UN LAUNCHES PLAN TO ADDRESS EMERGENCY NEEDS IN HAITI

UN LAUNCHES PLAN TO ADDRESS EMERGENCY NEEDS IN HAITI

NEW YORK, 22 April (Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) -- In Port-au-Prince today, The United Nations Country Team for Haiti appealed for $84 million to address the emergency needs of the poorest of Haiti’s 8.3 million people over the next 18 months.  The “Integrated Emergency Response Programme (IERP):  Targeting Vulnerable Communities and Populations in Haiti” will address urgent needs for food security, improved water and sanitation, access to health and education, and mitigation of natural disasters.

Through the programme, the United Nations seeks to mobilize the international community to respond to an extremely serious humanitarian situation in Haiti, a crisis that threatens to get worse.  The programme seeks to address the needs of the most vulnerable of Haiti’s population by meeting immediate humanitarian needs in the short-term and improving food security in the long-term.

The IERP has three overlapping phases covering periods of six, 12, and 18 months.  The first phase is made up of emergency interventions aimed at preventing loss of life and alleviating suffering.  The most vulnerable populations -- including families who have taken children orphaned by HIV/AIDS, will receive food aid, essential medicines and water through programs of six months duration.  The IERP seeks $14.4 million dollars for these projects.

The programme’s second phase aims at enabling farmers to resume production and improving access to basic services over a 12-month period.  Programs under this phase, for which roughly $22 million is sought, include providing farmers with agricultural inputs and livestock.  Other programmes seek to upgrade health capital, improve the schooling rate increase access to clean drinking water, immunize against communicable diseases and rehabilitate roads.

The third phase, reconstruction and consolidation, includes projects designed to reduce food insecurity by diversifying opportunities for economic growth and development over a period of 18 months.  Interventions in this phase include projects to reduce vulnerability to natural disasters, as well as projects for education, governance, and security.  The United Nations Country Team requires $47.5 million to carry out this phase of the IERP.

According to the United Nations Development Program, 56 per cent of Haiti’s population is suffering from malnutrition.  Only 46 per cent of the population has access to clean drinking water, and 42 percent of its population lives beneath the poverty line.  Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

For further information, please contact Brian Grogan (212) 963-1143.

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