Issue # 9 17 August 2010 Humanitarian Highlights - Contingency planning continues for Léogane, Petit Goâve and Port-au-Prince - The Host Communities working group is working to promote the importance of humanitarian assistance outside the capital to support the recovery of host families and reverse the trend of returning IDPs - With a returnee package of food and Cash-for-Work contracts, 125 IDP families in Jacmel return to repaired homes or transitional shelters. SITUATION OVERVIEW Humanitarian facts and figures Contingency Planning INFORMATION FIGURES SOURCE With the peak of the hurricane season approaching, Affected Over 2 Million people affected GoH efforts to finalise contingency plans at national and population departmental level continue. The Civil Protection Destroyed or 188,383 houses GoH Department (DPC) have finalised the National partially Contingency Plan for June to November 2010, which damaged houses is now awaiting final validation by the Government. Assessed 232,496 buildings, including Ministry of Buildings 156,360 residences have been Public Works assessed by the Ministry of (UNOPS) At departmental level, special sessions on Public Works. 05 August contingency planning are being held in Petit Goave 50.2 % (118,442) Green and Léogane. Hurricane shelter assessment 27.3% (64,416) Yellow 22.4% (52,986) Red continues in Léogane. Displaced people 1.3 Million people DPC/IOM Preparedness and early warning messaging has in settlement June 2010 now been approved by the Civil Protection sites People migrating 661,000 people (majority living GoH Department (DPC) will roll out in four phases. from West in host families) General awareness raising content will be Department disseminated until the end of hurricane season, Spontaneous 1,354 sites DTM evacuation preparedness alerts will be given 48 settlement sites 5 August hours before a storm hits, and evacuation orders/alerts will go out 24 hours in advance. Alerts Camp Sites registered: 602 across IOM management affected area 31 July will be initiated by DPC based on information from Number of households: the National Meteorological Centre of Haiti (CNM) 202,767 and disseminated via local radio, television, Camp 186 sites have now been IOM community mobilisation teams and through SMS. assessment and assessed for vulnerability to 10 August mitigation storms and flooding. The Updates on weather activity including tropical storms target is now 300. Mitigation and cyclones can be found at the CNM website works have been completed in http://www.meteo-haiti.gouv.ht/ . 25 sites. Transitional 8,069 transitional shelters Shelter shelter constructed, an additional Cluster Particular efforts are being made to facilitate construction 16,790 transitional shelters are 12 August preparedness among populations in camps. They already in country and ready are extremely vulnerable to floods, landslides, for construction and 34,835 in hurricanesas well as and smaller storms. Given the the pipeline. high numbers of the displaced (an estimated 1.3 Flash Appeal 67 % funded Financial Funding Tracking million) large scale evacuation is not a practical Service strategy and thus efforts are focusing on ensuring (FTS) camps are as prepared as possible to cope. In addition to mitigation work, extensive work is Interim Reconstruction Commission ongoing to assist camp populations to prepare, and The Interim Haiti Reconstruction Commission to develop evacuation strategies at camp level. (IHRC) holds its second meeting on 17 August in Humanitarian Bulletin 17/08/2010 /Issue # 9 Port au Prince. This meeting will focus on decentralization, which needs to become operational consideration and approval of a range of projects on a humanitarian level to ensure people are not key to reconstruction. The Commission will also drawn to the capital as they have been in the past. identify and lay out key priority areas in the short Existing support to host families includes: and long term. The IHRC was founded on 21 April by Presidential Decree and is charged with • The Protection Cluster with (United Nations developing and refining Haiti’s development plans, High Commission for Refugees) UNHCR is assessing needs and gaps for investments and implementing small community based projects ensuring that the implementation of plans is in areas with significant presence of IDPs in coordinated, effective, transparent and delivers real host families, such as in Artibonite and change. All post earthquake projects or programmes Southwest Departements and the border with funded by donors or non-governmental the Dominican Republic. These projects organisations NGOs are required to be submitted to address the material needs of communities (i.e. the IHRC, as are private sector projects or programs income generation, education, water and deemed by the IHRC to be of “National sanitation), promote cohabitation and tension Significance”. The IHRC is co-chaired by Prime reduction and, strengthen protection monitoring Minister Bellerive of Haiti and President Clinton. mechanisms. Host Communities • The American Red Cross (ARC) will support The Host Communities