Comité de Coordination des ONG* - Statement on Common Issues

Transcription

1 This document has received input from a number of organizations, which are part of the Forum des ONG, including members of the Comité de Coordination des ONG 1, to demonstrate the main priority issues for the humanitarian response to the 12 January 2010 Haiti earthquake. The Forum provides NGO s the opportunity to exchange information, share expertise and best practices, and establish guidelines for a more coordinated, efficient and effective use of resources to benefit the people of Haiti. The messaging addresses the Government of Haiti and the donor community. It calls for donors to continue their ongoing support to the relief, reconstruction and development efforts and to fully cover the shortfall in funding of the UN Humanitarian Flash Appeal, as well as disburse the funds pledged at the New York donor conference in March 2010 for the first 18 months of Haiti post-earthquake reconstruction and development. We welcome the progress made by the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC) towards approving projets of national significance and looks to it to provide effective coordination for the implementation of the Action Plan for National Recovery and Development of Haiti (PARDN), monitor aid budget allocation and spending, and ensure convergence and participation of all stakeholders. The Government of Haiti should also take the opportunity presented by the IHRC for constructive engagement with all humanitarian stakeholders, as well as use it as a mechanism for providing accountability and transparency of aid spending to its citizens. We continue to support the Government s vision for moving forward outlined in the Action Plan and would like the following cirtical issues to be taken into account by the donor community and the Government of Haiti as we seek better solutions and progress together in the releif, reconstruction and developement of Haiti: Settlement and Shelter 1. The Government of Haiti is encouraged to take on a greater leadership role and to continue working in partnership with all reconstruction and development stakeholders donors, UN, NGOs and the private sector to approve a joint, comprehensive settlement and shelter strategy and operational plan, to address the housing needs of 1.3 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) still living in spontaneous (formal and informal) settlements. This strategy needs to address a range of options, including, but not limited to the return of IDPs with appropriate support to the most vulnerable people, back into their communities; support for the reconstruction of destroyed and damaged property with clear building standards, which take into account the likelihood of future natural disasters; strategies and direction for large resettlement sites, as well as access to sustainable livelihoods, social services and economic opportunities for the internally displaced; take into account universal accessibility standards by providing public and private infrastructure that is easily accessible for people with special needs. 2. The Government of Haiti should address land ownership, land tenure and land access issues and through judicial reform clarify the legal framework concerning these. The Government of Haiti, the donor community, UN and NGOs should put more emphasis on the 1 ACTED, ACF, Catholic Relief Services, CARE, Concern, Finn Church Aid/ACT Alliance, Habitat for Humanity, Handicap International, Lutheran World Federation, Medecins du Monde International, Mennonite Central Committee, Oxfam, Plan International, Save the Children, World Vision. Core functions of the Comité de Coordination des ONG (CCO) include: facilitating co ordination among members and between members of the CCO and the NGO Forum; facilitate the presentation of a strong, coherent, and consistent NGO voice to influence policy and practice; to provide input and oversee the work of the INGO representative to the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC). Members of the CCO are elected on a 6 months rotational basis by the NGO Forum members.

2 development of government institutions that can support land registration and decentralization. 3. The international donor community needs to fully fund the Government of Haiti and UN strategies for Recognizing the exceptional severity of the earthquake in Haiti, which took place on 12 January 2010, norms and standards attached to the length of a traditional emergency should be revised according to the actual needs of the affected population. The delivery of basic services should be maintained until the resettlement of the majority of IDPs. Evictions 1. It is now estimated that 144,175 people have been subject to threats of eviction. Of these, 28,065 individuals have been subject to actual evictions. Consistent with the Inter Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Framework on Durable Solutions for IDPs, regardless of the legal status or location of displaced persons (and thereby consistent with the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement), the effective protection of displaced persons is of primary concern to the INGO community. The Government of Haiti s policies and decisions on durable solutions for displacement should be guided by the rights and needs of IDPs, where physical safety and political context are taken into consideration when determining whether return is appropriate ; 2. The Government of Haiti should provide land for the construction of Transitional-shelters and accelerate the pace of the construction, in order to address shelter needs of IDPs who have no alternative options, as well as seek to resolve land-related disputes on a case-bycase basis that is not discriminatory and does not presuppose land ownership, ensuring Government of Haiti involvement at the national and local levels; 3. The humanitarian community needs to document all cases of forced evictions in order to identify patterns and causes according to type of land being occupied, potential prevention and response measures and develop a forced eviction Standard Operating Procedures that support good practices; Education 1. The top priority for all rebuilding efforts should improvement and expansion of Haiti s education and vocational training system for all children and young adults. Free, quality, inclusive, basic education is the right of every child, essential to improving maternal and child health, earning power and preparing a generation of leaders. Donors and international partners should support the Government of Haiti to develop a shared implementation plan for providing universal basic education for all school-aged children for a minimum of twelve years, to increase access to vocational training and skill building; 2. Donors, NGOs and the Government of Haiti are encouraged to focus support to education not just through the immediate (one-time expenditure) building of new and destroyed infrastructure, but the training and long-term hiring of teachers with increased, long-term budgetary investment to support quality and inclusive education and teacher salaries. All rebuilt or new infrastructure needs to be accessible by persons with disabilities, including education buildings, and water and sanitation facilities.

