TABLE OF CONTENTS

CONTEXT

Recovery Challenges

Priorities

Results and Beneficiaries

Strategy of the United Nations System for this Appeal

TABLE 1.FUNDS REQUESTED IN THE APPEAL, BY APPEALING AGENCY

TABLE 2.PROJECTS IN THE APPEAL, BY APPEALING AGENCY

TABLE 3.PROJECTS IN THE APPEAL BY AREA AND SECTOR OF ACTIVITY

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HAITI – TRANSITIONAL APPEAL 2007

CONTEXT

  1. The democratic election of President René G. Préval in February 2006, the convening of a new parliament, and the setting-up of a new Government have given hope for a revival of democratic institutions and new perspectives for national dialogue in Haiti. The Government has already announced two major priorities for the next 5 years: modernization of the State and private investment development. At the International Conference on Socio-Economic Development for Haiti held in Port-au-Prince on 25 July 2006, the Government called on the support of the international community to the gradual implementation of eight (8) major undertakings: social pacification; justice and security; increased incomes; strengthening of the State; education; health; agriculture; and the environment. For the immediate future, an integral part of the extension of the Interim Co-operation Framework (ICF) until the end of 2007, measures were proposed by the Government aiming at quickly impacting on the most acute forms of poverty and socio-economic difficulties affecting the population during this critical transition period.
  2. In support to the action of the Government, to better assist its strategy and more quickly address priority needs by an adequate mobilization of resources, the Country Team of the United Nations (UN) System launches, in close consultation with the government, an Appeal in Support to Stabilization in Haiti. Through this Appeal, in the spirit of the Paris Declaration of on the Effectiveness of Aid, the UN System endeavours to immediately provide further support to the strengthening of Government capacities through resources and funding dedicated to specific issues (humanitarian, peace and development) to which the Government does not have direct access.
  3. In cooperation with key Ministries and partners, including Non-Governmental Organization (NGOs), and through the implementation of selected humanitarian activities, the Appeal also aims at reducing vulnerability among the population, ensuring better preparation of the authorities in the event of natural disasters, and a more visible impact on the living conditions of the populations, thus allowing for the immediate and concrete distribution of the dividends of democracy and the stabilization of non-violent populations in the pursuit of the objectives of peace, safety, justice and social equity. As a complement, and in continuity with measures envisaged by the Government, targeted and structuring actions were thus identified, towards better coverage of humanitarian, economic and social needs and the creation of an environment conducive to recovery. Thus, the Appeal intends to ensure better continuity between the short-term activities and the medium-term activities, contributing to set up the foundations for structural reforms and longer-term development.
  4. The Country Team of the UN System in Haiti proposes to accompany the Government’s efforts in those areas where it has a demonstrated and definite comparative advantage, along the main programming axes it has identified: Political Governance and Modernization of the State, Economic Growth, and Basic Services. In close consultation with the Government, and by laying down specific objectives, the Country Team of the UN System will concentrate its interventions on a geographical basis, focusing on urban and rural marginalized zones prone to natural disasters and food insecurity. Funding is also being mobilized by UN Agencies for the strengthening of humanitarian and recovery coordination, monitoring and follow-up of the Appeal itself, as well as for enhancing security of personnel.

Recovery Challenges

  1. To bring Haiti back on the way of the development, the Government faces a major challenge and will succeed only if all actors involved, including the communities themselves, take an active part in it. The challenges are daunting, if social and economic stabilization is to have a concrete immediate impact on the Haitian population. Furthermore, capacities need to be strengthened if State institutions are to play the role expected of them in the areas of security and political governance, as well as in the economic and social areas. Pre-conditions include:
  2. To strengthen the Rule of Law and democratic institutions for the respect and promotion of human rights

State institutions have the potential to reduce the risk of violence and conflict deriving from the socio-economic and demographic situation of the population. Historically, the Haitian State does not have a tradition of good governance. In any event, the State has had limited capacity to deliver services essential to ensure the respect of law and order, economic growth, and the redistribution of the resources, and has little invested in human resources and basic infrastructures in the past. The legal system is weakened by political corruption and interference, and suffers from lack of training of judges, of a weak legal framework, making access to justice hypothetical or arbitrary.

