UNICEF

Ten years after the earthquake, and despite billions of dollars in assistance, hunger is a growing problem in Haiti.  Food insecurity has been made worse by political instability and its root cause, corruption.  Up to four million people are now facing severe hunger due to the downturn of an already weak economy and inflation.  Hunger undermines nutrition, health, education, and stability, and economic development or, in other words, the future.  Humanitarian responders like the World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) can provide food to the most vulnerable - but they can't fix the underlying problems.  This depends upon the Haitian people having an accountable, effective government that represents the interests of the many instead of the few.  An article by Jassica Obert in The New Humanitarian about food insecurity in Haiti follows. 

Haiti it a tough country to be a child, but especially one without family.  Insitutionalising children is rarely the right answer, especially in a country where oversight of orphanages is lax.  The better option is to provide children with the option of living, even temporarily, with a foster family.  At long last, Haiti is developing a national network of foster families so children don't wind up in orphanages, on the street or worse.  Haiti is early in this process but it it still represents real progress.  Participating famiies are not paid - they quite literally do it out of the goodness of their hearts.  The full article by AP journalist David Crary follows. 

The World Bank recently pledged $50 million for water and sanitation programs in Haiti.  The funding will cover all clinics and schools in rural areas that are considered hot-spots for cholera.  Haiti is one of a small number of countries in which sanitation deteriorated over the last twenty-five years. Investing in water and sanitation is essential for promoting public health.  More information follows:

Attached and copied below is a Refugees International (RI) report concerning opportunities to build on the bilateral relationship between Haiti and the Dominican Republic (DR) which has markedly improved since the earthquake.  The DR rightfully deserves credit for the solidarity showed to its neighbors in the weeks and months after the earthquake.  This solidarity now provides a foundation upon which to address challenges in the bilateral relationship, for the benefit of both countries, such as migration management and statelessness.       

The credibility of any government is determined in large part by its capacity and willingness to provide basic services.  Health care can bring people together when there is equal access, or divide people when there is not.  Before and after the earthquake, quality health care in Haiti was/is primarily provided by non-governmental and international organizations (NGOs/IOs). The NGOs and IOs have been instrumental in keeping disease outbreaks at bay and access to health care for many residents in Port au Prince, at least for now, is better than it was before the earthquake.  While significant accomplishments, much more remains to be done before we can say that the health care system is truly being reconstructed. 

As we get closer to May, the rains will become more frequent and intense.  Even brief rainfall to date gives an indication of how vulnerable the displaced in Port au Prince are to flooding and mud-slides. Some, such as the displaced at the Petionville Golf Club are being relocated to the hastily prepared Corail-Cesselesse site 15 km north of Port au Prince. Six other sites require urgent evacuation before the rainy season.  Other sites can be made safer with engineering interventions.  Disturbingly, hundreds sheltering at the National Stadium were reported to have been forcibly removed.  Close coordination and rapid action are urgently needed to protect the displaced from the upcoming rains. 

March 22 is World Water Day.  Growing up, like many others, I did not appreciate how lucky I was to have clean, safe water.  We need it to drink and become sick if we do not have it.  We need it for agriculture and would become hungry without it.  We need it for washing, bathing, and clean health care facilities.  Likewise we need sanitation and hygiene to protect food, water, and health.  One billion people around the world still lack clean drinking water and 2.6 billion lack access to basic sanitation.  It doesn’t have to be this way.  World Water Day is an opportunity to ask what we can do in the year ahead to address the world's water crisis. 

Immediately after the earthquake, information came out of Haiti in a trickle.  It is now more like a flood.  As of February 3, the Government of Haiti (GOH) increased its death toll estimate to over 200,000.  300,000 are reported to have been injured, 250,000 homes destroyed, and 30,000 businesses disrupted.  Assessments carried out by MINUSTAH now indicate a 15-20% population increase in the South, Grand Anse, Nippes, and Central Plateau departments due to displacement from Port-au-Prince.  Below is a summary of where things stand in terms of emergency response and recovery. 

When people think of Haiti, they often think of hunger, and not without reason. Though there has been significant progress over the past year, hunger remains a pervasive problem.  Achieving food security is fundamental to nutrition, health, education, economic growth, stability and all the other issues we lump under “development.”  There are well intentioned groups, such as this one from Kansas, that often try to send packages of food to Haiti.  It might make one feel good, but in reality, it does little good. There is much that we can do to promote food security in Haiti, but it is up to us to ensure that our time, energy, and resources make an actual, and not just a perceived, difference.

JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc. is a health research/consulting firm dedicated to improving the health of individuals and communities worldwide.  JSI visited Haiti in January 2009 to identify gaps in the availability and accessibility of reproductive health (RH) services and to assess community responses for strengthening quality, accessibility and availability.  Reproductive health is a social issue, a public health issue, a human rights issue, a security issue, and one that is important for countries that are fragile, stable, or in Haiti's case, teetering in between.  The report is attached and deserves to be widely read.