The Inter-American Conference on Social Security (CISS) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Office in Mexico jointly organized the conference “Natural Disasters in Latin America: Welfare Impacts and Social Protection Solutions” held in Mexico City in January 2010. The main objectives of the conference were to improve the understanding of (i) how natural disasters affect household’s welfare, and (ii) how can social protection better protect livelihoods against disaster impacts.

This volume presents five papers from the above conference. Three case studies which analyze how natural disasters affect poverty in the short and long-run, and two policy papers that discuss country experiences in the region and elsewhere to show how social protection mechanisms (one paper emphasizing conditional cash transfer programs), can shield households from natural disasters.