The National police force of Haiti (PNH) is currently considered one of the weakest police forces in the world, with 63 police officers for 100,000 inhabitants (the regional average being 283 per 100,000 inhabitants). The number of persons imprisoned in Haiti is 50 per 100,000 inhabitants. Taking into account the increasingly professional character of the police force, and the support of the justice system by the international community, it is likely that within 12 to 18 months the rate of imprisonment will reach 75 per 100,000 inhabitants. One counts already more than 4,000 prisoners for a current prison capacity of 2,500 places. Related to prison overpopulation, recurrent human rights violations are reported.

If the roots of the current Parliament can be traced back to the very beginnings of the Haitian Nation and even revolutionary fights having led to the creation of the Haitian State, the parliamentary institution has overtime undergone positive changes allowing for a further extension of democracy, often followed by serious drawbacks, generally due to handing-over of control over the Parliament to the executive power or a military authority. The 1987 Constitution expands the powers of the Parliament, as part of re-balancing of powers, undoubtedly as a reaction to multiple Parliament dissolutions before 1987. The Parliament can from now on block the executive without risk of dissolution. However, since the adoption of the current Constitution, the various elected Parliaments did not succeed in having laws modernizing the life economic and social like adopted, and adapt the Haitian laws to the recent evolution of the society and the economy. Moreover, apart from the lowest levels (communal section and commune), regional and local governance structures envisaged by the 1987 Constitution were never set up.

  1. To harmonize the national production with the growth of the population, in order to make the country able to provide a viable framework of life for all, and reduce inequality, promote social inclusion, with in view national dialogue and reconciliation

The results of the 2003 census indicate an increase of the population of 2.5% per annum. At the current rate/rhythm, the total population of more than 8.4 million inhabitants in 2006 will have reached 10 million in 2010 and will have doubled in 2030. The average number of children per woman is 4.1 (5 in rural area, 3 in urban environment). More than half of the Haitians live below the line of the extreme poverty of 1 USD per person and per day, and approximately three quarters - that is to say more than 6.2 million - below the poverty line of 2 USD. According to the UNDP, 95% of jobs are in the informal sector. The deficit in basic social services combined with the unemployment contributes to structural poverty structural of the largest part of the population. Some 3.8 million people, in majority in the rural zones, suffer from hunger (and 23% of the less than five year old children of chronic malnutrition).

The very fast increase in population had, and continues to have, a severe impact on a non-protected environment. With a density of 302 inhabitants per km2 (in comparison, the regional average is 26), Haiti suffers from a situation of extreme vulnerability to natural risks. The country is faced with increasing complex threats, resulting from the interaction between natural threats worsened by environmental pollution, the very high rates of poverty and social vulnerability of the population, governance problems and the lack of a normative control both in rural and urban areas (absence of construction standards, high density of population, high levels of urbanization, anarchistic occupation of space).

The situation is particularly critical in the over-populated urban zones. The urban population of Haiti is estimated at 3.2 million inhabitants. Approximately 50% of this population lives in slums and shantytowns. Less than 40% of the inhabitants of Port-with-Prince and the principal secondary cities have access to running water. The incidence of sexually transmitted diseases is particularly important in urban environment: 50% of the women of Cité Soleil are affected by at least one sexually transmitted disease, and 8.4% are carrying HIV-AIDS. Due to the relaxation of social norms and the degradation of community networks, daily life in urban environments is marked by crime, violence, juvenile criminality, armed robberies, assassinations and kidnappings. The weakness of the legal solutions, the progressive erosion of support systems, easy access to weapons, as many factors contribute to violence and insecurity has become endemic.

