Haiti

Humanitarian Situation

Almost three years after the devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti, an estimated 357,785 people (138,000 children) are still living in crowded temporary settlements, dependent on aid and at higher risk of exposure to abuse and exploitation.¹ In 2013, these children will continue to need access to humanitarian and social services, while their families and caregivers are helped to make a sustainable move to communities of return. Although incidence and mortality rates have declined dramatically since 2010, the cholera epidemic sickened more than 87,735 people and caused the deaths of more than 700 between January and October 2012². Also, the passage of Hurricane Sandy in October 2012 damaged or destroyed more than 6,000 homes, 30 water networks and 150 schools, leaving some 54,000 people in need of shelter, 830,000 suffering from an interruption in access to water and some 50,000 children (25,000 girls³) in need of education support.⁴ Damage to health facilities and key transportation routes temporarily constrained access to lifesaving health services, while flooding destroyed crops on 90,000 hectares of agricultural land, rendering some 1.5 million people, already vulnerable from drought and the impact of Hurricane Isaac in late August, food insecure.⁵

Results from 2012

UNICEF originally appealed for US$24,105,000 and later – due to the reduced number of people living in camps and the limited time remaining to implement all planned activities – revised the requirements down to US$17,116,515 as part of the Consolidated Appeals Process (CAP) mid-year review. However, following the passage of Hurricane Sandy in October, UNICEF’s requirements were raised to US$21,300,000 to cover increased WASH and nutrition needs necessary to contain and address the spread of cholera and other waterborne diseases. As of 31 October, US$10,750,853, or 50 per cent of the revised requirement, had been received as contributions. With this, UNICEF and partners were able to reach more than 3 million children with immunizations, extending coverage to 70 hard-to-reach communities. More than 300,000 people in camps benefited from efforts to maintain safe sanitation through latrine maintenance, and more than 121,000 people in disadvantaged urban communities received improved water services. UNICEF also reinforced the capacity of local authorities to manage the cholera outbreak, supporting the scale-up of more than 149 cholera treatment units, two cholera treatment centres and 1,270 oral rehydration points, enabling more than 139,000 suspected cases of cholera to be treated since the outbreak in 2010. Some 4,358 community health and sanitation agents and 1,453 health providers also received training on cholera and appropriate messaging, allowing their knowledge ultimately to reach more than 2 million people. UNICEF also supported the rehabilitation of 48 permanent health structures in the north in order to retain technical resources and integrate cholera treatment in the routine health systems package. In education, 196 semi-permanent schools, including classrooms and sex-segregated, age-appropriate WASH facilities, have been constructed since the earthquake, bringing a safer, healthier learning environment to more than 100,000 children. Some 750,000 children received learning materials to reduce financial barriers to education in 2012, and some 100,000 children received micronutrient supplements and 8,000 severely malnourished children received treatment. The first ever directory of residential care centres was published and 446 out of 776 centres were evaluated according to minimum national standards. Some 16,000 children out of an estimated 30,000 living in residential care facilities were registered to improve case management and facilitate family reunification, despite significant challenges, including insufficient personnel to handle case management. Some 120,000 children accessed structured recreation and referral networks through 520 child-friendly spaces. The nutrition and education clusters and the child protection sub-cluster transferred their coordination capacities to national institutions in 2012, while the WASH cluster maintained its dedicated support to the WASH directorate. Constraints included the difficulty of reaching remote regions for cholera response, as well as the weak capacity of local partners, which often created delays in programme implementation.

UNICEF funding requirements for 2013

In line with the critical humanitarian needs plan of the United Nations and partners , UNICEF is requesting $11,650,000 to support Haiti’s national response to prolonged displacement, the persistent cholera epidemic and food insecurity augmented by Hurricane Sandy. Without rapid humanitarian action, the confluence of these crises is likely to further erode the coping mechanisms of vulnerable children, accelerate cholera transmission and degrade the health and nutritional status of children. While this publication focuses on the most urgent of needs, UNICEF’s country programme, in alignment with the UN Integrated Strategic Framework for Haiti, addresses recovery and development-oriented programming.