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	We need vaccine justice for all by IDS, NPR, Doctors Without Borders (MSF), agencies   26 Sep. 2021   The world’s leaders could end the pandemic, but they are failing us, write Peter Taylor and Megan Schmidt-Sane from the Institute of Development Studies.   It is more than a year and a half into the pandemic and nine months since the Covid-19 vaccines were first distributed. Despite great progress in preventing and treating the virus, the greatest failure has been that vaccines and other therapeutics are not equitably distributed.   This human failure has meant that the pandemic may well continue as it spreads around the world and new mutations develop. As the current ‘charity’ model has failed, we now need a social justice approach to ensure everyone has access to vaccines.   A recent piece in The Guardian highlighted the latest development. More than 100 million COVID-19 vaccine doses are set to expire in the US, UK, and the EU by December and there is no concrete plan to share surplus supplies. This finding is based on research by Airfinity. Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown warns of an impending ‘profound and collective tragedy’ if there is no plan to distribute this vaccine surplus.   A two-track pandemic   Indeed, what has developed is ‘a two-track pandemic’ where high-income countries have vaccines and can reopen while low-income countries must rely on social and behavioural interventions, many of which have a high social and economic toll on vulnerable populations. To reach herd immunity, 11 billion doses are needed to vaccinate 70 per cent of the world’s population.   Duke’s Global Health Innovation Center highlighted the current gap: high- and upper-middle income countries (1/5 of the world’s population) have bought around 6 billion doses while low- and lower-middle income countries (4/5 of the world’s population) have access to 2.6 billion.   There will be no broad-based recovery nor end to the pandemic without vaccine justice. The report “Covid-19: Make it the last pandemic” by the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response observed that “inequality has been the determining factor explaining why the Covid-19 pandemic has had such differential impacts on peoples’ lives and livelihoods.”   What this situation highlights is the lack of a ‘global’ strategic and socially just plan to expand Covid-19 vaccine and therapeutics access particularly for the world’s low-income countries. While the World Health Organization has been vocal about expanded vaccine access, what is needed is a coordinated strategy and new financing to ‘vaccinate the world.’   Global access to vaccines?   Efforts are being made to address this challenge globally, but with varying success. Within the EU bloc, the vaccination rollout was slow but they have now reached 70 per cent of the population. Policymaking in the EU is more centralised than in the US, where a patchwork of federal, state, and local measures make it difficult to coordinate vaccination rollout.   Both face challenges related to anti-government sentiment, concerns about vaccine safety, and individual freedom, including the ongoing debates on vaccine passports.   In the UK, the vaccine rollout has also slowed, particularly among those under 30 years of age. Against this backdrop, the recent G7 meeting failed to accomplish any meaningful progress on expanding vaccine access globally, although 870 million vaccine doses were pledged.   One plan, authored by the International Monetary Fund, sets ambitious but achievable targets to vaccinate at least 40 per cent of the world’s population by the end of 2021, ensure widespread testing and contact tracing, improve access to therapeutics, and end the Covid-19 pandemic.   While vaccine uptake slows in high-income countries, in Uganda there is high demand and long queues as people wait for hours for scarce AstraZeneca vaccines. The country has received few doses through Covax, yet vaccines are needed to protect against the Covid-19 virus and future waves. Uganda’s recent wave of the Delta variant hit the country hard in June-July 2021.   Waiving intellectual property rights   One major barrier is the stalemate at the World Trade Organization (WTO) and a lack of progress in waiving vaccine Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs). Advocates have long called for a waiver of IPRs, which allow the pharmaceutical industry to make exclusive decisions on vaccine pricing and purchasing agreements.   Under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of IPRs (TRIPS), companies that own IPRs hold those exclusive rights without competing with generic products. India and South Africa led a proposal to temporarily waive IPRs on COVID-19 vaccines to allow for expanded vaccine access. However, this debate has been in limbo at the WTO.   What we need is renewed global leadership, shared commitments, and multilateral and multisectoral collaboration to end the pandemic. The world needs a temporary TRIPS waiver and an ambitious plan to end the pandemic. A focus on charity models or one-off agreements between pharmaceutical companies and manufacturers is not enough – we need vaccine justice for all.   http://www.ids.ac.uk/opinions/the-worlds-leaders-could-end-the-pandemic-but-they-are-failing-us/   Sep. 2021   Countries must not let another opportunity slip by to advance the global waiver on overcoming COVID-19 medical-tool monopolies. (MSF)   As countries reconvene tomorrow for another round of discussions on the “TRIPS Waiver” proposal at the World Trade Organization (WTO), after a gap of over two months, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) calls on the European Union (EU), strongly backed by Germany, and the UK, Norway, and Switzerland to stop blocking this initiative on lifting the monopolies on lifesaving COVID-19 medical tools.   