UNICEF

JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc. is a health research/consulting firm dedicated to improving the health of individuals and communities worldwide.  JSI visited Haiti in January 2009 to identify gaps in the availability and accessibility of reproductive health (RH) services and to assess community responses for strengthening quality, accessibility and availability.  Reproductive health is a social issue, a public health issue, a human rights issue, a security issue, and one that is important for countries that are fragile, stable, or in Haiti's case, teetering in between.  The report is attached and deserves to be widely read.

Every March 22nd since 1992 has been World Water Day.  This year's theme is "Shared Waters and Shared Opportunities."  4,200 children die each day from preventable water-borne disease.  Responding is not just a moral imperative, but sound economics.  For each dollar spent on water and sanitation projects, the projected return on investment is from $3 to $34.  For too many of us, a glass of contaminated water can mean the difference between life and death.  You can help change this by taking part in the TAP Project during World Water Week. 

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and former U.S. President Bill Clinton will visit Haiti March 9-10 to promote international aid for Haiti.  According to UN Peacekeeping Chief Alain Le Roy, ''Clearly it's a fragile situation in Haiti.  There are still lots of difficulties but we think Haiti is winnable."  Also noteworthy is that a long awaited donor conference has been set for April 13-14 and will be chaired by the Inter American Development Bank. Expect food security to be an important part of these discussions.

By most accounts, the Haitian Government responded well to Gustav.  The Haitian Ministry of Interior’s Office of Civil Protection (DPC) played an active role, gathering information and establishing shelters nationwide. However, Hanna overwhelmed the country's capacity and produced a national catastrophe  that was exacerbated by Ike.  The storms affected 600,000 people in nine of ten departments. Of them, the UN is reporting that 331 people have died and 70,000 people remain in shelters.  Relief has been slow because of damaged infrastructure but it is arriving.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is the development agency of the American government and a major bilateral donor to Haiti.  USG support to Haiti is considerable - In Fiscal Year (FY) 2007, USAID provided 245 million dollars in foreign assistance to Haiti, 279 million in FY 2008 and is scheduled to provide 245 million in FY 2009.  The goal of this support can be summarized in one word - stability. The point of this blog is not to evaluate these programs but to point out what USAID is doing, where, and to highlight some useful resources on the USAID/Haiti website.

Security and food security go hand in hand in countries like Haiti that are dependent on importation for survival.  President Rene Preval announced a 15 percent cut in rice prices and a series of measures to uphold national food production namely by providing subsidies, credit and technical assistance to farmers.  Rice exports are banned.  However, Haitians cannot survive on rice alone. Corn, beans, oil, etc. all remain expensive. The President has yet to appoint a Prime Minister who can assemble a new Cabinet.  We hope, whoever he or she is, the new Prime Minister will take food security seriously and communicate often with the public about what is doing to reduce food costs and improve national production.  This should have been a priority long ago.

Friday was World Malaria Day 2008.  Global health depends on controlling this global disease.  It is the leading cause of death in African children and a major health concern in Haiti.  It overwhelms fragile health care systems and hurts economies - the annual economic loss in Africa due to malaria is estimated to be $12 billion (1.3% loss in GDP.)   Yet, we know how to prevent it and how to treat it.  There has been tremendous progress made in the past year, so much so that the international community increasingly agrees that we should begin working toward eradication - in other words, a world without malaria.  It would be a better world indeed.