The National Coordination of Food Security (CNSA) recalls that during the year 2016, almost all the departments of Haiti were affected by various climatic shocks: drought (Northwest, Upper Artibonite, Southeast, High Plateau and Northeast), hurricane (Grand Anse, South, Nippes and lower Northwest) and flooding in several departments.

The CNSA stresses that, due to recorded crop losses and the sharp devaluation of the gourde, households are facing a considerable deterioration in their purchasing power, with the inflation rate exceeding 14% https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-19966-haiti-economy-inflation-to-143-december-2016.html

Situation of the Departments :

"These various shocks have seriously affected households in the various livelihood zones of the country, thus pushing them to adopt more or less severe adaptation strategies in spite of important humanitarian interventions, particularly in the South and in the Grand-Anse. Six departments are classified into crisis phase 1 (Grand-Anse, South, Nippes, South East, North West, North East) and three other departments in stress phase 2 (North, Center, West). About 18% to 28% and 26% to 35% of the population of the areas analyzed (the analysis does not include urban areas apart from the Cayes and Jérémie) are in Crisis and Stress Phases, respectively. It should be noted that without humanitarian assistance, the departments most affected by Matthew (Grand-Anse / South) would probably be in a worse phase.

Planned Status (June-September 2017) :

"Due to the harvests expected from June, we can expect an improvement in the situation in the different zones, but this improvement will not be enough to induce a phase change in certain areas including West, the upper Artibonite and Grand-Anse due to the strong decapitalization of households. These areas of analysis are likely to be in a crisis phase (Grand Anse, Lower-North-West and Upper Artibonite) while the others will pass from the crisis phase to the stress phase (South, Nippes, East) or minimal phase (the West department).

The CNSA recalls that certain factors may however aggravate these scenarios among others :

• A rain failure at critical times of crop development for the next campaign ;

• Inadequate household assistance ;

• The lack or inadequacy of response to recovery plans ;

• Socio-political disturbances ;

• Recurrence of cholera during the wet season.

HL/ HaitiLibre