Nearly a year after the Waiver was first proposed by India and South Africa in October 2020 – and now supported by over 100 nations – a small group of opposing WTO members including the EU, UK, Norway and Switzerland continue to stall constructive discussions on this proposal, which would waive patents and other intellectual property (IP) on urgently needed COVID-19 vaccines, treatments, tests and other health tools, for the duration of the pandemic, and pave the way for many countries to increase production and supply of these lifesaving medical tools.   “Despite the groundbreaking medical innovations delivered in the past year, and tall commitments by some powerful nations promising global solidarity and equity, access to these innovative COVID-19 medical tools remains scant in too many low- and middle-income countries,” said Candice Sehoma, South Africa Advocacy Officer, MSF Access Campaign.   “People in these countries, facing life or death in this pandemic, can no longer rely merely on charitable or voluntary measures dictated by only a small number of high-income countries and the pharmaceutical industry they host.   We demand the countries opposing the TRIPS Waiver to stop blocking the will of the majority of the world to obtain this additional legal tool in the pandemic to achieve self-reliance in producing COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and tests.”   While severe inequity in access to COVID-19 vaccines continues, access to treatments and diagnostic tests to reduce the number of deaths is equally challenging. New WHO-recommended COVID-19 monoclonal antibody (mAb) therapeutics, such as tocilizumab and sarilumab, are out of reach for people in low- and middle-income countries due to high prices, limited supply, and IP barriers.   Besides patents, corporations often claim trade secrets over important information that could facilitate rapid production and supply of mAbs by alternative producers.   Developers of diagnostic tests often own multiple patents on instruments, reagents and methods to discourage competition, and do not share know-how and other trade secrets to scale up production.   The US diagnostics company Cepheid has maintained a monopoly in the pandemic on the GeneXpert testing system with high prices and trade secrets, despite having received over $250 million in public funds to develop this technology.   The TRIPS Waiver could help remove the legal barriers and uncertainties to facilitate manufacturers in low- and middle-income countries to scale up production and supply of medical tools like tests and treatments.   “With the fast-approaching WTO Ministerial Conference in November, we strongly urge countries to accelerate the negotiations on the TRIPS Waiver and ensure its rapid adoption,” said Yuanqiong Hu, Senior Legal and Policy Advisor, MSF Access Campaign.   “Doing so will be a critical and historical step to remove monopoly barriers hindering increased global production and diversity of supplies – and all people’s access to desperately needed COVID-19 medical tools.”   MSF is also supporting a Global Day of Action on 14 September calling on Germany, the EU’s leading TRIPS Waiver opponent, to stop blocking and support the landmark Waiver, as well as immediately redistribute excess vaccine doses to low- and middle-income countries through the COVAX Facility, and pressure German pharmaceutical company BioNTech to share the technology and know-how of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine with developing-country manufacturers.   http://msfaccess.org/countries-must-not-let-another-opportunity-slip-advance-global-waiver-overcoming-covid-19-medical http://www.msf.org/european-union-more-empty-promises-about-global-covid-19-vaccine-equity http://www.hrw.org/news/2021/09/14/sharing-knowledge-technology-critical-curb-covid-19   23 Aug. 2021   Pfizer and BioNTech must urgently share COVID-19 vaccine know-how to increase global production and supply. (MSF)   Following today’s full approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA COVID-19 vaccine by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) called again on Pfizer and BioNTech to immediately share the vaccine technology and knowledge with manufacturers on the African continent that could help boost global vaccine supply.   They should do this via the World Health Organization’s (WHO) mRNA vaccine technology transfer hub hosted in South Africa.   With only 1.7% of Africa’s population fully vaccinated against COVID-19, increasing and diversifying production and supply of mRNA vaccines through additional manufacturers, beginning with those based in countries on the African continent, offers an opportunity to urgently and sustainably address vaccine inequity during this pandemic, and in the future.   "Setting up mRNA vaccine manufacturing capacity in Africa is absolutely possible. Our analysis shows that at least seven manufacturers in African countries currently meet the prerequisites to produce mRNA vaccines, if all necessary technology and training were openly shared,” said Lara Dovifat, Campaign Manager, MSF Access Campaign.   “In fact, since July 2020, we’ve observed Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna facilitate mRNA vaccine production with manufacturers in Switzerland, Spain and Germany, all within 8 months, so it is clearly feasible for other manufacturers to swiftly produce mRNA vaccines.   