37th CFS Plenary Session, 17-22 October 2011, Rome
The CFS is the United Nations' forum for reviewing policies concerning world food. It is the most inclusive international and intergovernmental platform for all relevant stakeholders to work together to ensure food security and nutrition.
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22 November 2010 – The Haitian city of Cap Haïtien is now calm after several days of riots linked to the cholera outbreak in the Caribbean country, and two United Nations agencies have resumed relief operations in the city, the world body’s humanitarian arm reported today.
19 November 2010 – The top United Nations envoy in Haiti has called on demonstrators to stop blocking roads, bridges and airports so that vital humanitarian assistance can reach the thousands of people affected by the cholera outbreak.
“Every second that passes can save or break thousands of lives,” Edmond Mulet, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative in Haiti, said in a statement issued last night.
12 November 2010 – United Nations agencies and their partners today appealed for $164 million to support Haiti’s efforts to fight the deadly cholera outbreak that has already claimed several hundred lives in the small Caribbean nation.
The funds sought for the Cholera Inter-Sector Response Strategy for Haiti launched today will go towards getting additional doctors, medicines and water purification equipment to respond to the epidemic, which has spread quickly since it was first confirmed on 22 October.
19 October 2010 – With 1.3 million people still living in spontaneously formed camps nine months after a massive earthquake devastated Haiti, a United Nations expert today called for a shift in the focus of humanitarian operations and more urgency in launching the reconstruction process.
“Haiti is still living through a profound humanitarian crisis that affects the human rights of those displaced by the disaster,” Secretary-General Ban Ki moon’s Representative on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Walter Kaelin said after a visit to the country, noting that camp residents include both those who lost their homes and others fleeing poverty exacerbated by the January quake, which killed more than 200,000 people.
14 October 2010 – The Security Council today voted to extend the mandate of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Haiti until 15 October 2011, while underlining the significance of next month’s presidential and legislative polls in laying the foundation for a stable political environment in the impoverished Caribbean nation.
The country continues to rebuild in the wake of the devastating January earthquake, which killed an estimated 200,000 people and displaced about 1.3 million others. Countless buildings, including Government facilities, hospitals and schools, were also destroyed.
22 September 2010 – A joint assessment by two United Nations agencies has found that Haiti’s food sector is slowly beginning to recover but production remains well below the levels that existed prior to the January earthquake.
Despite the damage caused to Haiti’s food production systems by the devastating 7.0-magnitude quake and a late start of the 2010 spring rainy season, subsequent rains helped to support agricultural recovery, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP).
“Levels of food production could have been much worse,” said Mario Zappacosta, an economist with FAO’s Global Information and Early Warning System on Food and Agriculture.
19 August 2010 – United Nations projects in health, education, job creation, rubble removal, reproductive health and improving access to food have been approved for Haiti as the poor Caribbean country continues its effort to rebuild after January’s catastrophic earthquake.
The Interim Haitian Recovery Commission (IHRC), which was set up in April to coordinate and oversee the recovery and reconstruction campaign, announced yesterday in Port-au-Prince, the capital, that it will back $220 million worth of UN projects.
The UN Development Programme (UNDP) reported that it has received approval for a $65 million project to rehabilitate infrastructure, building on earlier cash-for-work projects that have given more than 120,000 jobs since the quake.
Public Information Notice (PIN) No. 10/112
August 6, 2010 - Public Information Notices (PINs) form part of the IMF's efforts to promote transparency of the IMF's views and analysis of economic developments and policies. With the consent of the country (or countries) concerned, PINs are issued after Executive Board discussions of Article IV consultations with member countries, of its surveillance of developments at the regional level, of post-program monitoring, and of ex post assessments of member countries with longer-term program engagements. PINs are also issued after Executive Board discussions of general policy matters, unless otherwise decided by the Executive Board in a particular case.
WASHINGTON DC, August 5, 2010 - The newly-approved $30 million Haiti grant will go a long way towards financing critical government expenditures but, perhaps just as importantly, will also help build up confidence between the government and the Haitian population by addressing their most urgent needs, the World Bank said today.
As the Emergency Development Policy Grant helps the government close its budget gap and address accountability in the public sector, it will send strong signals to the Haitians as well as the international donor community that the government is tackling the country’s critical needs in a transparent manner, said World Bank regional vice president Pamela Cox.
Rome 28 July 2010 – While the two nations of the island of Hispaniola – the Dominican Republic and Haiti – may have different languages, histories, cultures and economic situations, their futures remain unbreakably intertwined.
In an effort to provide lasting poverty-reduction solutions for both countries, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) recently announced a series of new grants and loans that aim to create job opportunities and ensure food security in Haiti, and provide lasting mechanisms for rural development in neighbouring Dominican Republic.
The spike in food prices of last year (2008) underscored what experts have been telling us for many years: the world's food systems are in crisis