“What Haitians want most is peacewhich will enable them to return to school, work their fields and access basic services such as hospital visits,” Edem Wosornu, Director of Operations and Advocacy at the UN Humanitarian Affairs Office, OCHAsaid in a joint statement issued on Monday.
Ms. Wosornu visited Haiti together with Lucia Elmi, Director of Emergency Operations at the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Andrea Koulaimah, Director for Latin America and the Caribbean for the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Unit (ECHO).
More Kenyan officers are arriving
As fighting continues in Haiti, more than 578,000 people have been displaced and nearly five million people – about half the population – face acute hunger, while 1.6 million are at risk of starvation.
Last October, the UN Security Councilauthorized the deployment of a Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission to assist the beleaguered national police in suppressing gang violence.
Kenya offered to lead the non-UN mission and international media reported that another 200 police officers had arrived in Haiti, adding to the approximately 400 already there.
The violence has paralyzed Haiti’s agricultural sector – a key source of income for families – and disrupted education and health care. More than 900 schools have been closed since January, while in the capital, Port-au-Prince, nearly 40 percent of all in-patient health facilities are out of service.
Impact on families
In addition, families who were previously economically independent have now lost income, affecting their access to food and health care. Most of those displaced do not know if their children will ever be able to return to school.
The humanitarian delegation met with senior Haitian officials, including new Prime Minister Gary Conille, and with authorities in the cities of Les Cayes and Gonaïves.
They stressed that the international community must continue to support the Haitian government by providing life-saving aid and development assistance.
“Millions of families are yearning for an end to this relentless violence. Improving protection services for women and children is essential. “The people bearing the heaviest burden of this crisis, and humanitarian aid for those who need it, must be accelerated,” Ms Elmi said.
Lack of help
In February, the UN and partners launched a $674 million humanitarian response plan for Haiti, but by mid-year it less than a quarter financed.
The cost of inaction would be too high if the response is not scaled up now, the statement warned, noting that international and local humanitarian partners have managed to find solutions to reach and assist Haitians across the country despite the challenging security situation.
While stressing the critical importance of humanitarian assistance, the statement also emphasized that the challenges facing Haiti “ based on years of underinvestment in basic services and that humanitarian aid is a temporary solution that cannot solve the country’s deep-rooted, structural problems.”
The humanitarian response must be anchored in sustainability and serve as a “stepping stone towards sustainable, sustainable recovery measures,” Ms Koulaimah said.
“We call on the international community not to miss this unique momentum and to step up their efforts and mobilize resources to address urgent humanitarian and development needs.”
