USAID/DART HAITI EARTHQUAKE HUMANITARIAN UPDATE #5: ONE

UNCLAS PORT AU PRINCE 000156 AIDAC SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: EAID ECON PGOV PINR PREL PREF HA SUBJECT: USAID/DART HAITI EARTHQUAKE HUMANITARIAN UPDATE #5: ONE MONTH LATER REF: PORT A 0124; PORT A 0118; PORT A 0096 ¶1. Summary. One month after the earthquake, the humanitarian community continues to make significant progress in responding to the emergency needs of the affected population, providing food assistance to nearly 2.5 million people, increasing the distribution of emergency shelter materials to ensure adequate coverage prior to the rainy season, and expanding the geographic scope of the relief effort to areas outside Port-au-Prince. Improved coordination, coupled with the expansion of targeted humanitarian assessments, continues to facilitate accurate, needs-based assistance provision, enabling organizations to begin to direct resources and attention to early recovery needs as well. ¶2. USAID's Disaster Assistance Response Team (USAID/DART) in Haiti continues to assess humanitarian needs, coordinate assistance with the humanitarian community and Government of Haiti (GoH),and inform additional programming by USAID's Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA). Significant developments for the USAID/DART in the last week include the contribution to the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Cluster strategy for rapidly addressing mounting sanitation concerns, progress on advising the Government of Haiti (GoH) on settlements planning and the pre-requisite rubble removal effort, and participation in preliminary planning efforts with the U.S. military to ensure a seamless and timely transition of current military relief operations to civilian humanitarian organizations. To date, USAID has contributed nearly $304 million in earthquake response funding to address the critical needs of affected populations. End Summary. -------------- FOOD ASSISTANCE -------------- ¶3. From January 31 to February 10, lead non-governmental organizations (NGOs),with support from the U.N. World Food Program (WFP),distributed food to more than 1.5 million people through the 16 fixed-point distribution system. As of February 10, WFP implementing partners had provided food assistance to nearly 2.5 million earthquake-affected individuals in and around Port-au-Prince. Lead NGOs at four sites - where distributions commenced after the January 31 start date of the two-week operation - plan to continue general distributions beyond the previously scheduled end date of February 13 in order to complete distributions to all identified households. These areas also host a higher number of affected households. ¶4. WFP negotiations regarding the next phase of the operation continue with select NGOs, including organizations distributing food under the current scheme. Partners will distribute a more diverse ration, including pulses and oil, to selected households. WFP expects the next phase to commence on or near February 20. The Food Cluster has not yet determined the number of targeted households or security requirements. During the first phase, however, all partners successfully conducted distribution without incident and therefore anticipate fewer security requirements in the second phase. If necessary, partners will seek security support from the Haitian National Police and the U.N. Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH). ¶5. The GoH National Committee on Food Security, with support from WFP, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, the USAID-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWSNET),Oxfam, and Action Contre La Faim, is conducting an Emergency Food Security Assessment in 119 areas, villages, and settlement sites. The preliminary results are scheduled for release on February 25. -------------- Emergency Relief Supplies -------------- ¶6. As of February 7, USAID/OFDA partner the International Organization for Migration (IOM) had reached more than 48,000 families, or approximately 232,000 individuals, with USAID/OFDA emergency relief supplies. Families received varying combinations of hygiene kits, water containers, kitchen sets, and plastic sheeting. ¶7. The USAID/DART observed two well-organized and expeditious distributions by IOM and Project Concern International in Port-au-Prince neighborhoods during the week of February 8. USAID/OFDA consigns relief commodities to IOM, which partners with Project Concern and a number of other NGOs in the Non-Food Item Cluster to expand distribution capacity throughout affected areas. IOM also recently provided 20 NGOs with USAID/OFDA commodities, primarily plastic sheeting, for distribution to affected populations. ¶8. As of February 