HIGHLIGHTS OF PRESS CONFERENCE BY UNDER-SECRETARY-GENERAL FOR HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS AND EMERGENCY RELIEF COORDINATOR ON HAITI

John Holmes, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, briefed the press in Geneva this morning on the status of the humanitarian response in Haiti.

Mr. Holmes said the operation had been complicated and difficult to mount and that there had been frustration from all parties involved in the operation as they had not been able to reach, as quickly as they would have liked it, everybody with the aid they needed. The scaling up of relief operations was happening now but they had still a significant way to go particularly with regard to food and shelter.

On the health cluster side, things were looking better, said Mr. Holmes. Most of the life-saving operations had taken place. The current issues were about post-operative care; making sure that the needed drugs were available; and to minimize the risk of epidemics, such as measles or diarrheal diseases. A measles vaccination campaign had started this week.

On the water cluster side, the situation was reasonably satisfactory, said Mr. Holmes. It was not regarded as a significant problem anymore.

On the food side, the World Food Programme had started a major food distribution operation this week. Its aim was to reach 2 million plus people in the next ten days, said Mr. Holmes. This happened through a network of 16 distribution points, through which other non-food items, such as hygiene-kits, kitchen-kits, shelter material and stoves, could also be distributed. Security at these distribution points was provided, partly by the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) Peacekeeping forces and partly by the U.S. Forces.

On the shelter-cluster side, there was a clear strategy in place now to make sure that people were being helped where they were. There were no plans to build large camps. Some relatively small camps would be put in place around Port-au-Prince. The idea was to help people where they were, either in the ruins of their homes, next to them or in the spontaneous settlement sites. The aim was to provide people with better shelter material, such as tarpaulins, plastic sheeting and tents. The major issue coming down the track was the rainy and hurricane seasons. Transitional shelter arrangements would thus be needed in the near term.

Turning to sanitation, Mr. Holmes said that a major operation was needed to build some 7,000 latrines in order to improve sanitation.

Another issue was the protection of children. The United Nations Children's Fund was doing its best to make sure that separated children and orphans were not taken out of the country illegally, without proper adoption procedures, said Mr. Holmes.

On the logistics, Mr. Holmes said the airport was functioning well, while the port was only functioning to a limited extent and the land-route via the Dominican Republic was also working and was being increasingly used. Security was a constraint, as escorts for convoys were needed, as well as security on distribution sites.

Security was provided by the MINUSTAH Peacekeepers, together with the US and Canadian Forces. The cooperation with these and other forces was working well, said Mr. Holmes.

Turning to the resource mobilization, Mr. Holmes noted that this catastrophe had touched the hearts of people around the world. Over US$ 2 billion were raised or pledged all together. The Flash Appeal was now 83 per cent funded. There were still some sectors that appeared under-funded, such as: education; agriculture; early-recovery; nutrition; and security. A detailed inter-agency and inter-cluster needs assessment mission was also ongoing. Its results would feed into the revised Appeal in two weeks time. It would also serve the much longer post-disaster operation, for which a donor conference would be organized, probably in March.

Questions & Answers

Answering a journalist’s question on the difference between the relief coordination after the Tsunami and after the Haiti earthquake, Mr. Holmes said it was difficult to compare both disasters. In the case of the Tsunami the structure of the affected countries’ Governments had remained intact and their capitals had not been destroyed. With Haiti, the problem was that the local emergency capacity had been paralyzed and everyone had had to wait for international help to arrive. Organizing a major response and serving meals to millions of people did not happen overnight. The coordination itself had been significantly better than after the Tsunami. The system of clusters with lead-agencies being entrusted with a specific cluster had been a direct result of the experiences learnt in the Tsunami and Darfur.

Turning to a question on the ethicality of using Haitians as a cheap-labour force to clean out the rubble off the streets, Mr. Holmes responded by saying that people should be given an opportunity for work and to get cash to buy themselves some food. Further, the average daily wage in Haiti was US$ 3 and Haitians were getting paid US$ 4 for this work. It was important to pay attention not to destroy the labour market by paying rates out of proportion with the local pay rates.

On why there was no plan to build larger camps, Mr. Holmes answered that these had a tendency to become permanent with time. Also, there were no places for large camps in the immediate, vicinity of Port-au-Prince. People also wanted to stay near where their homes and their jobs used to be.

Answering to a question on how long the U.S. and Canadian Forces would stay in Haiti, Mr. Holmes said both were present at the request of the Haitian Government to help with the relief operation. The primary responsibility for security remained with the MINUSTAH. The U.S. and Canadian Forces would probably leave as soon as the situation would be stable and the MINUSTAH capacity reinforced.

A journalist wondered what kinds of shelters would replace the current temporary shelters with the coming of the hurricane season. Mr. Holmes said that the current tents could only be a temporary solution. Experts were currently looking at transitional hurricane-proof shelter solutions. There was no answer to that question yet; it was a major challenge. Wooden pre-fabricated buildings could be a solution, but it would be a major logistical challenge to get enough of them constructed and to identify places to construct them and avoid that these would become permanent slums. As hurricanes could be predicted, a proper contingency plan for people in temporary shelters was also needed.