In this brief, the World Food Programme (WFP) is introducing its flagship integrated climate-risk management approach, the R4 Rural Resilience Initiative (R4), to address both the climatic and non-climatic drivers of vulnerability in Haiti. WFP Haiti is combining a set of integrated risk management strategies, including access to microinsurance, as …
Millions more people globally are facing the threat of severe food and water shortages in early 2016 as droughts and flood devastate crops and strain a humanitarian system already struggling to meet needs, aid agencies warned. The weather disturbances caused by this year's El Niño, described by the United Nations …
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (CMC) - Five people were killed in Haiti as Tropical Storm Erika drenched sections of French speaking Caribbean Community (Caricom) member state. The Associated Press reports that one person was killed in a mudslide to the north of here while four others were killed in a traffic accident …
In 2013, a stockpile of oral cholera vaccine (OCV) was created for use in outbreak response, but vaccine availability remains severely limited. Innovative strategies are needed to maximize the health impact and minimize the logistical barriers to using available vaccine. Here we ask under what conditions the use of one …
Climate change, cholera and the return of thousands of emigrants from the neighboring Dominican Republican are fueling a humanitarian crisis in Haiti, the UN warned Tuesday. The impoverished Caribbean nation is facing a deluge of problems, pushing an already vulnerable population closer to the edge, said Enzo di Taranto, who …
A new data set of landslides that caused loss of life in Latin America and the Caribbean in the 10-year period from 2004 and 2013 inclusive has been compiled, providing new insight into the impact of landslides in this key part of the world. This data set indicates that in …
Ian Fleming’s famous fictional spy is renowned for being a bit of a love rat. But now a real rodent has been discovered on the island of Hispaniola and it has been named James Bond's hutia - or Plagiodontia aedium bondi. The cat-sized animal weighs more than two lbs (1kg) …
Malaria remains endemic in 21 countries of the American continent with an estimated 427,000 cases per year. Approximately 10% of these occur in the Mesoamerican and Caribbean regions. During the last decade, malaria transmission in Mesoamerica showed a decrease of ~85%; whereas, in the Caribbean region, Hispaniola (comprising the Dominican …
A Haitian marine biologist who successfully fought to create a national park to protect a large swath of Haiti's north coast has won a prominent U.S. environmental activism prize. Jean Wiener was awarded a Goldman Environmental Foundation prize for his efforts to establish the Caribbean nation’s first Marine Protected Areas …
PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti (CMC) — At least six people have died and several thousand homes flooded as Haiti's rainy season continues to bring suffering on the people of this French-speaking Caribbean Community country. The Directorate of Civil Protection and Interior Ministry said the rains have also resulted in 245 …
Scientists have bred 30 new varieties of "heat-beating" beans designed to provide protein for the world's poor in the face of global warming, researchers announced on Wednesday. Described as "meat of the poor", beans are a key food source for more than 400 million people across the developing world, but …
Over a third of hospitals and clinics in developing countries have nowhere for staff or patients to wash with soap, and almost 40 percent have no source of water, according to a WHO-backed international review published on Tuesday. The report, by sanitation charity WaterAid and the World Health Organization (WHO) …
SENDAI, Japan (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The number of people forced from their homes each year by disasters has quadrupled over the past four decades, and the risk of being displaced has doubled, said a Norwegian humanitarian group. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), part of the Norwegian Refugee Council, …
London — Almost 30 countries around the world are "highly vulnerable" to an Ebola-style epidemic, with Somalia, Chad, Nigeria, Afghanistan and Haiti most at risk, a major charity said on Tuesday. An increasingly mobile global population makes deadly outbreaks more likely, with the emergence of two new diseases a year …
This Haiti Sustainable Energy Roadmap—developed in partnership with Haiti’s Bureau of the Minister Delegate to the Prime Minister for Energy Security—explores the issues involved in building a sustainable electricity system based on domestic energy resources and capable of providing modern electricity services to all Haitians. It assesses the potentials of …
A federal judge in New York has agreed to hear oral arguments in a lawsuit filed against the United Nations by advocates for Haitian victims of the deadly cholera epidemic that first appeared on the island four years ago. The lawsuit, filed last year, argues that United Nations peacekeepers in …
Rainfall improving in Latin America, with dryness ongoing in parts of West Africa and Ethiopia according to Global Weather Hazards Summary (September 26 - October 2, 2014).
The number of hungry people in the world has fallen sharply over the past decade but 805 million, or one in nine of the global population, still do not have enough to eat, three U.N. food and agriculture agencies said on Tuesday. The number of chronically undernourished people dropped by …
One in every nine persons in the world goes hungry says this UN State of Food Insecurity Report released on 16 September 2014. It has been jointly drafted by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme …
Haiti has recorded nearly 40,000 cases of chikungunya, according to figures released here yesterday by the Ministry of Public Health and Population (MSPP). It said that as a result of the 39,343 cases of the mosquito- borne disease, MSPP officials met with the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO-WHO), UNICEF, the …
In late 2010, Haitian immigrants began to arrive at remote river border crossings in the western Brazilian Amazon. Attracted by the prospect of work in Brazil's burgeoning economy, thousands of Haitians paid large sums to people traffickers, known as “coyotes,” to arrange their journey to Brazil. They entered Brazil through …
