Emergency response phase of Haiti's relief efforts to continue for months to come: UN

Given the scale and complexity of challenges after Haiti's devastating earthquake more than two months later, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has recommended that the emergency response phase of the relief efforts continue for months to come, UN spokesman Farhan Haq said here Friday.

Particularly, OCHA has urged that the "relocation of people needs to be sped up ahead of the rainy season," Haq said as he briefed reporters on OCHA's latest update on Haiti here at the UN Headquarters in New York.

The rainy season in Haiti begins in earnest in May, followed by the hurricane season, which then goes into October.

Currently OCHA has noted that over three quarters of the 1.2 million people in need of emergency shelter have now received shelter materials, Haq said.

Last week, the UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, John Holmes, said the aim is to reach everyone with emergency shelter by April 1.

Regarding security in the camps, "OCHA says it is working with the UN Mission in the country, MINUSTAH and the Haitian national police to improve protection," Haq said. MINUSTAH stands for the UN mission in Haiti.

OCHA has said that some 150 patrols by UN police and the Haitian national police are conducted everyday in camps.

With the reported rise of gender-based violence, a pilot project is underway in the Petionville Club camp in Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, where female officers from the UN police and Haitian national police are working to address this concern, Haq said.

The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) is also in the process of assembling and distributing 17,000 flashlights to Haitian women and will send 300 tents to set up safe spaces in camps for women, Haq said.

According to an official report Tuesday by the Haitian government, the government there needs about 11.5 billion U.S. dollars for relief work.

Presented in collaboration with the United Nations, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, the Inter- American Development Bank, the World Bank and the European Union, it said economic loss suffered by Haiti reached 7.754 billion dollars, leaving 71 percent of the Haitians in extreme poverty.

The report was presented at a preparatory conference in Haiti related to an international donors' conference to be held at the end of March.

Source: Xinhua