Program Description

In response to the recent political turmoil in Haiti, OTI initiated the Haiti Transition Initiative (HTI) in May 2004 with implementing partner International Organization for Migration (IOM). The program emphasizes stability building measures in key crisis spots through the implementation of quick, visible small projects with the following objectives: restore citizen confidence and hope in the process of political development and positive change; empower citizens and the government to address priority needs in communities; and build cooperative frameworks

PIO/PR/69/2004

Port-au-Prince, 29 décembre 2004 - La Mission des Nations Unies pour la Stabilisation en Haïti, MINUSTAH, a, au cours d'un point de presse, le mercredi 29 décembre, fait la synthèse de ses activités civiles, politiques, humanitaires et de développement, de même que ses opérations sécuritaires des sept premiers mois en Haïti.

Rappelant les efforts du chef de la MINUSTAH, Juan Gabriel Valdés, dans l'appui au Gouvernement de Transition, en vue de ramener un climat de paix et de réconciliation dans le pays, ainsi que

PIO/PR/69/2004

Port-au-Prince, 29 December 2004 - During a press conference held on 29 December, the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) presented a synthesis of the political, humanitarian and development activities as well as security operations concerning the Mission's first seven months in Haiti.

While addressing the press conference, MINUSTAH's spokesperson, Damian Onses-Cardona, recalled the Chief of the Mission, Juan Gabriel Valdes', efforts to support the Transitional Government in restoring an atmosphere of peace and reconciliation and to consolidate

The United Nations Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) has organized talks which paved the way for the Interim Government to today begin paying former soldiers who have since demobilized.

During two meetings held in Les Cayes and in Cap Haitien on Monday, both the ministers and the former combatants present agreed that a decision on reconstituting the army, which was broken up in 1994 by then-President Jean-Betrand Aristide, would have to be taken by elected politicians following balloting. President Aristide left amid political turmoil in February.

The members of the former Haitian armed

Three months after devastating floods killed more than 2,000 people in northwestern Haiti, the country is on the road to recovery, the international humanitarian organisation CARE said. CARE will lead a major reconstruction and rehabilitation project, with $21.8 million of funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) over 12 months, beginning in January.

An outpouring of support from institutional and private donors is enabling CARE to implement projects helping farmers

In an abandoned coffee plantation some 30 tents make up the Canadian Red Cross field hospital that is managed jointly with the Norwegian Red Cross. The field hospital opened in October after Tropical Storm Jeanne destroyed the Providence Hospital, leaving the 200,000 residents of Gonaives without access to a referral hospital.

Since opening, the Red Cross hospital has provided more than 5,200 people with medical care. It functions fully - with an emergency outpatient department, 100 bed in-patient facilities, general medicine unit, maternity ward, paediatric unit, operating room

Violence-wracked Haiti, which was plunged into political turmoil earlier this year and then further destabilized by natural disasters, has seen a lull in the violence in recent days, while the United Nations mission in the country (MINUSTAH) is nearly up to full military capacity.

Clashes flared earlier this month between the Haitian National Police and elements from both sides of the country' political spectrum: former members of the army which was disbanded by the ex-President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who departed amid political turmoil in February, and gangs loyal to him.

United Nations peacekeepers took less than an hour last Friday to move an armed group of demobilized soldiers who were squatting in the house of former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a UN spokesman said today.

"At the request of Haiti's interim government, peacekeepers from the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) helped remove the former soldiers. No one was hurt in the operation, which lasted less than an hour," Fred Eckhard said at the daily UN Headquarters press briefing in New York.

"The removal followed failed attempts

News Release No:2005/252/LAC

Port-au-Prince/Washington, December 20, 2004 - The Government of Brazil signed a grant agreement today to support Haiti's National School Feeding Program as part of the World Bank Post Conflict Trust (PCF) grant for the reconstruction of Haiti. The US$ 300,000 Brazilian contribution will help Haiti increase primary school attendance and ensure minimum nutrition for poor children attending schools.

The Brazilian initiative represents the first contribution from a developing country to the PCF aimed at supporting another developing country.