Haiti has the highest rates of infant, under-five and maternal mortality in the Western hemisphere. Diarrhea, respiratory infections, malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS are the leading causes of death. It is estimated that about 5.6 per cent of people aged 15-49 years old in Haiti are living with HIV/AIDS. This includes about 17,000 children. Antiretroviral drugs are extremely scarce. Some 60 per cent of people, primarily in rural areas, lack access to basic health-care services Violence against civilians remains a major concern More than 22 percent of children in Haiti are suffering from chronic malnutrition

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CERF allocates almost $600,000 to Haiti in the wake of Hurricane Dean

Children at Lycee de Damia, near Cite Soleil [Photo: MINUSTAH/Paris]

24 September 2007: Ongoing deteriorating economic and environmental conditions have left several parts of Haiti severely affected by the consequences of flooding and other natural disasters. Heavy rains, combined with the recent passage of Hurricane Dean through Haiti have caused massive flooding, affecting several communities and causing the death of a number of persons and the destruction and/or damage to several hundred houses.

Vast areas of land were submerged causing extensive damages to livestock, crops, rural and urban housing, roads, river/canal embankments and other infrastructure. Communities that have been the most affected by recent natural calamities are Toman (central Haiti) as well as coastal areas of the South, South-East and Grande-Anse departments, the cities of Les Cayes, Jacmel and Jeremie in particular.

The CERF grant of $207,580 to FAO will provide agricultural assistance improve the food security of 10,000 vulnerable farmers affected by Hurricane Dean.

Since Hurricane Dean hit Haiti on 18 and 19 August 2007, many municipalities in the south were severely affected, particularly the agricultural and fishing industries. Many crops were destroyed, thus aggravating the already existing food insecurity situation. FAO will provide humanitarian assistance to farmers in the south and, as a consequence of tropical storms in July 2007, to 600 families in the Toman area.

IOM’s CERF grant of $254,664 will seek to improve the provision of temporary shelter. This project aims to provide rapid support to an estimated 6,500 individuals most affected by Hurricane Dean and earlier heavy rains in the communities of Toman, Les Cayes, Jeremie and Jacmel through the improvement of temporary shelter. IOM will provide immediate improvement to 13 temporary emergency shelter sites in the southern area that has been most severely affected by Hurricane Dean and setting-up of a semi-permanent shelter site in a major flood-affected area in the west of Haiti, Toman accompanied by providing water, sanitation and hygiene facilities.

[Last Update: 27 September 2007]

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CERF allocates almost US$ 1.3 million to underfunded activities in Haiti

1 August 2007: CERF allocates US$ 1.4 million to Haiti as part of the second under-funded allocation in 2007. The CERF under-funded grant of US$ 276,060 to UNICEF will rehabilitate water and sanitation systems in five of the most deprived areas of Port-au-Prince, which will benefit a total of 150,000 people. UNICEF will improve and extend water distribution systems, construct demonstration household latrines and support household hygiene promotion, train and equip local community masons in latrine building, and provide sanitation materials to local authorities.

In a classroom in Ecole primaire speciale a young student says that her aunt’s house was completely destroyed by armed militias during the recent conflict in Haiti [Photo: UNICEF/Delvigne-Jean]

WFP’s CERF grant of US$ 500,000 will provide assistance to food insecure persons in crisis situations in order to protect livelihoods and support the improved nutrition and health status of children, mothers and other vulnerable people. The project covers three interlinked situations:

• The relief component aiming to increase WFP’s ability to respond in a timely and adequate manner to identified food needs of targeted disaster/civil unrest affected populations.
• The food for livelihoods component aiming to increase the ability of food insecure and vulnerable households to manage shocks, secure livelihoods and meet food needs.
• The community nutrition aiming to improve the nutritional and health status of children, mothers and other vulnerable women through WFP-supported nutrition interventions.

WFP will ensure the distribution of a food supplement through established nutritional and health structures (such as health centers) in targeted departments and communities. WFP and its partners will also support community health workers and mobile clinics to extend outreach to isolated communities, benefiting about 73,000 beneficiaries, being 35,000 women and 38,000 children under five.

The community nutrition activity will cover all children between six-24 months and pregnant mothers in the second and third trimester as well as nursing mothers for six months, irrespective of their hemoglobin level, will be covered. Underweight children between 25 - 59 months will be enrolled in the programme for a maximum of six months.

WHO’s immunization campaign in marginalized urban settings of Port au Prince has benefited from a grant of US$ 500,000. The campaign will take place from September to November 2007. A pilot campaign has already reached 53% of the total population in the targeted communes and approximately 40,000 inhabitants of Port-au-Prince. The national campaign will seek to ensure that 95% of target populations have received vaccinations against measles and rubella, polio, diphtheria, tetanus, vitamin A, and broad spectrum antihelminthic. The project aims to benefit 5,506,429 people in total and besides the vaccination campaign other activities such as micro-planning, installation and repair of cold chain equipment, implementation of social mobilization program and training of vaccination teams and supervisors are planned.

