A new direction for Haiti

Since the powerful magnitude-7.0 earthquake struck Haiti on Jan. 12, 2010, the small Caribbean nation has consistently made it on the list of countries in need of significant humanitarian assistance. This changed in 2015. For the first time since 2010, the United Nations is no longer issuing a humanitarian action plan for Haiti. Instead, the global body, together with the government and other development actors, is working on a transitional appeal that would cover humanitarian, as well as recovery and resilience-related interventions for the period 2015-2016. The appeal, according to a brief shared with Devex, is meant to target those extremely vulnerable members of the Haitian population who have yet to fully recover from the devastation brought on by the earthquake, and build resilience that would prevent them from slipping back into deplorable situations. According to Damien Berrendorf, Oxfam Intermon’s country director in Haiti, this is meant to bring in a more structured response to the remaining needs in Haiti, and should not be seen as moving away from the country’s outstanding humanitarian challenges toward more recovery, reconstruction and resilience type of interventions — common traits of transitional appeals. The final components of the transitional appeal plan have yet to be released in public — the TAP is expected to be launched in February — but recent discussions identify four main focus areas or pillars. These are: 1. Identify and protect the most vulnerable. 2. Improve access to health services, as well as clean water and sanitation facilities. 3. Reduce food insecurity. 4. Build the country’s capacity to mitigate risks. The shift The focus areas currently identified under the envisioned TAP relate closely to what different actors have identified as huge challenges in Haiti over the past year. Camp coordination and management, shelter, food security, WASH and health are also the sectors that had the highest funding appeals and most number of proposed projects in 2014. But although requirements for health have decreased, the needs for other sectors have remained at almost the same levels or even increased, particularly those related to camp management and shelter, which continue to remain a huge problem despite reported progress in the country. According to John Chaloner, Plan International’s country director in Haiti, there remain 66 camps for internally displaced persons in earthquake-affected areas in the country that still play host to 70,000 people. This is a substantially lower figure from the original 1.5 million IDPs in 2010, but several challenges remain. For instance, Chaloner said that if the current political crisis in Haiti isn’t resolved soon, there’s danger that the ability of line ministries in Haiti to respond to camp issues will be “compromised.” Ten of Haiti’s senators announced in November that they will not step down this month if legislative elections don’t take place. Their terms expire today. Claire Perrin-Houdon, protection coordinator in Haiti for Handicap International, meanwhile, worries that dropping the HAP this year “might reduce visibility and funds for Haiti [and] a number of agencies/post-earthquake projects.” Camps and transitional shelters still house some IDPs, some of whom are at risk of being evicted, Perrin-Houdon told Devex. While there are people in the camps who have become beneficiaries of rental subsidy projects, some of them have been unable to find decent housing to move into. But there are also many IDPs who cannot qualify for the rental subsidy projects, including those with special needs such as people with disabilities, women, children and the elderly, the project coordinator explained. Perrin-Houdon said their current program focuses on the relocation of people with disabilities, and have so far identified 284 families out of 625. The project will run until December 2015. Strikingly, protection did not receive as much attention in the previous humanitarian appeal. It covered only 2.59 percent of the total humanitarian appeal in 2014, a huge difference from its 12 percent share in 2012. Berrendorf meanwhile said that whether a TAP focus area or not, Oxfam’s work will focus on governance and will take on a multisector approach to build resilience in a number of areas such as health and WASH, which continue to face significant challenges. The (future) setup The idea is for TAP to target community-level needs, be more multidimensional and build the capacity of local actors, which is important in the long run not only as a precautionary measure when international organizations leave the country, but also to enable communities to respond better to future crises. To some extent, several development actors have already started working on a multisector approach and on building the capacity of local nongovernmental organizations and government agencies. “We must do that,” Berrendorf said. “Instead of doing everything ourselves, we collaborate with colleagues whenever feasible.” How this new setup would work is unclear. But the proposal outlined in the brief suggests it would hew closely to how cluster groups in humanitarian settings work. The proposal is for two or three agencies to lead each pillar. They will act as focal points for each priority area and coordinate with different partners to develop their own sectoral strategic response plans. Only the cluster groups dealing with protection and camp issues remain operational, but these are expected to be active only through the rest of the year. International NGOs that have “phased out” of the camps, such as Plan, are in constant dialogue with the United Nations and the Haitian government to get updates on camp situations. They monitor and, when appropriate, respond to camp issues, Chaloner said. Plan’s country director did say that Peter de Clercq, the resident humanitarian coordinator in Haiti, “is prepared to reactivate the clusters should the situation warrant it during 2015.” Check out more insights and analysis provided to hundreds of Executive Members worldwide, and subscribe to the Development Insider to receive the latest news, trends and policies that influence your organization.