The activities proposed hereafter are still subject to the adoption of the financing decision ECHO/WWD/BUD/2014/01000
AMOUNT: EUR 18 500 000
- CONTEXT
ECHO's Integrated Analysis Framework for 2013-2014 identified high humanitarian needs in Haiti. The vulnerability of the population affected by the crisis is assessed to be very high.
Strengthening resilience1of vulnerable communities in Haiti is of paramount importance and is a common objective of European Union (E.U.) humanitarian and development assistance as it aims to simultaneously tackle the whole range of key risks that induce crises and address the structural causes of vulnerability. The scale and frequency of successive shocks that have affected the country have left people’s coping mechanisms eroded. Humanitarian assistance is still required to help vulnerable populations to recover and be ready to accommodate future shocks. In line with the Resilience Agenda, a strong emphasis will be put on building the resilience of the poorest households by linking relief, rehabilitation and development and by strengthening donor coordination. Addressing the main humanitarian needs through a ''resilience lens'' will ultimately contribute to increase the level of resilience of individuals and households to future shocks.
The Republic of Haiti is the poorest nation of the Latin America and Caribbean region with 78% of the 10 million citizens living with less than USD 2/day. It ranks 161 out of 186 countries2 in the Human Development Index. This extreme poverty reflects on social indicators such as literacy, life expectancy, mother and child mortality and chronic malnutrition. Institutions’ weakness and precarious governance have a direct impact and greatly hampers the effective implementation of development strategies and reconstruction.
The country is globally characterized by a lack of infrastructure and public services (i.e. Ministère de la Santé Publique et de la Population managing only 15% of health institutions in the country), very weak economic capacities (heavily indebted poor country) and poor governmental institutions leadership. Health care system is extremely weak in term of coverage and quality leading to the worst health indicators in the region. Half of the people lack access to clean water and only one in five have access to sanitation. Moreover, the country is recurrently facing problems of food insecurity, with 0.8 million people who were living in severe food insecurity in 2011, number that almost doubled at the end of 2012 following the impact of Isaac and Sandy and the drought in 2012.
The January 2010 earthquake destroyed the capital Port au Prince and the areas around the epicentre (222 750 deaths, civil service workforce reduced by a third, 300 000 injured, 1.5 million inhabitants displaced, 313 000 houses damaged or destroyed). Nine months later, Haiti was struck by a cholera epidemic (more than 669 396 cases to date including 8 217 fatalities), making it the world's largest cholera epidemics ever recorded and still producing more cases than the entire world. In August and October 2012, Haiti was successively hit by tropical storm Isaac and hurricane Sandy that further exacerbated the food insecurity situation. Indeed, the country is exposed to a wide range of cyclical, often annual, natural hazards (earthquakes, cyclones, floods, landslides, drought), severely impacting the population’s already weak ability to recover from even small or medium disasters. Extreme poverty, uncontrolled urbanization and environmental degradation (2% forest cover) have also contributed in creating a vicious circle leading the population to increasingly resort to detrimental coping mechanisms.