 [Last Update: 5 October 2007]

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CERF responds to underfunded interventions in Haiti with US$ 2 million

21 March 2007: Haiti continues to be the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, with 80% of its population living in poverty. Access to basic public services (health, education, water and sanitation) is very unreliable and social indicators are alarming. 77% of the municipalities have a troubling lack of basic services: Less than 50% of the total population has access to potable water in both rural and urban areas; access to sanitary facilities is available to only to 28 percent of the population.

During the last year the violence against children in Port au Prince has continued largely unabated, MINUSTAH’s efforts to stem the violence notwithstanding. These efforts have included attempts to stabilize Cité Soleil and other troubled neighbourhoods by reinforcing the presence of UN CIVPOL and military contingents. Cité Soleil is the centre of armed violence in Haiti today. The neighbourhood, with a population that is said to have dropped from 800,000 to 200,000 residents, was completely under the control of armed groups until early 2007 when MINUSTAH operation re-established a (partial) presence of law and order. There are other neighbourhoods where the pervasiveness of violence, much of it directed against children, is almost equally alarming, notably Bel-Air, Grand Ravine and Cité de Dieu.

Children most at risk of being killed or maimed in the present climate of insecurity in Port-au-Prince have been street children. There are credible reports according to which dozens of street children have been the target of assassination attempts, many of which have been successful.

The deficiencies in matters of health and nutrition require placing an emphasis on the fight against infectious and contagious diseases and on reducing maternal-infant and child mortality. The regular monitoring of children’s growth, coupled with early warning systems linking high-risk cases to trained health specialists along with effective nutrition programs in at-risk communities should be considered priority interventions.

In accordance with the needs identified by the UN agencies in line with priorities identified by both the Government and NGOs, CERF funding will concentrate on under-funded immediate interventions on nutrition, protection and ravine control.

With the CERF grant, WFP will provide assistance to food insecure people. The project aims to increase the ability of WFP to respond in a timely and adequate manner to the food needs of food insecure and vulnerable populations affected by disaster/civil unrest in the various slums and difficult areas. Free food distribution will be organized within 48 hours after the reestablishment of security control in conflict areas, targeting 115,000 beneficiaries (17,000 women and 6,000 men and the additional 92,000 beneficiaries are the other 4 family members) who will receive food-aid, including High-Energy Biscuits.

For many people in Haiti, finding enough food is a struggle of its own. [Photo: WFP/Poulsen]

In Port au Prince communities where armed violence has been high, the rights of thousands of children to survival, development and protection have remained unmet for years. UNICEF will seek to protect children in the most violence-prone neighbourhoods of Port au Prince, mainly Cité Soleil, Martissant, Bel-Air and Carrefour Feuilles. The project will provide protection to 2,000 extremely vulnerable children and will improve community child protection systems. The project will be implemented in partnership with national and international NGOs.

The CERF grant will further allow for IOM to provide assistance and support to 150 child victims of trafficking in volatile neighbourhoods over the next four months (May - August 2007).

Considering that preliminary information from the latest survey indicates that the already critical nutritional situation is worsening, UNICEF will to implement a emergency project to significantly improve the nutritional status of 30,000 children under five, 5,000 breastfeeding mothers and 5,000 pregnant women in vulnerable areas affected by socio-political conflict.  The project will be implemented in partnership with the Ministry of Health, WFP and local and international NGOs.

In a preliminary assessment IOM found that uncontrolled rural to urban migration coupled with anarchic construction and unfettered deforestation along the capital’s hillsides have left some 550,000 residents at-risk of major loss of life and internal displacement due to the resulting frequent avalanches. To avert this impending large-scale humanitarian disaster especially affecting the most severely deprived Port au Prince shantytowns, CERF funding will allow IOM to construct retention walls along targeted mountain contours and ravines.  The aim of the project is to address an imminent humanitarian disaster that threatens a major loss of life, internal displacement and violence by reducing landslides and flood risks at four critical points in the metropolitan area of Port au Prince.

WHO will provide potable water in Martissant for an estimated 100,000 people, who have been deprived of basic essential services.

In 2006, Haiti received US$ 1 million from underfunded grants window in 2006.

One third of all funds from the Central Emergency Response Fund is earmarked for use in underfunded emergencies, in order to help redress imbalances in global aid distribution, as a result of which millions of people in so-called neglected or forgotten crises remain in need.

[Last Update: 14 May 2007]

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CERF in Haiti 2008

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