Haiti

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1 HFA National Reports
2 National Platform
3 HFA National Focal Point
- 3.1 Supporting National Focal Point
4 UN Contacts
5 Other contacts
6 Country profile:
7 Related Initiatives
8 Climate change
9 Progress towards the implementation of the HFA
10 General Information:
11 Policies and Programmes:
12 Others Documents
13 Web Links

HFA National Reports

National Report 2007: Unreported

National Report 2006: Unreported

National Report 2005: Haiti National Report 2005 (28 October 2005 – English)

National Report 2004: National Report in Preparation for WCDR (2004) – Haiti (French)

National Platform

No Platform reported

HFA National Focal Point

Direction de Protection Civil (DPC)

Address: Interior Ministry, The Territorial Collectivities and the National Security, Ministre Palace, Port-au-Prince 83, Rue Armand Holly Debussy

HFA Contact person:

Mme. Alta Jean-Baptiste, Director

Phone: (509)-228-25-37/222-22-84, Fax:(509)-228-231

E-mail: altajeanbaptiste@yahoo.com

Supporting National Focal Point

National Disaster Risk Management System Development Program, UNDP Haiti

Tel: (509) 245-0319

Contact person: Erdem Ergin, Chief Technical Advisor a.i

E-mail: erdem.ergin@undp.org

UN Contacts

Permanent Mission of Haiti to the United Nations in Geneva

Chief:

Mr. Jean-Claude Pierre

Minister Counsellor

Chargé d'affaires a.i.

Address: Rue de Monthoux 64, 1201 Geneva

Tel: +(41-22) 732-7628, Fax: +(41-22) 732-5536

E-mail: mission.haiti@ties.itu.int

UN System Coordination

UNDG: UNCT Haiti

UN Resident Coordinator

Mr. Joel Boutroue

E-mail: joel.boutroue@undp.org

Other contacts

ADRA (Adventist Development and Relief Agency) International

URL: http://www.adra.org

Christian Aid - UK

URL: http://www.christianaid.org.uk

Catholic Relief Services (CRS) - USA

URL: http://www.crs.org/

Caritas Internationalis

URL: http://www.caritas.org

Medecins Sans Frontieres

World Vision

Tel: + (509) 2513-1153 (Port-Au-Prince)

URL: http://www.visionmundial.org/

Country profile:

Official Name: Conventional long form: Republic of Haiti. Local Long Form: Republique d'Haiti/Repiblik d' Ayiti. local short form: Haiti/Ayiti

Capital: Port-au-Prince

Area: Total: 27,750 sq km (land: 27,560 sq km and water: 190 sq km)

Population density: 8,706,497 note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July 2007 est.)

Ethnic Groups: black 95%, mulatto and white 5%

Religion: Roman Catholic 80%, Protestant 16% (Baptist 10%, Pentecostal 4%, Adventist 1%, other 1%), none 1%, other 3% note: roughly half of the population practices voodoo

Official Language: French (official), Creole (official)

Government: Republic

Currency: Gourde (HTG)

Climate: Tropical; semiarid where mountains in east cut off trade winds. Wetter period between April and October; winters are warm and sunny and summers hot.

International Disputes:

Since 2004, about 8,000 peacekeepers from the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) maintain civil order in Haiti; despite efforts to control illegal migration, Haitians cross into the Dominican Republic and sail to neighboring countries; Haiti claims US-administered Navassa Island.

Administratives Division 10 departments (departments, singular - departement): 1. Artibonite,

2. Centre,

3. Grand 'Anse,

4. Nippes,

5. Nord,

6. Nord-Est,

7. Nord-Ouest,

8. Ouest,

9. Sud,

10. Sud-Est

Haiti is highly vulnerable to hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, landslides and droughts. This vulnerability is greatly influenced and exacerbated by the country's poverty, continuous state of complex emergency and environmental degradation.

