Haiti: Humanitarian actors appeal for US $119 million to cover vital needs of 750,000 persons affected by Matthew

Providing access to water, food, shelter and sanitation is urgent for persons living in the most affected areas

Port-au-Prince, 10 October 2016- The Humanitarian Country Team in Haiti, in close coordination with the Government of Haiti and other partners, appeals to the international community for US $119,8 million in emergency funding to provide life-saving relief to 750,000 Haitians affected by the hurricane Matthew (category 4), that struck Haiti with a devastating impact on the South and Grand’Anse departments.

The requested funding is vital to support the response of the Haitian authorities and civil society to cover critical needs of the affected populations such as safe water, food, shelter, and sanitation to prevent water-borne infectious diseases.

According to the Haitian Ministry of Interior, more than 19% of the Haitian population -2,1 million persons- has been affected by the hurricane and more than 12% -1,4 million persons- are in need of urgent assistance in different departments of the country, and more specially in the South and in the Grand’Anse departments. The most affected persons have lost their houses, their belongings, their harvest and their means of life. Some populated areas are partially or totally destroyed. Children and women are among the most affected.

The first relief aid is already arriving to the most affected areas, although much more support is still needed. The fund requirement aims to cover the main needs for each priority sector according to the first assessments conducted in collaboration with the Haitian Government, UN entities and NGO´s. These priorities are: emergency shelter and essential non-food items ($12,4 millions), water, sanitation and hygiene-WASH ($15 millions), health ($9 millions), food security, nutrition and emergency agriculture ($56 millions), displacement tracking ($1,5 millions), protection of the most vulnerable ($7,2 millions), education ($4,3 millions), early recovery and livelihoods ($6,1 millions), logistics and emergency telecommunications ($6,6 millions) and coordination and support services ($1,6 millions).

While providing this life-saving assistance, the United Nations and the Humanitarian and Development Actors are supporting the Haitian authorities and the local population to recover their normality, services and sustainable means of life, a task that will need months of work.

“The impressive job of the Haitian authorities on prevention saved so many lives”

The Humanitarian Coordinator for Haiti, Mourad Wahba, highlighted that the “impressive job” that the Haitian civil protection and the municipalities carried out on prevention saved so many lives, “which confirms that this prevention is effective and important; and now it is urgent to support the Haitian authorities response to the affected population”.

According to the Humanitarian Coordinator, “Haiti is facing the largest humanitarian disaster since the earthquake in 2010, although in this case the Haitian authorities and civil society have much stronger capacities to lead the response. The UN and the humanitarian actors are standing side by side with the Government and the people of Haiti; today and in the days to come”. In addition, Wahba emphasized that children and women are among the most affected. “I want also to bring the attention to the fact that in areas such as Grand´Anse 40% of families are led by women, so we cannot do this without women as key actors for the urgent response and the recovery”.

In this regard, the UN and the Humanitarian actors are supporting the response led by the Ministry of Interior and the road map proposed by Haitian authorities to maintain good coordination of all humanitarian actors with the national and local institutions. This itinerary approaches the assistance to the geographical points where the affected population live. In support to the national authorities and humanitarian partners, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), through the UN Disaster Assessment Team (UNDAC), is working in close cooperation with the National Emergency Management Center (COUN), UN agencies and NGO´s to continuously assess in the field what are the needs and the resources already existing in place to give the best possible response.

To know more in detail about the current situation, needs and the response from the Humanitarian Country Team in Haiti, please visit www.humanitarianresponse.info/Haiti