence against children is also said to be prevalent, while juvenile gang violence has become a huge social problem in many countries throughout the Americas.

OAS Secretary General Cesar Gaviria said crime rates are as much as six times higher in the Americas than in other regions. He said that while the roots of the problem are complex, "the situation is quite critical and is visibly deteriorating." Most countries, he said, "lack a systematic effort to prevent violence and no one feels responsible for the problem."

The CDC estimates that 5,000 people around the world die each day from homicides, suicide, or war. "Violence is an unacceptable global public health problem that is preventable," the CDC added. The agency said that Latin America, the Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa have the world's highest homicide rates. PAHO said: "Violence is a serious problem in the Americas and the nature of the topic lends itself to a multi-agency approach. It is critical that we have some idea of the risk factors, and we need good data, especially on domestic violence and child abuse."

Violence, PAHO said, "is a learned behavior, but it can be unlearned through health and education approaches."

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