How to feed Haiti in times of crisis

According to various reports, the gangs control up to 90% of Port-au-Prince, raising fears that hunger will be used as a weapon to coerce the local population and dominate rival armed groups.

These same gangs control key routes to agricultural areas in the north and south and have disrupted the supply of goods, including food.

All this in a country with a predominantly rural population that, according to some calculations, could be self-sufficient in food for the entire country.

What is going wrong that causes so much hunger in the country? UN News shows you the five things you need to know about the current food security situation in Haiti:

Are hunger levels increasing?

About 11 million people live in Haiti and, according toThe most recent analysis of food security In the UN-backed country, around 4.97 million, almost half the population, need some form of food aid.

Around 1.64 million people face acute levels of malnutrition.

Children are especially affected, with an alarming 19% increase in the estimated number of people who will suffer from severe acute malnutrition in 2024.

On a more positive note, the 19,000 people who were in starvation conditions in a vulnerable neighborhood in Port-au-Prince in February 2023 have been removed from the critical list.

Why do people go hungry?

The executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Catherine Russell, stated that the current “malnutrition crisis is entirely man-made.”

The main causes of the current food shortage are increased gang violence, rising prices and low agricultural production, as well as political unrest, civil unrest, extreme poverty and natural disasters.

An estimated 362,000 people are internally displaced in Haiti and have difficulty feeding themselves. Some 17,000 people have fled Port-au-Prince for safer areas of the country, leaving behind their livelihoods and further reducing their ability to purchase food as prices continue to rise.

According to the Group of Experts on Haiti established by the Security Council of the UN, the gangs have “directly and indirectly threatened the nation's food security.”

The escalation of violence has caused the economic crisis, an increase in prices and a worsening of poverty. The gangs have interrupted food supplies and, at times, paralyzed the economy, threatening the population and setting up widespread roadblocksknown locally as peyi lokas a deliberate and effective ploy to stifle all economic activity.

They have also blocked key transportation routes and levied extortionate and unofficial taxes on vehicles attempting to travel between the capital and productive agricultural areas.

In one case, the leader of a gang in Artibonite, the country's main rice-growing area and a relatively new hotbed of gang activity, issued multiple threats on social media, warning that they would kill any farmer who returned to their fields. He World Food Program (PMA) reported in 2022 that there had been a notable decrease in cultivated land in Artibonite.

For its part, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) states that, in 2023, Agricultural production plummeted around 39% in the case of corn, 34% in rice and 22% in sorghumcompared to the five-year average.

How did we get to this point?

Although the current hunger crisis in Haiti has been exacerbated by the control that gangs exercise over the country's economy and daily life, it has its roots in decades of underdevelopment, as well as in the various political and economic crises that have been decades ravage the country.

Deforestation, due in part to poverty, and natural disasters such as floods, droughts and earthquakes, have also contributed to food insecurity.

Trade liberalization policies introduced in the 1980s significantly reduced import taxes on agricultural products, including rice, corn and bananas, undermining the competitiveness and viability of locally produced food.

What is the UN doing?

The UN humanitarian response continues in Haiti in coordination with national authorities, despite the tense and volatile situation on the ground, especially in Port-au-Prince.

One of the main food-related activities is the distribution of hot meals to the displaced, food and cash to the needy, and lunches to schoolchildren. In March, WFP said it reached more than 460,000 people both in the capital and across the country through these programs. UNICEF has also provided aid, including school meals.

FAO has a long tradition of working with farmers and has been providing essential support for the upcoming planting seasons, including cash transfers, vegetable seeds and tools to support agricultural livelihoods.

The UN agency also continues to support Haitian-led national agricultural policies and the implementation of development programs.

And in the long term?

Ultimately, the goal, as in any underdeveloped country in crisis, is find the path to long-term sustainable development that includes creating resilient food systems. It is a complicated situation in a country so dependent on humanitarian aid provided by the UN and other organizations.

The objective is to reduce dependence on food imports and link humanitarian responses with long-term actions on food security.

For example, WFP's school feeding programme, which provides lunches to students, has committed to purchasing all of its ingredients locally rather than importing them, an initiative that will support and encourage farmers to grow and sell crops that will improve their livelihoods and, in turn, will boost the local economy.

The International Labor Organization (ILO) has worked with farmers in the southwest of the country to grow highly nutritious breadfruit. About 15 tons of flour have been milled, some of which is being supplied to WFP programs.

The ILO has also supported cocoa farmers, who have exported 25 tonnes of this valuable product in 2023.

Both initiatives will increase farmers' income and improve their food security and, according to the head of the ILO in the country, Fabrice Leclercq, will contribute to “stopping the rural exodus.”

Most agree, however, that without peace and a stable and secure society, there is little chance that Haiti can significantly reduce its dependence on foreign aid, while ensuring that Haitians have enough to eat.