3 3. The Government of Haiti should improve governance of the education system; planning of education human resources; training and more efficient management of school supplies and logistics by promoting transparency and accountability in public finances. It should also establish norms to ensure that private schools that receive large amount of funding for school repair and reconstruction provide assurances to communities and donors that quality education becomes available to more children, as well as provide better Government supervision of the quality of education in private schools; 4. Donors, NGOs and the Government of Haiti should work in collaboration with the private sector and the Haitian civil society to provide access to vocational training and the building of new skills, which can provide access to economic opportunities and placements for many young people that have been affected by the earthquake; 5. The Government of Haiti and humanitarian actors should provide opportunities for children, parents and communities to actively participate in the assessing, planning, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of early childhood care and all other education programming. Health 1. Donors should work with the Government of Haiti, UN Cluster System and NGOs to restore damaged essential health care services and improve all health services by supporting a health system which includes training of health workers, including rehabilitation of professionals; strengthening of drug management systems; strengthening of health information systems, and the reduction of financial barriers to access health care. As part of this work donors should fund the setting up of a durable system of social protection and free health care at least for children under the age of five years, pregnant women, persons with disabilities, the eldery, injured persons and people with disabling chronic diseases; 2. Donors should provide support for the provision of community-based mental health services, as well as community based rehabilitation and psychosocial support of earthquake affected population by strengthening community self help and social support, as well as strengthening access to basic mental health care at the primary health care facilities; 3. The Government of Haiti and donor community need to work with all humanitarian response actors on the prevention, detection and treatment of malnutrition including severe acute malnutrition and chronic malnutrition through the allocation of specific budget support to nutrition in the health sector funding frame; the systematic integration of nutrition units in every health center; the effective implementation of the national protocol for the treatment of acute malnutrition approved in July 2010 (Protocole National de Prise en Charge de la Malnutrition en Haiti); and by promoting exclusive breastfeeding, implementing malnutrition screening, and close surveillance of the nutritional situation; 4. The Government of Haiti, donors and the humanitarian actors should work on the establishment of training for rehabilitation professionals (physical, occupational and speech therapists, prosthetic and orthotic technicians, etc.). The implementation of rehabilitation departments into the health care system needs to be set at different levels: primary, secondary and tertiary.

4 Water, Sanitation and Hygiene 1. The Government of Haiti, UN WASH Cluster, NGOs and all actors involved in restoring access to water and sanitation should not only focus on water, but in an equal manner on access to sanitation and hygiene promotion. Sanitation in any urban and rural context is a vital issue for health, dignity and protection. At least 10% of WASH infrastructures must be accessible to persons with disabilities, such as wheelchair users, and vulnerable groups; 2. The Government of Haiti and donors are encouraged to work together to set up an efficient sanitation and waste management system to limit health issues. This system can rely on the capacity building of the SMCRS to define its needs, the development within the DINEPA of a sanitation service, the opening of other public waste sites (for debris and waste); and a communication campaign to begin behavioral change regarding waste management; 3. Donors and the Government of Haiti should support the building of a cost effective and efficient water network in urban areas and adequate water access installation for rural areas to ensure access to potable water, increasing the access to water to all the areas of Port-au- Prince with affordable pricing as defined according to the human right principles of access to water and sanitation, which entitles everyone to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic use. Child Protection and Gender Based Violence 1. Donors should pledge to increase the $10 million social protection budget called for in the Government of Haiti Action Plan for National Recovery and Development by $3,807,000 to ensure that it meets the basic needs of the estimated 100,000 separated children. Even if the basic social protection system outlined in the Action Plan for vulnerable groups committed a third of the spending to separated children, it would only provide $1.85 per month per separated child over the 18 month period; 2. Donors are encourage to work with the Government of Haiti, the UN Cluster System, NGOs and community child protection networks to create a comprehensive social protection package to support families affected by the earthquake who are at risk of abandoning their children. The package should cover elements of health, education, shelter, economic recovery and livelihoods; 3. Donors and NGOs should work with the Government of Haiti and community child protection networks to create and fund a strategy against violence against children, particularly the sexual abuse of girls, including a public campaign to change behavior, supported by activities at the family and community level; 4. The Government of Haiti is urged to scale-up border security including increased number of trained personnel, vehicles, and coordination with the Dominican Republic to prevent and respond to child trafficking and take concrete measures including reinforcing the application of the protocol of Palermo on trafficking in persons and the 138 and 182 conventions to effectively combat internal trafficking of children and the restavek practice; 5. Protection of women and children in the camps and assistance for victims of Gender Based Violence (GBV) should be addressed by all stakeholders. Proper complaints and follow up mechanisms must be made available and accessible to all people including children. This should be supported through the training of the national police force in the prevention of GBV, and the recruitment of female police officers, as well as the strengthening of

