January 2011 CHILDREN IN HAITI One Year After — The long road from relief to recovery “In the last year, the people of Haiti have faced overwhelming challenges, from the devastating earthquake that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, to a cholera outbreak, to floods and other di- sasters. I have seen first-hand the everyday heroism of Haitian citizens and their supporters that is helping to rebuild Haiti. Today, despite extreme difficulties, evermore children are being immunized, more children are being reunited with their families, and more children are attending school again. This is proof that progress is possible— even in the worst of circumstances—when we all work together. In 2011, we must reaffirm our commitment to build a better future for all of Haiti’s children.” Anthony Lake, UNICEF Executive Director © UNICEF/HTIA2010-00508/Dormino Contents Executive Summary 4 Overview/Fast Facts 5 Context: Persistent Bottlenecks and New Challenges 6 Programme Commitments Water Sanitation and Hygiene 8 Education 10 Child Protection 12 Health 14 Nutrition 16 Cross-cutting Priorities 18 Operational Commitments 22 Resource Mobilisation 24 Looking Forward 26 UNICEF Partners 28 Acronyms 29 Executive Summary One year on, children in Haiti are still reeling from the 94,800 children. Capacity-building to ensure that norms lingering impact of the 12 January earthquake, which re- and legal frameworks better promote children’s rights was mains the single largest catastrophe to hit the country in also accelerated, from training and deploying more social centuries. More than 220,000 lives were lost and count- workers through to upgrading legal frameworks to create less families were fractured with 750,000 children di- a protective environment for children. rectly affected. Still today more than one million people Throughout the year, UNICEF also played a role in coor- remain displaced, living in crowded camps where liveli- dinating more than 430 partners in the Education, Water, hoods, shelter and services are still hardly sufficient for Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), and Nutrition Clusters, children to stay healthy, fulfil their right to education, re- coordinating as well the Child Protection Sub-Cluster. main protected and have access to safe water, sanitation UNICEF also played a key role in the Health Cluster coordi- and hygiene. Bottlenecks to recovery have meanwhile nated by the World Health Organization (WHO), and in the slowed the pace of reconstruction, prolonging humani- Gender-Based Violence Sub-Cluster led by the United Na- tarian needs into 2011. Towards the end of the year chol- tions Population Fund (UNFPA). UNICEF was thus engaged era also broke out in Haiti—in an area that had not been in facilitating sectoral level processes aimed at jointly affected by the quake—and the disease quickly spread to ensuring the establishment and maintenance of appropri- all ten departments, sweeping away thousands of lives ate humanitarian coordination mechanisms. This included in the space of a few weeks. Political crisis following the coordination with national/local authorities, attention November elections made matters worse with insecurity to cross-cutting issues, needs assessment and analysis, impeding humanitarian actors’ capacity to move swiftly planning, strategy development, application of standards, to save lives and expand coverage of preventive inter- monitoring and reporting, and supporting capacity devel- ventions to contain the disease. opment of cluster members and national partners. UNICEF, a long-term development partner in Haiti over UNICEF has also ensured preparedness to respond to new decades, focused all of its response in 2010 on its Core emergencies. Mobile emergency teams and contingency Commitments for Children in Humanitarian Action stocks pre-positioned in twelve different locations in the 1 (CCCs) in the face of a truly unprecedented children’s country served in the response to Hurricane Tomas in emergency. Working with national and private sector November, and proved critical in ensuring an immediate partners, UNICEF ensured that up to 680,000 people (out responses to the cholera outbreak, with supplies delivered of 1.2 million people reached by the Cluster) had access to local hospitals to save lives and to local communities to safe water at the height of the earthquake-emergency to protect themselves from the disease within the first 24 through water-trucking efforts, and UNICEF is now tran- hours of the outbreak. To date, UNICEF is supporting 72 sitioning to more sustainable solutions while looking at health facilities in the country to treat patients with chol- investments in rural water and sanitation systems and era, and is leveraging networks and partners to reach1.5 hygiene promotion in the context of cholera. million children in schools, residential care centres and Close to two million children were immunised against six hard-to-reach communities, with essential supplies and key vaccine-preventable diseases, while UNICEF worked prevention messages. with partners to