This working Paper maps the range of natural hazards and other risks to which people in Mexico and Central America are exposed and relates these to the complex social, economic, political and cultural factors that make some social sectors more critically vulnerable than others in emergencies. It also identifies the wide range of local capacities - organisational, social, governmental, and non-governmental - that can contribute to developing effective disaster-prevention and mitigation programmes, as well as emergency rehabilitation and reconstruction programmes.Monica Trujillo works for Oxfam GB as Emergency Programme Co-ordinator in Honduras. Amado Ordonez is the Director of Centro Humnoldt, an environment and development agency in Nicaragua. Dr Carlos Hernandez, formerly employed by the Ministry of Health in Nicaragua, is an independent consultant in the field of community health