Haiti is the poorest and only Least Developed country in the Western Hemisphere. A vicious circle of poverty, political and economic instability, violence, and lack of infrastructure are some of the most pressing underlying causes for the country's low level of preparedness. Without political stability and sufficient economic resources, virtually no attention has been geared toward the effective operation of Haiti's national meteorological component, an early warning system and disaster reduction. Environmental degradation, too, poses a serious problem. Widespread deforestation, partly caused by the country's charcoal production, shows a direct increase in the risk of floods and landslides.

The most recent serious disaster in Haiti occurred in September 2004 when Tropical Storm Jeanne caused flash floods and mudslides. These floods caused the loss of 3000 lives, affected approximately 300,000 people, destroyed around 4500 houses and cut the access roads to many villages for days. Just a few months earlier, in May 2004, 17 hours of continuous rain caused flash floods and landslides. More than 100,000 people were affected and some 1700 houses destroyed. Smaller scale disasters occur frequently, also causing enormous impacts on the population and on economic assets.

Following the civil unrest and political crisis of the beginning of 2004, the United Nations Security Council, on April 30, 2004, created the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti to assist in restoring political order and economic recovery. An Interim Cooperation Framework was set up for the transition period 2004-2006. This led to the creation of 10 thematic groups on priority issues, one of which is the Thematic Environmental Group. This group has outlined three priority interventions involving environmental management: 1) reduction of pressure on wood resources, 2) improved environmental resource management and planning, and 3) sustainable and integrated disaster risk management through the implementation of a National Risk and Disaster Management Plan.

The national civil protection agency is in charge of risk and disaster management activities. The system has several coordination levels and includes 10 ministries and the Haitian Red Cross. It is headed by the National Committee of Risk and Disaster Management, led by the Ministry of Interior. The Directorate of Civil Protection supports the Ministry of Interior in this function. A second level of coordination is at the technical and executive level where executives of ministries and agencies meet to form the Permanent Secretariat of Risk and Disaster Management, led by the General Directorate of the Ministry of Interior.

Under the transitional government established in February 2004, disaster management has been assigned directly to the Directorate of Civil Protection. The government intends to increase the capacity of this directorate by transforming it into a General Directorate. Its role is expected to go beyond disaster assistance by setting up an active programme of mitigation. It plans to establish a national risk reduction strategy and supervise mitigation and preparedness activities of the different ministries and organizations.

SOURCE: ISDR/CIA Factbook/CDRA/

Related Initiatives

A number of initiatives between UN/ISDR, UNDP and the Haitian Civil Defense were agreed upon during UN/ISDR’s attendance at the ACS High-Level Conference on Disaster Reduction, held in Saint-Marc, Haiti from November 14-16, 2007 with the aim to provide coherent support to the Haitian government in strengthening capacities in DRR.

Climate change

Haiti's First National Communication on Climate Change to the UNFCC (French, January 2002)

Progress towards the implementation of the HFA

(Source: Matrix Final - based on 2005 national progress report)

HFA P1 - Institutional and legal framework:

Methodology for the design of local flood hazard maps in support of the UTSIG (Ministry of planning).

Two pilot maps have been produced.

The authorities requested the support for the installation of disaster data base DESINVENTAR. Two pilot flood early warning systems are being installed in Fonds-Verrettes and Camp Perrin areas.

Currently, support is being provided for the design of a National early warning system.

These events will feed into the implementation of a broader project involving the installation of EWS throughout the country(funded by the IADB)

HFA P2 - Risk identification and EWS

N/A

HFA P3 - Knowledge and education:

National training strategy that is being developed. It considers the development of a national training manual

An awareness campaign was launched for the 2005 hurricane season, focusing on risks related to hurricanes, storm and floods

HFA P4 - Risk applications:

In 2005 UNDP was preparing a programme support document for the period

HFA P5 - Preparedness and response:

The direction civil protection has developed a national action plan for 2005 hurricane season which was tested, together with the UN inter agency contingency plan, during two simulation exercise conducted end of May/early June 2005.