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Haiti: Food Assistance Fact Sheet - November 7, 2018

Countries
Haiti
+ 1 more
Sources
USAID
Publication date

SITUATION

  • Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Threequarters of the population lives on less than $2 per day, making Haiti extremely vulnerable to price spikes in the global food market.

  • Haiti also remains susceptible to natural disasters, such as Hurricane Matthew, which devastated western Haiti in October 2016, and Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017, which caused significant flooding in the north of the country.

  • Drought conditions in northern Haiti earlier in 2018 resulted in delays in crop production and some households continue to engage in negative coping strategies, such as eating less preferred foods, according to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET). Despite recent favorable rainfall conditions, communities across Haiti are expected to face Stressed (IPC 2) levels of acute food insecurity—with worst-affected households possibly facing Crisis (IPC 3) levels—through January 2019, FEWS NET reports.*

RESPONSE

  • In FY 2018, FFP supported the UN World Food Program (WFP) to provide conditional cash transfers for food to nearly 10,000 food-insecure individuals in Haiti, in exchange for participation in disaster risk reduction activities—such as rehabilitation of schools, communal irrigation systems and riverbanks—that aim to improve vulnerable households’ income and resilience to natural disasters.

  • FFP also partnered with World Vision to provide conditional food and seed vouchers to more than 26,000 food-insecure people in the North-East and Centre departments of Haiti in exchange for participation in communal asset creation and rehabilitation activities aimed at improving food security in vulnerable areas.

  • FFP partners with CARE and the Government of Haiti to develop a social safety net program that improves vulnerable household access to locally produced, nutritious foods. Aimed at both boosting food security and reducing malnutrition, the multi-year development program benefited nearly 86,000 food-insecure individuals in FY 2018.