The only reason these vaccines aren’t being produced more widely is because Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are refusing to share mRNA vaccine technology and information with manufacturers—including those in Egypt, Morocco, South Africa and Tunisia that could have the capacity to produce up to 100 million doses annually within a 10-month timeframe.”   In an analysis by Imperial College of London commissioned by MSF, the estimated total cost needed for starting up mRNA vaccine manufacturing in an existing manufacturing site and producing 100 million doses is approximately US$127 million for BioNTech-Pfizer’s vaccine and $270 million for Moderna’s vaccine.   Considering the estimated $2.5 billion of public money that has gone into the development of mRNA vaccines, and the forecasted 2021 sales revenues of $26 billion and $19 billion for Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, respectively, these companies have a public obligation to facilitate increasing vaccine production and supply wherever possible.   Currently, only 1% of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine doses have been delivered to low-income (0.1%), and low- and middle-income countries (0.9%).* Given that countries in Africa historically import 99% of the vaccines they administer, such vaccine dependence is clearly not sustainable for a continent of 1.2 billion people.   “As we’re seeing in the places we work, being almost entirely dependent on erratic vaccine imports and donations has so far proven woefully insufficient for vaccine access on the African continent,” said Dr Khosi Mavuso, Medical Representative for MSF in South Africa.   “As new variants emerge and people continue to die from COVID-19 at alarming rates across Africa, the vaccine shortages we’re seeing are incredibly concerning. This suffering could be alleviated if pharmaceutical companies shared the mRNA technology and know-how needed to produce more COVID-19 vaccines now, through the WHO technology transfer hub, so that local vaccine production can begin as soon as possible.   It is a failure for global public health that governments and mRNA vaccine producers are not doing everything they can to scale up production of COVID-19 vaccines when there are potential manufacturers on the African continent.”   mRNA vaccines are a revolutionary and lifesaving new medical tool that are an advantageous choice for use and manufacturing in low- and middle-income countries – they are relatively simpler, faster and cheaper to produce than traditional vaccines; relatively easy to scale up production; and highly adaptable to new variants.   In addition, mRNA technology can be adapted to target other pathogens, meaning the same platform can be ‘switched’ to produce different vaccines or even therapeutics for other diseases of concern, including for preparedness for future pandemics.   “Supporting sustainable, independent vaccine manufacturing capacity in an African country would only require technology transfer from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, but would be a gamechanger for equitable access to vaccines for people in low- and middle-income countries,” said Dr Carrie Teicher, Director of Programs, MSF-USA.   “The US government must immediately urge Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna to share the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine technology and know-how. It really is a no-brainer – sharing mRNA technologies will increase the global production and supply of COVID-19 vaccines, saving lives in this pandemic and in the future.”   * On achieving global COVID-19 vaccine access:   In addition to demanding Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna share mRNA vaccine technology, MSF urges all governments to support the WHO COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine Technology Transfer Hub with financial and political support. Additionally, MSF calls on governments with sufficient COVID-19 vaccine doses to immediately redistribute excess doses to the COVAX Facility.   MSF also urges governments to support the TRIPS Waiver proposal at the World Trade Organization (WTO) to waive intellectual-property monopolies on all COVID-19 vaccines, tests, treatments and other health tools during the pandemic; and to use all legal and policy tools to facilitate uninterrupted production and diversity in supply of COVID-19 medical tools.   http://msfaccess.org/following-full-fda-approval-pfizer-and-biontech-must-urgently-share-covid-19-vaccine-know-how http://msfaccess.org/sharing-mrna-vaccine-technologies-save-lives   Aug. 18, 2021   Why a push for Boosters could make the Pandemic Even Worse, by Michaeleen Doucleff for NPR.   In September, the U.S. will start offering a third COVID-19 shot to all adults vaccinated with Pfizer and Moderna, even though these vaccines still offer high protection against hospitalization and death from the delta variant.   Officials at the World Health Organization said Wednesday that it strongly opposes booster shots for all adults in rich countries because the boosters will not help slow down the pandemic. By diverting doses away from unvaccinated people, booster shots will help drive the emergence of more dangerous mutants, the WHO doctors said.   "I'm afraid that this [booster recommendation] will only lead to more variants.. And perhaps we're heading into an even more dire situation," WHO chief scientist Dr. Soumya Swaminathan said.   The problem with a call for boosters, she said, is that the virus is primarily circulating in unvaccinated people — not in the fully vaccinated.   