This update represents a twelve month summary (31 October 2012 to 31 October 2013) of the operation (cumulative, narrative and financial).
Appeal target (current): 4,227,003 Swiss francs excluding the Emergency Response Units (ERUs) value of 253,562 Swiss francs. The appeal target with the ERUs value is 4,480,565 Swiss francs. Appeal coverage: 100%
Appeal history:
31 October 2012: 150,000 Swiss francs was allocated from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies´ (IFRC) Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) to support the Haitian Red Cross (HRC) to respond to the emergency caused by Hurricane Sandy.
1 November 2012: A preliminary emergency appeal for 2,162,206 Swiss francs in cash, kind, or services was issued to support HRC to assist 8,000 families (40,000 beneficiaries) for nine months.
12 November 2012: An emergency appeal was launched reflecting a revised budget for 7,511,993 Swiss francs in cash, kind or services to support HRC to assist 8,000 families (40,000 beneficiaries) for 12 months. The budget revision was based on needs identified from the assessments conducted in the affected regions.
7 December 2012: Emergency appeal operation update no 1, highlighting preliminary interventions and relief assistance, was issued.
22 April 2013: Emergency appeal operation update no 2, was issued.
-18 June 2013: A revised emergency appeal was issued, adjusting the appeal budget downwards from Swiss francs 7,511,993 to 4,379,006 Swiss francs with operational changes based on a detailed situation analysis.
24 June 2013: a 6 month update was issued, highlighting extension of the operation’s timeframe until 28 February 2014.
The issue of this 12 month update adds a non-cost extension to the appeal in order to provide quality monitoring to activities related to house construction and reconstruction (with an owner-driven approach) and latrine construction. This non-cost extension will be until 31 May 2014, and will not apply to activities implemented by the German Red Cross (GRC), which have been finalized. In addition, this update revises the budget downwards from 4,379,006 Swiss francs to 4,227,003 Swiss francs.
A final report will be available three months after the completion of the operation, by 31 August, 2014.
Summary:
It has been over one year since Hurricane Sandy devastated the West, Nippes, South, Grand'Anse and South-East departments as well as the coastal areas of Artibonite and the North-West part of the country. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) continued to support through Sandy Operation and responded to the needs of the affected population in the target areas.
The shelter component has advanced since the previous reporting period. Targeted households have received grants which they used to buy food and non-food items or household livelihood assets which were lost during Hurricane Sandy. Others paid school fees for their children, built new homes or repaired their damaged houses. Trainings were offered to masons to improve their existing local knowledge in traditional construction techniques. In turn, 58% of the targeted model houses have been built. In addition, HRC volunteers have been trained in disaster risk reduction (DRR), specializing in topics such as shelter and water, sanitation and hygiene promotion (WASH). With this knowledge, the volunteers have in turn reached 111 people with sensitization sessions on safer housing for risk reduction.
During this reporting period, the delivery of water and sanitation health activities covered hygiene promotion, aqua tabs and soap distribution. HRC volunteers have been trained in hygiene promotion activities in communities of South and West departments. Hygiene messages were given by these volunteers in the target areas. At the moment, household latrines are under construction in Petit-Goave and sanitation, blocks consisting of latrines and hand washing facilities, are also under construction in schools in Petit-Goave, Grand-Goave and South department. In addition, sanitation promotion sessions were conducted, demonstrations latrines build and a technical support given to the activities related to safe water access.
The German Red Cross (GRC) has been a key partner in the implementation of the early recovery component related to food security and livelihoods. In August, the GRC Haiti delegation requested a non-cost extension owing to a series of setbacks at the beginning of implementation, including but not limited to the recruitment of a full time food security delegate, quality assurance to beneficiaries and donors, the ratio of technical staff for the number of beneficiary households across the operational area, and the need to improve project support (logistics, fleet, material resources) at critical times in the agricultural calendar. Nonetheless, as at the end of October 2013, the GRC had fully delivered on its agreement with the IFRC to distribute all inputs, cash transfers and relevant trainings, reaching 87% of planned expenditure. In terms of overall coverage, the food security component is estimated to have had a significant presence across the operational area of both Nippes and Grand'Anse, having impacted upon 3,086 households or 15,430 persons, representing 101% of the targeted people to be reached
Over the course of the remaining months (until 28 February 2014), the GRC will focus on strengthening extension services provided to beneficiaries, especially for the kitchen gardening activities, where beneficiary knowledge on crop diagnosis needs improvement. Finally, crop yield assessment of pea and yam will be carried out along by the team together with an in-depth impact assessment of project activities on food security.
The appeal needs to be extended even though the main implementation on the financial side, will happen in the original time span. Since house construction and public/private latrine construction will be done with an owner-driven approach, there’s a need to keep a small core team in place. This team will initially concentrate on technical support to that process. They will later on shift to monitoring and complete the reporting on the results.