reach more than 102,000 children and Looking back at the past year, new crises should not 48,900 mothers with nutrition counselling and treated overshadow the results achieved for children—but they more than 11,250 children suffering from severe acute should serve as a potent reminder of the extreme fragility malnutrition. In Education, UNICEF and partners also of their situation. Years before the earthquake, Haiti was worked around the clock between January and March already suffering from deep disparities, extreme poverty so that earthquake-affected children could return to their abetted by fragile infrastructure and weak to absent social classrooms when schools reopened in April. In a context safety nets. Looking forward, UNICEF commitments for where needs remain daunting and where less than half 2011 will be to address all that is unfinished in the earth- of all children are in school, UNICEF extended the quake response and maintaining what has been achieved effort to the whole country at the start of the 2010-2011 for children’s health, access to safe water and sanita- school year, reaching 720,000 children and 15,000 teach- tion, nutrition, education and protection, while seeking ers in 2,000 schools. to strengthen communities’ resilience and help Haiti’s Partnerships in Child Protection meanwhile helped women and children lift themselves out of vulnerability. As register and reunite children who were separated in the a relentless advocate for children, UNICEF also pledges to aftermath of the earthquake, and UNICEF worked with ensure their voices are heard, and that children are at the national and international partners to offer children centre of recovery—it is their vision for their country which daily opportunities to reclaim their childhood through will be our blueprint to build a Haiti Fit for Children. the establishment of 369 Child-Friendly-Spaces serving All results reported are as of 14 December 2010. 1UNICEF CCCs were re-issued in April as CCCs in Humanitarian Action, with the 4 • Children in Haiti - One Year After the Earthquake initial response guided by the previous CCCs. Overview A new year begins in Haiti and for some children— Fast Facts who are returning to a rehabilitated home and to new classrooms—it starts with promise and optimism. But • Just over one million people remain displaced for far too many others, it begins almost as it began —380,000 of them children—as a result of the in 2010, in displacement, as well as in sickness and January earthquake, living in a total 1,200 mourning as yet another crisis is bearing down on displacement sites. communities and collective plans for the future. This is the reality in Haiti, where generations of children have • At the height of the emergency UNICEF and been born and raised in poverty, amidst political strife, WASH Cluster partners were collectively social unrest, economic crises and nutrition insecurity. reaching 1.2 million people with safe water. Ranked 149th out of 162 countries on the Human De- Today, UNICEF is focusing on building velopment Index in 2009, Haiti has long been charac- sustainable solutions for access to safe water. terised by weak institutions and governance. Adding Since January UNICEF and partners installed an incredible burden to an already complex environ- more than 11,300 latrines out of 15,300 set-up ment, the unprecedented emergency triggered by by the WASH Cluster whose overall efforts are the January 2010 earthquake led to the death of over serving a total 1.7 million people . 220,000 people. Later in the year illness and death also • Some 720,000 children are receiving support returned with cholera’s quick spread to all ten depart- in a nationwide “All to School” campaign ments in Haiti. in 2,000 schools, also reaching 15,000 Despite the rubble and the ruin there was a timid teachers with materials and training. sense of hope in the capacity of Haiti to overcome in • 94,800 children are benefiting from daily the very first weeks after the quake. This optimism was opportunities for sports and recreational spurred by extraordinary declarations of international activities in a network of 369 Child-Friendly solidarity, pledges of billions of dollars of aid—and the Spaces in earthquake-affected areas. arrival of literally thousands of aid organisations with capacity to push through recovery efforts that were • With partners in the Health Cluster, UNICEF needed long before the earthquake. worked to protect more than 1.9 million children from being needlessly exposed to six Continued displacement, the emergence of cholera in key vaccine-preventable diseases. late 2010 (and its rapid spread throughout the country in less than three weeks), and riots after the elections • There has been no increase in levels of acute provided a heart wrenching reality check that children malnutrition in children under five. UNICEF continue to face serious challenges. Gaps also remain continues to support therapeutic feeding in the earthquake response and decade-long dispari- centres which treated more than 11,250 children with severe acute malnutrition.