8, the Non-Food Item (NFI) and Shelter clusters had distributed 63,275 blankets, 83,672 water containers, 57,869 hygiene kits, and 23,387 kitchen sets since the January 12 earthquake. In addition, coordination among partners distributing relief supplies in Petit Goave, Grand Goave, Jacmel, and Leogane continues to improve, with partners establishing regional distribution hubs to reduce pipeline congestion in Port-au-Prince and expand distributions to areas outside the capital, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). ¶9. Agencies continue to explore a range of options for the systematic and targeted distribution of NFIs, while noting strong support in the cluster for the current community-based distribution system. USAID/DART staff and other humanitarian donors met with the U.N. and NGOs on February 10 regarding NFI distribution schemes, including tandem NFI and food distributions at the 16 fixed food distribution points, an option proposed by WFP but which raises some concerns for NGOs. -------------- NUTRITION -------------- ¶10. On February 9, the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) and WFP successfully conducted the first pilot blanket supplementary feeding intervention at two settlement sites in the Tabarre neighborhood of Port-au-Prince. Teams registered all children under five years of age, as well as pregnant and lactating women in the two camps. After conducting mid-upper arm circumference and vitamin A screenings, teams provided infants and young children between the ages of 6 and 59 months with three-week supplies of high energy biscuits. Children between the ages of 6 and 36 months also received supplementary plumpy rations. The intervention also included de-worming for children between the ages of one and five years and referrals of severe acute malnutrition to a stabilization center at Saint Damien's Hospital. Nutrition partners will work to expand the program to all spontaneous settlement sites in Port-au-Prince, targeting 40,000 children under 5 years of age and 17,000 pregnant and lactating women. ¶11. As of February 9, nearly 90 community outpatient centers and mobile units for the treatment of severe acute malnutrition had resumed operations throughout Haiti, according to the Nutrition Cluster. Cluster partners plan to open 52 additional sites within the next two to three weeks. ¶12. Current nutrition support to the affected population includes approximately 60 sites established to provide counseling to caregivers on infant and young child feeding practices. Nutrition partners report counseling more than 7,800 caregivers in affected communities and nearly 1,200 people residing in spontaneous settlements, as of February 9. -------------- HEALTH -------------- ¶13. According to the Health Cluster, trauma injuries constitute approximately 10 percent of all consultations as - a significant reduction in the last week - while the number of acute respiratory infections continues to increase, accounting for up to 25 percent of all consultations. Health partners report a low incidence of infectious diseases to date. ¶14. The GoH Ministry of Health has approved the shortened disease surveillance form developed by the Mobile Health Clinic Sub-Cluster. On February 8, the sub-cluster began training health workers on use of the form, and data collection is scheduled to commence later in the week, according to the USAID/DART. ¶15. USAID/DART staff report that the U.N. World Health Organization is providing 180 additional emergency health kits, with the first 60 kits scheduled to arrive in Haiti during the week of February 15. The contribution will bring the total number of kits in-country to nearly 200 - including nine provided by USAID/OFDA - and the total number of beneficiaries over a three-month period to approximately 2 million people. -------------- WATER, SANITATION, AND HYGIENE -------------- ¶16. WASH cluster partners are providing safe drinking water to over 780,000 people per day through water tankering operations and water treatment plants at 300 sites across Port-au-Prince, Leogane, and Jacmel, up from the 519,000 individuals reached per day as of February 1. In Jacmel, more than 260 temporary settlement sites are receiving water from cluster partners. The cluster aims to increase the daily target for safe drinking provision to 1.1 million persons. ¶17. The WASH Cluster continues to prioritize sanitation support for earthquake-affected individuals, particularly those residing in spontaneous settlements. The WASH Cluster and the GoH National Potable Water and Sanitation Authority (DINEPA) plan to release the finalized cluster strategy on February 11, according to the USAID/DART. USAID/DART WASH officers contributed to the strategy, which prescribes