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Haiti

WFP Haiti Country Brief, April 2016

Attachments

Highlights

  • Haiti is experiencing one of the worst droughts in recent decades.The drought has doubled the level of food insecurity in the last 6 months: 1.5 million people are now severely food insecure.

  • This crisis occurs at a time of political transition with a provisional Government in charge of organizing elections within a few months.

  • WFP is implementing an emergency operation in response to the drought, and the first cash distribution was carried out on 28 April. However, with current funding, less than one third of planned people can be reached.

Operational Updates

  • WFP is implementing an innovative approach using a new targeting tool and cash-based transfers during the initial phase of the emergency response. For the first time, unconditional cash transfers are provided through mobile phones to people severely affected by the drought. Within the targeted population of this first phase, a subset of pregnant and breastfeeding women and children aged 6 to 59 months will receive additional blanket supplementary feeding to prevent acute malnutrition.

  • The innovative targeting method, uses poverty criteria determined by the Oxfam/USAID/EU study on livelihood zones. WFP led a targeting training session for field personnel on how to conduct surveys using electronic tablets which transmit data immediately to an electronic database. This allows for quick vetting of potential people against established vulnerability criteria.

  • A new mobile cash transfer modality was used by WFP for the first time in Haiti for the emergency response to the drought. People are notified via mobile phones to collect their cash transfer.

  • In coordination with the government, WFP is in the preparatory stage of an Urban Food Security Assessment in Port-au-Prince.