Partner Profile: Luis Romano

Posted: 7 November 2006

by Elizabeth Stevens

In the summer of 2006, a small team of Oxfam America staff toured some of the sites in El Salvador where our partners are carrying out programs to reduce the impact of earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, and other natural hazards on the country's many impoverished communities. One evening, Tjarda Muller and Elizabeth Stevens met with Luis Romano to discuss his work as Coordinator of the Regional Risk Management Initiative for the Humboldt Center, an Oxfam partner in El Salvador and Nicaragua.

"A disaster is not just a physical event, but the effect of the phenomenon on a vulnerable community or society." Luis Romano began our interview in a busy Mexican restaurant in San Salvador.

His observation sounds simple on the surface, but its implications should be enough to send government policy makers around the world scurrying off to rethink their national spending priorities.

Traditional thinking has it that from time to time "natural disasters," such as hurricanes, landslides, and earthquakes, strike communities and cause injuries and deaths that are tragic but unavoidable. At times like these, governments and aid agencies must launch humanitarian relief efforts to help survivors return their lives to normal.

Not being much of a traditional thinker, Luis Romano has a different take on things.

"We've found that not all of society is prone to disaster," he said. "Rather, it is a certain sector of society: the poorest. Those without access to basic services. Those without well-constructed homes. Those living on the banks of rivers, at the edges of ravines, at the feet of volcanoes."

"We cannot say that disasters are natural. Some physical events are natural, such as landslides, tornadoes, earthquakes, drought, hurricanes, etc. But the effects of these events are not natural; they are built on social practices. Disasters are socio-natural events. If we accept this, we are also accepting that disasters can be prevented."

In other words, in the proverbial recipe for disaster, poverty is a key ingredient.

Romano has been an activist in El Salvador since before it was even remotely safe to be one. His education was steeped in the Jesuit values of engagement on social justice issues, and after graduating from college he spent 13 years working as an economist for a progressive Jesuit publication. The man who hired him, Ignacio Ellacuria, was a priest whose work and philosophy he admired greatly--and whose violent death affected him deeply: Ellacuria was one of the six Jesuit priests assassinated by the Salvadoran military in 1989.

"I was shocked by his death and by the deaths of the other priests, their cook, and her daughter," said Luis. "From then on we worked with more enthusiasm." He plunged into the effort to find out who carried out the massacre, and to carry forward the work the priest had begun in ending the civil war.

In 1993, with the war concluded, Romano turned his attention to disaster risk management, a choice that to fellow activists appeared to be a departure from his lifelong work for social change. "People told us, 'you guys are crazy,'" said Luis. "That work is for the Red Cross, the police, the fire department.' Then Mitch struck."

In late November of 1998, Hurricane Mitch, one of the most destructive storms in the history of the western hemisphere, slammed into Central America. For five days and nights, heavy rains pounded the region, triggering landslides and floods that displaced hundreds of thousands of people and killed close to 20,000. In the aftermath of the storm, it became painfully clear that the poor had borne the brunt of the vast destruction.

"After Mitch, those same people began to see the relation of disasters to environmental, educational, and political issues…The problem began to be viewed not just as a matter of humanitarian response, but as a problem of development."

In the post-Mitch world, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) of all stripes have come to understand the importance of incorporating risk management into their programs. "Oxfam America was perhaps the most forward-looking of the NGOs," said Romano.

But governments are lagging, choosing to put resources into responding to disasters that have already occurred rather than addressing risks proactively.

Luis and his organization--with help from Oxfam--are working to change all that. They advocate with governments throughout the region to replace outdated disaster-response laws with legislation that authorizes spending on disaster prevention; they work to ensure that community voices are incorporated into national risk-management policies, and they train NGOs in risk assessment and management.

Central to the work of the Humboldt Center is changing the course of development. "Development can create the conditions for future disasters," said Romano. "We have to promote better development practices."

From time to time we interrupted our discussion to watch television broadcasts of the major news story of the day: a demonstration protesting a bus fare hike had turned violent, and two police officers had been shot and killed. It was one of the many signs of strain that are clearly visible in this country, where 60% of the population lives on less than two dollars a day, but where the cost of a middle class lifestyle is not significantly lower than in the U.S.

The restaurant was nearly empty by the time we were done.

"These candies are awful," Luis said gravely, as he tried to chew his after-dinner mint. We began to laugh. The lateness of the hour, the tension of the day's violence, and the painful topics of our discussion collided with the fun of watching Luis turn his formidable attention to the gluey candy, and the three of us were suddenly convulsed with laughter.

Saying our farewells, I was struck -- not for the first time -- by the caliber of our partners in El Salvador. The commitment and vision of people like Luis Romano of the Humboldt Center and Mauricio Sermeño of UNES -- an Oxfam partner that recently helped create new, more progressive legislation on disasters -- have not only helped shine a spotlight on the role of poverty in disasters: they are bringing about shifts in policy that are likely to make a real difference to the people whose lives depend on it.

Read about how Oxfam's disaster-preparedness programs in El Salvador are strengthening communities.

Latest update: July 2006