ReliefWeb

Main Points

• UNDP has supported the creation of Emergency employment with 123,680 daily jobs created in 10 of the most affected communes

• Access to safe water remains critical. The WASH sector reported that 42 partners in 88 communes are supporting the DINEPA in the WASH response. Water supply systems affected by Matthew are being rehabilitated by DINEPA on World Bank funds among others.

• A CERF request of 3.5 million USD is under consideration by the CERF Secretariat to assist an estimated 30,000 people, those being forcibly evicted from schools, as well as the most vulnerable people in zones of return.

• The action plan to respond to critical needs is now being rolled out in Jeremie and Les Cayes and is being complemented by a focus on hardto-reach areas.

170,000 People received food in second round distribution

38,338 Children under 5 with a global acute malnutrition risk

89,193 People received Plastic sheeting

142,750 People benefited from seed distribution

Situation Overview

People displaced following hurricane Matthew continue to be sheltered in an important number of evacuation shelters more than two months after the hurricane. According to the last IOM Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) report released on 08 December, 692 evacuation shelters have been inventoried. Of these, 344 have been assessed by DTM teams and registration data is currently available for 72 sites. Partial data show that 181 sites assessed and profiled by IOM during the DTM, are housing 9,188 households equivalent to 37,603 persons.

The occupation of schools has prevented some of the students to resume schooling and conducted to tensions and eventually lead local authorities to evict displaced populations hosted in these schools. In fact, 57% of profiled shelters are schools and approximately 11,300 people are sheltering in schools buildings, leaving an estimated 16,000 students without access to education services. Given this situation, the HCT decided to resort to CERF funding to meet the most urgent needs of those being evicted from shelters (mainly schools) as well as to accompany the most vulnerable people in zones of return. The CERF request is under review by the CERF Secretariat in New York and if approved will contribute to vacate schools and accompany the return of displaced population and the rehabilitation and resumption of schools for an estimated 30,000 people.

The action plan to respond to critical needs is now being rolled out in Jeremie and Les Cayes and is being complemented by a focus on hard-to-reach areas. For this purpose, an inter-sectoral coordination (ISC) meeting was held on Monday 12 December in Les Cayes and on Wednesday 14 in Jeremie to review progresses against the critical needs plan and look into the validation of the response monitoring methodology. This allowed OCHA to proceed in developing maps for the food security, WASH and shelter/ NFIs sectoral responses. Partners from all sectors in Les Cayes were requested to share distribution plans for the remote areas with WFP for flight planning and efficient use of the helicopters.

On the issue of multi-sectoral assessments in these remote areas, sector leads in Port-au-Prince are developing the tools, methodology and sampling to ensure a harmonised approach to assessing remote areas. It was agreed by the ISC in Les Cayes that the operational planning and implementation of any such assessments in the Sud would be done at the department level, drawing on local knowledge and partnerships.

Following the active/passive screening conducted by UNICEF, the Ministry of Public Health and Population (MSPP) and their partners in the affected departments by Matthew, UNICEF is projecting in the next 12 months a caseload of approximatively 38,338 children under 5 suffering fromglobal acute malnutrition in the two most-affected departments (Grand’Anse and South), of which 11,774 with severe acute malnutrition and 26,564 with moderate acute malnutrition. In the absence of a national program for the management of moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) and especially in the two departments most affected by Matthew, UNICEF will support the MSPP in combining the management of MAS and MAM with the same product (Plumpynut) thanks to an integrated and simplified protocol.

According to the WASH sector situation report on 06 December, 475,000 people have access to safe water for drinking, food preparation and hygiene in the South, Grand’Anse and Nippes. This is 63% on a sector target of 750,000 people. Regarding the sensitization on hygiene best practices such as handwashing in the hurricane affected areas, the WASH sector have reached 234,000 people with sensitization campaign, representing 31% out of a target of 750,000 people. The number of people with access to safety sanitation, separated Men/Women and hygienic facilities has increased despite the challenges to implement these WASH standards, from 4,300 people to 17,700 people out of a target of 200,000.