Interaction

The World Food Programme (WFP) has launched an emergency appeal to assist one million Haitians affected by prolonged drought made worse by El Niño.  According to WFP, 3.6 million people face food insecurity.  Haiti struggles to feed itself even in the best of times due to deforestation, erosion, vulnerability to natural disasters, land tenure issues, lack of modern equipment and techniques and questionable aid and trade practices.  WFP will rely not only on food distributions but also cash assistance so beneficiaries can buy the food they need locally. WFP’s efforts are needed, welcomed, and worth supporting  - as is the long-term development of domestic agriculture. 

Most agree that efforts to protect the safety, dignity and rights of the most vulnerable populations (women, children, the disabled, the elderly, etc.) in post earthquake Haiti could and should have been more effective. Women and children are still vulnerable to a range of protection threats including sexual abuse/exploitation and human trafficking.  Interaction, an advocacy group for American non-governmental organizations (NGOs) has released two reports, on improving protection and on preventing and responding to gender-based violence (GBV) respectively.  Both are thorough, well thought out, and are copied below.      

Interaction, the largest coalition of U.S. based international nongovernmental organizations, recently launched the Haiti Aid Map, an online application that graphically represents which organizations in Haiti are doing what and where.  Interaction welcomes feedback on this pilot initiative.  Contact them if you would like to learn more, submit data, or share your thoughts concerning the kinds of information that should be highlighted or the features you would like to see in the future.