both the construction of trench latrines in less densely-populated settlement sites and the provision and regular maintenance of portable facilities in remaining sites. ¶18. USAID/DART staff expect the required 3,000 to 3,500 portable facilities to arrive within one month. The WASH Cluster has identified 1,000 completed trench latrines in the settlement sites to date, and USAID/DART WASH officers expect USAID/OFDA partners to complete construction on the remaining requirement of 3,000 trench latrines by the last week in February. ¶19. A team of Swedish engineers arrived in Port-au-Prince on February 8 to construct a waste-disposal site in a suitable location, and thereby discourage the current practice of unsanctioned disposals in numerous unsafe sites across the city that increase flood risks. -------------- SHELTER -------------- ¶20. The January 12 earthquake displaced between 240,000 and 300,000 households. Since the earthquake struck, approximately 93,500 households (approximately 468,000 people) have received transportation assistance to communities outside Port-au-Prince. [Note: The GoH revised the number of households receiving transportation assistance to fewer than initially reported, likely due to improved reporting and monitoring mechanisms. End note.] According to MINUSTAH, 90 percent of people transported outside Port-au-Prince are residing with friends and relatives, reducing the number of households in need of immediate assistance to between 146,500 to 206,500 families. As of February 10, more than 73,000 households (approximately 366,000 people or 31 percent of the affected population) had received shelter assistance, primarily plastic sheeting and tents, from the 24 humanitarian organizations reporting to the Shelter Cluster. ¶21. The USAID/DART currently estimates sufficient quantities of plastic sheeting and tents in-country for at least 260,000 households, at the rate of one plastic sheet of internationally-recognized quality per household. [Note: Given current space constraints in a majority of the spontaneous settlements, the cluster agreed on February 7 to provide households less than the standard-sized transitional shelter in the immediate term in order to meet all emergency shelter needs before the start of the rainy season on May 1. If partners provide structures smaller than 18 square meters - the internationally recognized humanitarian standard - the humanitarian community must also develop a plan to mitigate the effects of crowded living conditions on drainage, sanitation, hygiene, health, and livelihoods, according to the USAID/DART. End note.] After meeting emergency shelter needs, the cluster plans to provide four plastic sheets to each family to meet transitional shelter needs. ¶22. According to OCHA, as of February 10, ten organized settlements existed in Port-au-Prince, housing nearly 77,000 people, or 13 percent of the displaced population remaining in Port-au-Prince. More than 300 spontaneous settlements still exist. The Shelter Cluster, the USAID/DART, and the GoH continue to evaluate potential locations for additional settlement sites, noting that the rapid removal of all rubble remains critical to the effort. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently arrived in Port-au-Prince to lead the U.S. Government effort to expedite rubble removal in the city. The USAID/DART shelter and settlements advisor reports additional efforts by Italian, Swedish, and MINUSTAH teams, as well as local private sector construction entities, to engage heavy equipment in the rubble removal process. ¶23. In addition, on February 7, the National Geo-Spatial Intelligence Agency presented the USAID/DART a map of vacant and underutilized land in Port-au-Prince that identifies at least 45 square kilometers of vacant land, indicating the availability of sufficient land for potential resettlement of earthquake-affected households, pending additional analyses of disaster risks and land tenure issues. The USAID/DART shelter and settlements advisor expects the finding to help inform rubble removal and settlement planning by the GoH and humanitarian community. -------------- USAID ASSISTANCE TO DATE -------------- ¶24. As of February 10, USAID had contributed more than $303.6 million in earthquake response funding, including more than $201.5 million from USAID/OFDA in support of all humanitarian sectors, $68 million from USAID's Office of Food for Peace, $20 million from USAID's Office of Transition Initiatives (including $15 million transferred from USAID/Haiti),nearly $11.1 million from USAID/Haiti, and $3 million from USAID/Dominican Republic. In total, the U.S. Government has contributed more than $537.6 million to the earthquake response. MINIMIZE CONSIDERED LINDWALL