More than four million Haitians suffer from food insecurity, according to the analysis by Haitian authorities released on Friday, and the situation is expected to worsen due to the political crisis and flooding caused by tropical storm Laura.
Fabien Tallec, coordinator of the World Food Program (WFP) in Haiti, specifies that “42% of the Haitian population now needs food assistance including 9% who are in phase 4 emergency”, the level that precedes the famine situation according to the classification used by the UN.
The sudden floods caused by the passage of tropical storm Laura over Haiti on August 23 also undermined an already endangered agricultural season.
“The impact is mainly in the south, in terms of livestock washed away, agricultural plantations, particularly banana plantations, have been severely affected” explains Fabien Tallec.
The worsening of inflation to over 25% and the intensification of the political crisis do not augur any improvement in the medium term.
Nearly half of the 11.2 million inhabitants of the country are expected to suffer from severe food insecurity by March 2021, including more than a million in the emergency phase, according to projections established by the Haitian authorities with the support from UN agencies.
Haiti is among the 10 countries in the world where the worsening of food insecurity is the strongest, without the country experiencing either war or conflicts linked to terrorist or separatist groups, specifies the WFP.
“The Petrocaribe fund affair has been undermining the socio-economic situation for years,” Fabien Tallec analyzes.
Set up at the initiative of former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the Petrocaribe program has enabled several countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to benefit from loans under a mechanism for the delivery of oil at preferential conditions. .
The six Haitian governments that have followed one another since 2008 have launched projects worth nearly two billion dollars without, most often, worrying about the basic principles of the management of public funds, ruled the Superior Court of Accounts in its audit. completed in August 2020.
“If the guarantees are not sufficient, it is understandable that the World Bank and the European Union are reluctant to continue investing in budget support,” adds the WFP coordinator in Haiti.
“We also recall that there is no longer a Parliament so we have a presidential system which advances by decree: this necessarily slows down the democratic system and it is not favorable to the economic stability of the country”, concludes Fabien Tallec.