KfW Provides Emergency Aid to Haiti
Direct aid for mothers and children © Anne Poulsen, WFP
The Pearl of the Caribbean
One island – two states: Haiti and the Dominican Republic share
the island of Hispaniola, a natural paradise. Decades of
deforestation and slash and burn cultivation, however, have
transformed what used to be the "pearl of the Caribbean" into a
stony desert. The people are paying for their ruthless exploitation
of natural resources in the form of failed harvests and natural
disasters. Haiti is also in the tropical hurricane belt. In August
and September 2008, the 27,750 square kilometres of the Caribbean
island state were hit by four hurricanes, which cost hundreds of
lives, destroyed innumerable homes, fields and livelihoods, and
buried vast areas of farmland under mud and boulders. Bridges were
destroyed, and roads undermined and swept away. Electricity and
drinking water supplies broke down completely. Thousands of people
who lost their homes then are still living in tents and emergency
accommodation.
The economic situation of Haiti was extremely difficult even before
disaster hit. The country has practically no manufacturing
industry. Rampant inflation (16 percent) and the dramatic rise in
world market prices of basic foodstuffs such as rice and maize led
to revolts in 2008 as the people starved. The infant mortality rate
is 15 percent. Because of the disastrous economic and political
situation, more than three million Haitians have turned their back
on their country over the last ten years. The food security
situation was already critical as a result of the food crisis.
Coming on top of this, the hurricanes meant starvation for the
poorer sections of the population.
Tackling the Emergency Together - FC and the WFP
Since September 2008 the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has been operating an emergency aid station, which coordinates logistics for all humanitarian missions and ensures the wide-scale distribution of food and other supplies in the region. At the start of this year, KfW provided EUR 4 million to support the World Food Programme in the field of emergency and disaster aid in Haiti. In October, the German Ambassador Jens-Peter Voss gained an impression of how and where the KfW funds are being used.
Myrta Kaulhardt, WFP Country Director, and Jens-Peter Voss, German
Ambassador to Haiti watch as children eat school dinner © WFP
Haiti
Accompanied by the WFP Country Director, Myrta Kaulhardt, he travelled to Gonaïves on the north coast of the island of Hispaniola. The town is home to 270,000 people and is in the region that was worst hit by the hurricanes and subsequent flooding in 2008.
During the six-month mission, more than 29,000 tonnes of food
was distributed to the entire population affected at a cost of USD
31 million. To clean schools and canals, "food for work" programmes
were set up. Subsequently, food was distributed specifically to the
particularly needy. This took the form of school dinners for
primary school children and food supplements in maternal and child
care centres, for instance.
Mud covers everything © Anne Kohli, WFP Haiti
The German contribution was one of the largest donations
received by the WFP within the framework of the emergency aid
operation in Haiti, which was financed by a number of donors. The
EUR 4 million was used primarily to buy basic foodstuffs, such as
rice, cereals, beans and oil. Between January and April 2009 some
715,000 people in and around Gonaïves were supplied with
food.
The "food for work" activities are still ongoing in order to free
the town from the thick layer of mud, shore up the flood dykes
along rivers and rebuild the terraced fields on the hills.
Praise for German Support
Over the last 18 months the WFP has created about 300,000 short-term jobs through its "food for work" measures. Some 250,000 undernourished children and their mothers have been helped and school meals have been provided for 500,000 children.
In a public statement, the World Food Programme's Executive Director Josette Sheeran thanked the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany for its financial support. She made special mention of cooperation with KfW and expressed her particular thanks to KfW.
30 November 2009
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