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Haiti
Haiti: UN agency ramping up food aid ahead of upcoming rains, hurricane season
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20 April 2010 – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is ramping up its assistance in Haiti, pre-positioning rations and distributing meals to those displaced by January’s earthquake ahead of the approaching rains and the upcoming hurricane season.
More than 200,000 people were killed by the 12 January quake, which also left 1.3 million more homeless in the largely destroyed capital, Port-au-Prince, and nearby towns.
At least a million Haitian earthquake survivors receive emergency shelter
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13 April 2010 – More than a million survivors of the massive earthquake that struck Haiti three months ago, or nine of out 10 of those in need, have now received emergency shelter materials, the United Nations reported today.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the distribution of shelter material is on target to achieve the goal of reaching 1.3 million people by 1 May.
However, OCHA noted that distribution of emergency shelter must continue beyond that date because pre-positioned stocks will be necessary to cover increased needs anticipated as a result of the approaching rains and hurricane season.
UN seeks to mobilize Haitians to boost food security
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30 March 2010 – Haiti’s human capital will play a crucial role in the country’s recovery following January’s catastrophic earthquake through food-for-work projects to stimulate the agricultural sector, as part of a new plan unveiled by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today.
Working in concert with donors and the Haitian Government, WFP is seeking to procure food locally and is also pre-positioning food, trucks and other supplies before the start of the hurricane season for the strategy, which is kicking off as the agency’s emergency response phase is winding down.
On visit to Haiti, senior UN official lauds progress of cash-for-work scheme
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19 March 2010 – A senior United Nations official has lauded the progress achieved by the men and women of Haiti involved in the cash-for-work programme, which was identified as one of the priority activities in the early recovery agenda following the 12 January earthquake.
The programme, coordinated by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), enables Haitians to earn an income as they help their country recover from the quake, which is estimated to have affected one third of the 9 million citizens of Haiti, already the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere.
UN official calls for some G8 funds to be directed towards Haitian recovery
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16 March 2010 – The head of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today called for some of the $20 billion pledged last year by the world’s biggest economies to help farmers in poor countries buffeted by the global recession to be directed towards Haiti as it recovers from January’s catastrophic earthquake.
Jacques Diouf, Director-General of the FAO, said a rural development programme in Haiti would be a deserving candidate for some of the funds which the leaders of the so-called G8 group of economies pledged to provide at a summit in Italy in July last year.
Head of UN agriculture agency helps launch Haiti’s spring planting season
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15 March 2010 – The head of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has helped kick off Haiti’s spring planting season, distributing seeds, fertilizer and tools to farmers in a village near the epicentre of January’s devastating earthquake.
“Agriculture is the lifeblood of this country,” FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf said at a ceremony yesterday in the village of Palmisse a Ven, which was also attended by Haiti’s Minister of Agriculture, Joanas Gue.
The village is near Léogâne, the epicentre of the 7.0-magnitude quake that struck the small Caribbean nation on 12 January, killing an estimated 230,000 people and levelling much of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and nearby towns.
Head of UN mission in Haiti says humanitarian aid will be needed until 2011
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9 March 2010 – Nearly two months after Haiti was struck by a catastrophic earthquake, the top United Nations official there says the country is moving towards recovery and reconstruction but will need continued urgent humanitarian relief for at least the next 12 months.
“That first phase of humanitarian aid and assistance will have to be there in a parallel track with the other two – recovery and reconstruction – because the rainy season is already arriving and we will have the hurricane season in June,” Edmond Mulet, Acting Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), told journalists today in New York.
UN alarmed at lack of global support for Haiti’s immediate agricultural needs
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12 February 2010 – United Nations agencies voiced alarm today at the lack of global support for Haiti's immediate agricultural needs, such as seed and fertilizers to ensure food from the next planting season, while stressing that disaster mitigation techniques must figure fully in the country’s reconstruction from last month’s devastating earthquake.
“At a time when Haiti is facing a major food crisis we are alarmed at the lack of support to the agricultural component of the Flash Appeal,” UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Director-General Jacques Diouf told a high-level meeting in Rome to coordinate UN efforts for the medium- and long-term recovery of the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
Haiti: UN agricultural agency kick starts irrigation clearing programme
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8 February 2010 – The United Nations agricultural agency has launched a scheme for some 600 Haitians affected by the Caribbean country’s devastating earthquake to quickly clear irrigation canals in a bid to save this season’s bean and maize crops, the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) announced today.
FAO is providing a small payment for each worker and 600 hand tools for the task that will remain the property of farmer’s organizations in the rural areas near Léogâne, the coastal city at the epicentre of the quake which struck Haiti on 12 January.
“For the farmers around Léogâne the earthquake could not have come at a worse time,” said FAO Emergency Coordinator in Haiti Alex Jones.
UN seeking support from donors to scale up cash-for-work initiative in Haiti
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4 February 2010 – The United Nations is seeking to scale up its cash-for-work programme that is enabling Haitians to earn an income as they help their country recover from last month’s devastating earthquake, and the world body is calling on donors to help fund the vital initiative.
“The goal of the next few days is to ramp up the coverage, depending on the generosity of donors,” Jordan Ryan, Assistant Administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), told a news conference.
UNDP coordinates the cash-for-work programme, which was identified as one of the priority activities in the early recovery agenda following the 12 January quake, which is estimated to have affected one third of the 9 million citizens of Haiti, already the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere.