During the last few years, the primary sector (essentially, agriculture), which is the main supplier of employment, had to face structural (fertility of the soil, fragmentation of the manufacturing units, land titles, lack of tools, etc.) as well as conjectural (competition by growing imports and food aid, lack of technical assistance and credit) constraints that inhibited the efforts of farmers to increase the production. Consequently, the contribution of the agricultural sector to the GDP fell below 20%. Poverty is above all a rural phenomenon, with 82% of the rural population living below the poverty line of 2 USD per day. In practice, the ratio of income variation of the extremely poor people is such (0.56%) that the extremely poor households have an income per day of 0.44 USD.

Parallel to rural migration, the urbanization rate evolved from 12% in 1950, to 25% in 1982, and has now reached 40%. This population flows towards the urban centres is explained mainly by the impoverishment of rural areas and the search of better living conditions. The growth of the urban population is particularly important in the North-East (5.9%), with in particular a demographic explosion of the town of Ouanaminthe, the North-West (5.6%) and the West (5%). In conjunction with fast and anarchic population growth, the quality of life in urban environment has considerably worsened, urban infrastructure and housing services not keeping pace, resulting in the uncontrolled expansion of new settlement areas and contributing to a phenomenon of precariousness and slum creation.

The permanent insecurity and violence in the marginalized and economically disadvantaged zones in Haitian cities exercise considerable pressure on the populations, which are quite simply not equipped to manage such high levels of criminality and violence. Social cohesion mechanisms and community support networks have deteriorated, in particular in the rural areas, and in some cases have completely disappeared (urban environment). Entire geographical areas, in particular in the slums, have become increasingly isolated and militarised. By attacking the social fabric of the society, the Haitian recurring socio-political crises contributed to the emergence of new forms of violence on women, in particular sexual violence on girls and collective rapes. During the last ten years, the social fabric disintegrated to such a point that a whole generation grew with the idea that violence is the most effective means to acquire power and wealth. The youth living in urban environment were deprived of their future, and locked in a cycle of violence and alienation.

  1. To make basic services available on the totality of the territory, with a geographical and human dimension, so as to allow for social inclusion

Haiti is the poorest country in the region, with catastrophic social indicators, ranking it 153ème out of 177 countries according to the 2005 index of the Human Development Report of UNDP. Nearly 40% of adult Haitians are illiterate, and the net rate of attendance at primary school does not exceed 49%. Traditionally much below regional and world averages, the humanitarian and health situation in Haiti is currently extremely precarious, due as much to current circumstances as to structural deficiencies and the economic situation.

With respect to health indicators, Haiti has the worse indicators among all countries all Latin American and Caribbean countries. The life expectancy at birth is 58.8 years for women and 52.7 years for men. Infant mortality is 80 per 1000, while maternal mortality is one of highest in the world (523 women die for 100,000 births) due to haemorrhages (29%), eclampsia (26%) at the time of birth and abortions (13%). Vaccine coverage does not exceed 33.5% of the country, with an identical rate for urban environments and rural. Haiti has the highest rates of infection to HIV-AIDS in the area, with 4-5% of the population infected by the virus. The deficit in basic social services combined with unemployment contributes to structural poverty among the largest part of the population.

In spite of a great potentiality with respect to water resources, there are only 88 water distribution services for the whole territory, and less than 10% of the hydraulic potential is actually exploited to allow for the availability of drinking water to the population. One house out of five only has access to running water. Only 34% of the population in urban environment has access to improved means of excreta, 18% in rural areas. Generally speaking, the deficiencies of health services have resulted in an unhealthy environment, including direct pollution of sources of water. Waste of all nature is poured in the channels of drainage, the sewers, or quite simply is deposited on streets, serious threatening the environment and heath of inhabitants.

The road network in Haiti is, globally, in a critical state. With limited investment and maintenance (less than 10% of the roads are maintained regularly), the rare rehabilitated infrastructures are in a state of very advanced deterioration, which reduces their lifespan considerably and accentuates the insulation of rural areas where two thirds of the population live. More than half of this rural population does not have access to any transport services and more than a third of this population is not accessible that by means of a road suitable for motor vehicles. Under these conditions, access to basic social services (education, health) but also to economic development (markets, trade) is highly limited.