Working Group is host communities, host families, and IDPs with increasingly concerned by the lack of support to host interventions aimed at easing overcrowding and families, particularly given the emerging vulnerability. ARC has committed 4.8 million phenomenon of survivors who fled Port au Prince dollars for livelihoods assistance and NFIs for now returning due to the lack of support in their the Central Plateau and Antibonite. current locations. The DPC estimates that 604,215 IDPs left Port au Prince to seek refuge in the HUMANITARIAN UPDATES: REGIONAL provinces and a Digicel study tracking SIM cards put the number at 570 000 or 22% of the estimated Gonaives population of the capital. Most IDPs stayed with Disaster preparedness and emergency response relatives and in temporary settlements, which put have been at the centre of activities lead both by enormous pressure on local resources. One Food international and national actors in Artibonite. The and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) survey of 177 contingency plan for Gonaives has been finalised households in Commune Anse Rouge, for example, with financial support from USAID/WINNER and the indicated a 39.1 per cent increase in the regions’ DPC. Further development of this plan is being population, which has led to a serious deterioration carried out to improve integration of cluster activities of conditions for the entire population. Immediate together with those of local and departmental impact has included depletion of seed reserves, food authorities. stocks and overburdening of health centre services, and the pushing of families into extreme poverty. The DPC together with IOM has identified 17 This phenomenon is known locally as the “epidemic shelters which could function as a refuge for 4,300 grangou” (hunger epidemic). people in case of a hurricane. With respect to the pre-positioning of emergency response materials, The Host Communities working group, now run by the WFP has 9,000 tonnes of food in Gonaives while the Food Security Cluster, stresses the importance UNICEF is finalising the pre-positioning of NFIs for of direct support to IDPs to: the Department. 1) Support host communities directly, many of whom Communal and departmental contingency plans are have now used up their scarce resources. There is being developed whilst drainage clearing and an additional risk that these people will also be mitigation works are underway to improve drainage drawn to Port au Prince to receive aid. of the Quinte River in and around Gonaives. Partners in this process also include MINUSTAH, 2) Decrease the rate of re-entry of these IDPs back World Food Programme (WFP) as well as NGOs into Port au Prince which does not have the capacity Care and CHF. In addition, these partners are to accept more people, and create a situation where assisting with bridge rehabilitation and canal incentives are created for people to return to the clearance. Cash-for-Work programmes have been provinces. put in place to facilitate this work and have to date created approximately 13,000 jobs. 3) Support the government’s strategy of 2 Humanitarian Bulletin 17/08/2010 /Issue # 9 Local and departmental authorities concluded on 11 August that 151 IDP families living in spontaneous The Camp Management Cluster (CCCM) is installing settlements in Artibonite should be relocated. A joint seven information boards for relocation sites by 11 feasibility mission including OCHA and MINUSTAH August. The objective is to enhance communication and the DPC, the mayor, and governmental concerning relocation between local authorities, authorities from the Ministry of Public Works is landowners and the IDPs. planned for next week. As of 2 August the Camp Management Organisation At present, WFP are assisting these families by (CMO) teams are fully operational in Léogane and providing nutritional supplements to children aged 6 Gressier where they work with camp management to 59 months and corn-soya blend, sugar and oil agencies, camp committees and the DPC. They will distributions to pregnant and nursing women. gather information within camps and coordinate MINUSTAH are supplying hygiene kits to 200 camp management activities with partners. They will women and IDPs will be included in agricultural also train the local DPC in camp management, after programming by FAO once their relocation is which DPC, with the support of the Cluster, will complete and farmland is made available. manage 10 sites in Léogane and Gressier. Léogane Jacmel Over 180 sites previously used as hurricane shelters Relocation of 128 families from Pinchinat camp to have now been re-assessed for this purpose. Mayard took place 9 to 10 August. The move was Construction of new shelters, however, will be managed by Shelter and CCCM, together with delayed if issues relating to importation of relief OCHA, the Haitian Red Cross and NGOs, and items through Haitian customs are not resolved. supported by the local authorities including DPC. Flooding continues to affect those living close to rivers. There is still no finalized contingency plan in Malnutrition remains an issue.