5 community policing. In addition the Government of Haiti should seek to implement the provision of free access to health care and medical certification for victims of violence. Disability 1. The Government of Haiti, donors and the international community should address disability as a cross-cutting issue in all their work and increase the focus on protection and assistance to all persons with disabilities: injured, older persons, persons with disabling chronicle diseases, as well as persons with physical, mental, psychological and sensorial impairments. Concrete strategies and actions regarding the inclusion of persons with disabilities need to be provided and the inclusion of people living with disabilities should be properly and clearly demonstrated in all aid coordination mechanisms (CIRH, UN Cluster System, INGOs, Presidential Commission, Haiti Action Plan for National Recovery and Development and others). Agriculture and Food Security 1. The Haitian Government has developed an ambitious $772m agricultural reconstruction plan, the National Agricultural Investment Plan (NAIP), focusing on infrastructure, sustainable production increases, value chains development, and rural service delivery. In keeping with the aid effectiveness principle of ownership, donors should support national plans developed in consultation with citizens, but so far, the international community has not provided all of the requested resources for the NAIP; 2. The Government of Haiti should prioritize mobilization of the national resources that the NAIP plan requires. Implementation should emphasize boosting small-scale farmers incomes and productivity, particularly with regard to staple food crops; 3. The Government of Haiti should also, as a first step towards improving land tenure security, ensure that the legal system gives equal recognition to both of Haiti s official languages, and provide expanded legal assistance so that rural citizens can obtain access to justice in such matters as land disputes, and bring idle state land into production in transparent ways, through leasing and employment of wage labourers; 4. In addition, the Government of Haiti should make health care and education available in rural areas and facilitate creation of off-farm employment opportunities, making rural areas attractive places to live and work; 5. The international community should fund local food aid purchase whenever appropriate, and as bilateral donors should endeavour to increase coherence between aid and trade policies, including reforming trade-distorting rice subsidies that lead to dumping and undermine Haitian producers. Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation 1. The Government of Haiti, international humanitarian community and donors should ensure that disaster risk reduction (DRR) is prioritised in all reconstruction and recovery strategies, with a minimum of 10 per cent of total humanitarian funding made available for DRR interventions; as part of this commitment donors should allocate significant resources to build capacities of both communities, local and national authorities, such as the Direction de la Protection Civil (DPC), to manage and reduce disaster risk and vulnerabilities by having access to the necessary information, resources, and the authority to implement actions for

6 DRR, in accordance with the Hyogo Framework for Action and Haiti National Platform for DRR; 2. The international community, donors and the Government of Haiti should ensure strong coordination with civil society actors working with earthquake affected communities, as well as national CBOs and NGOs throughout the recovery and reconstruction process, ensuring DRR information is available to communities and included in school curricula; 3. DRR should be taken into account in the development of all programs and activities in urban and rural areas both at the policy and project level, in particular ensuring that buildings are constructed in accordance with earthquake and hurricane resistance engineering codes and standards. Governance and Civil Society 1. All reconstruction and development efforts should embrace the voices of the citizens of Haiti, civil society and other non-state actors working in Haiti, building on the existing strengths within the Haitian community. Channels of communication should be created to facilitate communication of information around the reconstruction and development effort to citizens, with particular attention to ensuring the participation and provision of information to the most vulnerable groups, including children, people with disabilities, and people living disabling chronic disease and HIV and AIDS. 2. The donor community should support the Government of Haiti to lead and have full ownership of the reconstruction process to speed up the process of institution building and strengthening. Fair and equitable recovery and development is essential. Poorer communities must be given priority in the reconstruction and future development processes. ENDS