Priorities

  1. The immediate priorities of the Government were communicated to the International Community in Brasilia on 23 May 2006 and presented in the Declaration of General Policy of the Government adopted by the Parliament in June 2006. On top of the Government list of priorities are the following:
  1. To remove the most obvious obstacles to social inclusion and/or meet the needs for the most vulnerable, in particular in marginalized urban zones and fragile rural zones prone to malnutrition;
  2. To boost production and/or to supply inputs for the next agricultural season;
  3. To restore access to basic services: water and sanitation, especially in over-populated urban centres; infrastructure aiming at reducing the risks or consequences of the natural disasters; education, with priority preparation of the beginning of the next school year through the rehabilitation of schools, the distribution of handbooks, uniforms, etc; health, with priority on drinking water and the establishment of health centres in 55 communes still deprived from such services; electricity to ensure a minimum distribution allowing for the delivery of other basic services, such as water, health services, etc;
  4. To create jobs for unskilled workers, as a result and consequence of other activities, to produce first and foremost goods and services that will benefit to the population.
  1. The Appeal proposes activities that support the Government priorities, focusing on:

1)Political governance

2)Economic growth, and

3)Basic services.

In addition, funding is sought for coordination and monitoring, as well as for enhancing security of personnel.

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HAITI – TRANSITIONAL APPEAL 2007

Results and Beneficiaries

  1. Each project will be monitored and evaluated on the basis of individual results indicated in the project description concerned. Progress will be evaluated based on following expected results:

Political Governance
Security and the reduction of violence /
  • Better control over armaments, reduction in armed violence. Conflict management reinforced through setting-up of community networks;

Justice /
  • National capacities strengthened for the effective implementation of the reform of the judiciary, through training of the actors, legislative reform and information of citizens;

Economic Recovery
Food Security/Food Aid /
  • Urgent food and nutritional needs in most vulnerable segments of the population covered, and contingency measures in place to respond to consequences of natural disasters in place;

Agriculture /
  • Rural economy boosted and effectively supported and encouraged by timely actions and concrete measures (e.g. fertilizers, irrigation, animal vaccination, support to farmers and fishermen, etc.);

Infrastructure /
  • Small community infrastructure rehabilitated in support to improved opportunities for better subsistence (circulation and distribution of local market production, tertiary and secondary roads) and/or in support to the delivery of basic services;

Environment /
  • A priority programme for the rehabilitation of the environment implemented and rapidly contributing to the creation of a large number of temporary jobs, and opportunities for revenue generation benefiting to the poorest segments of the population;

Prevention of natural disasters /
  • Capacities for the prevention of natural disasters strengthened through sensitisation, and more efficient response mechanisms at the local level;

Trans-border cooperation /
  • Migrant population, and population of border areas under migration pressure, supported through employment generation and the creation of opportunities and development perspectives as well as binominal dialogue;

National Poverty Reduction Strategy /
  • National capacities strengthened for the preparation of National Poverty Reduction Strategy in a participative way and based on the Millennium Development Goals;

Access to Basic Services
Education /
  • School attendance rates increased through food aid, a better an improvement of nutritional and sanitary conditions in schools, and enhanced quality of teaching through support to school programmes;

Health /
  • Additional health services and staff made available to the population through improvement of infrastructure, training of personnel, provision of medical inputs and equipment, and supply of quality services;

Water and sanitation /
  • Reduction of morbidity and mortality rates, in particular with respect to children, through improvement of basic primary sanitation services, access to clean water, improvement of hygiene and sanitary conditions, and solid waste management;

Reduction of Vulnerability /
  • The rights of groups in situation of particular vulnerability protected (in particular children victims of exploitation through forced labour, women and girls subject to violence, either sexual or based on gender, prostitutes, and persons living with HIV-AIDS).

Coordination & Staff Personal Safety
  • An inter-agency structure allowing for the evaluation of needs and a regular monitoring of projects and activities so as to measure concrete results and the impact on the population of Haiti as well as well as analysis and dissemination of information.
  • Staff better protected by adequate equipment corresponding to the security norms for the United Nations System when operating in sensitive areas.

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