INTERVIEW
LAURENT THOMAS, DIRECTOR, EMERGENCY OPERATIONS REHABILITATION DIVISION, FAO

QUESTIONS BY C. DAVID, ONU

How would you list the priorities and the degrees of urgency for the Haitian population?
The Haitian earthquake, one of the deadliest in modern times, caused a dramatic humanitarian crisis and led to one million homeless in Port-au-Prince and at least 500,000 people fleeing Port-au-Prince for the provinces. It also seriously impacted food security nationwide and a hunger crisis is looming. Populations that already did not get enough to eat, now share their family food baskets with relatives that have fled the quake zone.

To make matters worse, damage to supply chain infrastructure has made food much more expensive. The prices of wheat flour, sorghum, imported rice and beans, the main source of protein for the poor, have all soared (see graph). FAO’s immediate priority is to support the affected populations by sustaining and ramping up domestic food production and providing support to subsistence and vulnerable farmers for the March planting season which accounts for sixty percent of national food production.

The United Nations and its partners have launched the Haiti Earthquake Flash Appeal 2010, seeking USD 575 million to carry out rapid, life-saving and early recovery activities over an initial 6-month period. Under this appeal, the Agriculture Cluster, led by FAO, is seeking USD 23 million to rebuild the productive capacities of poor households. The appeal is currently under revision and will be finalized on 17 February with a larger envelope for agriculture and food security activities over the next twelve months.

A key priority as a social safety net, is to ensure that ongoing food production activities in areas not directly affected by the earthquake continue, while at the same time rebuilding the food security and incomes of families reeling from the disaster. Over half the population in Haiti is already undernourished and about two million people are suffering of hunger. To prevent the situation from getting worse, the Agriculture Cluster is working to ensure that small-scale urban and rural farmers receive inputs and technical support in time for the March and June planting seasons so they can rapidly boost their food production. The Cluster is also seeking to increase the absorption capacity of communities hosting displaced groups and to enhance overall food production throughout the country.

FAO currently has seventy-three experts and employees working through its FAO Representation and Emergency Rehabilitation and Coordination Unit offices throughout Haiti. This number is increasing in order to support the Government of Haiti and the Ministry of Agriculture, which lost personnel and sustained considerable damages. FAO has sent experts to assess damages to the agriculture sector and infrastructure and on the market chain and is participating in the vulnerability assessment by WFP.

What do you think your Organization can offer to the Haitian people to allow them to become more autonomous, and not just “give them fish, but a fishing rod”?
Haitian agriculture was in the grip of a renaissance before the disaster struck, showing recovery is possible. The earthquakes must not be allowed to reverse that positive trend. With people moving back to the rural areas, support to Haiti’s agricultural sector is now an urgent priority and the Haitian government’s plan does a very good job of laying down the immediate priorities.

Almost fifty-five percent of Haitians lived in rural areas before the earthquake struck. Haiti’s rural areas are desperately poor with eighty percent of the population surviving on the razor-edge of poverty with less than two dollars a day.

In the short, medium and longer-term, substantial investment in agriculture and support to poor farmers, the drivers and benefi ciaries of rural development, must play a major role if lasting national recovery is to be achieved in Haiti. International investment in natural resource management, to preserve soils and fresh water supplies and reforest the country’s denuded hills is also vital to increase Haiti’s resilience to future natural disasters.

In this context, FAO is calling for international donors to support a several million investment plan in the agricultural sector drawn up by the Haitian government to repair earthquake damaged infrastructure, boost national food production and create employment for people fleeing Port-au-Prince.

The special programme, drawn up by the Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Rural Development gives specific orientation for international aid in the sector for the next eighteen months. FAO is deploying a team of technical experts to further define the agriculture medium and longer term plan and to contribute to the joint Post Disaster Needs Assessment (a coordinated effort) for the sustainable reconstruction of Haiti.

Do you consider it possible to avoid or limit any future catastrophe by decentralizing the population to locations outside of Port-au-Prince?
Indeed the catastrophic events and aftermath from the earthquake are multiple: the destruction of productive assets and infrastructure has affected already many incomeearning activities and has led to widespread unemployment. This obviously results in the loss of income and purchasing power. Although agricultural production was good in 2009, transportation and infrastructural constraints are expected to limit internal trade and have a negative impact on prices.

A key priority is to ensure that internal trade continues smoothly in order to guarantee food supply to the population living in earthquake affected areas. It is therefore important to rehabilitate infrastructure on key routes, especially the links with the Dominican Republic as the country is and will still be receiving many goods from that pipeline.

Another issue to be addressed following the earthquake is the overwhelming movement of people to the countryside where the degraded soil and natural resources are at high risk of further depletion. However, if the right policies and investments are implemented in support of subsistence or small scale farming, these people can help increase productivity in rural areas and rebuild their lives. Reconstruction and rehabilitation of agricultural assets and infrastructure is therefore central to increasing production and supporting the productive employment of the displaced people and their hosting families. This is especially important in relation to the mutual support of urban and rural population and their livelihoods inter-dependency.

Regarding the possibility of decentralizing the population permanently to avoid any future disasters, we cannot ascertain what the Government may decide. What is important is however to ensure that what is built back is done well, and that disaster preparedness be an integral part of this building back better. As many small island developing states, Haiti is prone to natural disasters, not only because it has seismic areas but also because of its geographical location, which is susceptible to cyclical hurricanes. There is an opportunity now to strengthen institutional and community capacities in food security, in disaster risk reduction in agriculture and contingency planning for any future disaster.