In defending the U.S. booster decision, Dr. Vivek Murthy, the surgeon general, said on Wednesday: "I do not accept the idea that we have to choose between America and the world. We clearly see our responsibility to both, and we believe we have to work on both fronts as we have been."   Federal officials said they have sent more than 100 million doses overseas and plan to donate 500 million doses. But much of the world lags far behind wealthy countries in vaccine supply.   The WHO estimates 11 billion doses are needed to bring the pandemic under control. Billions of people have not received even one dose of the vaccine, said Dr. Bruce Aylward, senior adviser to the WHO director-general. In most low-income countries, less than 5% of the population is immunized.   The unvaccinated include many health care workers and people at high risk of death and severe disease. In many middle-income countries, including most of Latin America, only about a third of the population has received shots.   To stop the evolution of new variants, the world needs to focus on immunizing these populations before handing out extra protection to low-risk individuals in rich countries, Aylward said.   "The problem is not enough people have been vaccinated. So our first priority is relatively simple: Get as many of the unvaccinated with two doses before you move beyond that."   Rachel Silverman, a health researcher at the Center for Global Development, agrees. "I recognize it's a complicated policy decision for the Biden administration [on whether to offer boosters], and their primary responsibility is to American citizens," she said.   "On the other hand, if you're looking at how to get the world — and Americans — out of this crisis, just doubling down on vaccinating Americans with more and more boosters isn't going to work while there's widespread global circulation of the virus. Inevitably more variants will pop up, and one of them will inevitably be vaccine resistant. "So recommending boosters is a bit of a myopic policy," Silverman added.   Any available vaccine should first go to people around the world who are at high risk of hospitalization and deaths, said Dr. Michael Ryan of the WHO. "If we think about this in terms of an analogy, we're planning to hand out extra life jackets to people who already have life jackets, while we're leaving other people to drown without a single life jacket."   http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/08/18/1028941909/why-a-push-for-boosters-could-make-the-pandemic-even-worse   Aug. 2021   WHO Africa: COVID-19 booster shots make ‘mockery’ of equity. (AP)   Rich countries’ decisions to roll out COVID-19 booster shots while so many people across Africa remain unvaccinated “threaten the promise of a brighter tomorrow” for the continent, the Africa director for the World Health Organization said this week, warning that “as some richer countries hoard vaccines, they make a mockery of vaccine equity.”   Matshidiso Moeti and other African health officials, including the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, had warned against booster shots in recent weeks as less than 2% of the population on the continent of 1.3 billion people is fully vaccinated against COVID-19.   Moeti noted that the latest resurgence in cases across Africa is leveling off somewhat and more vaccine doses are finally arriving on the continent, but “Africa is encountering headwinds” as rich countries like the United States decide to roll out booster shots.   The situation in Africa remains “very fragile” as the more infectious delta variant is now dominant in most of the continent’s 54 countries, she said. More than 7.3 million cases, including more than 186,000 deaths, have been confirmed across the continent and health systems are straining to provide medical oxygen and other care.   U.S. health officials have announced plans to dispense COVID-19 booster shots to all Americans amid the surging delta variant and signs that vaccines’ effectiveness is slipping.   Moeti told reporters she couldn’t say with any accuracy whether the doses the U.S. plans to use for booster shots will come from stocks that had been planned for Africa, but “hopefully not.”   Moeti noted the “already highly inequitable situation” globally in vaccine supply and urged that the emphasis instead be placed on making progress in vaccinating people in Africa, whose countries lag far behind much of the world in access and coverage.   Moeti pointed out that rich countries have on average administered more than 103 vaccine doses per 100 people, while in Africa it’s just six.   Earlier this week the WHO director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, called it “unconscionable” that some countries are now offering booster shots “while so many people remain unprotected.”   Moeti said that “we are urging wealthier countries that have supplies that are sometimes even more than their population numbers to increase their donations to African counties that have been so disadvantaged.”   She added, after the revelation this week that some COVID-19 vaccine doses now being manufactured in Africa are being shipped to Europe, “I think no better example can follow this than vaccines that are actually being produced on the African continent.”   She called on those countries to consider donating some of the South Africa-produced vaccines to African nations “as well as serving their needs.” http://bit.ly/3gBpmT7   http://www.cgdev.org/blog/takeaways-white-house-covid-summit-ending-pandemic-and-preparing-next http://www.cgdev.org/blog/us-losing-global-war-against-covid-19-and-national-security-issue http://jayapal.house.gov/2021/07/23/global-vaccine-distribution-funding/ http://www.citizen.org/article/25-billion-to-vaccinate-the-world/ http://www.cgdev.org/project/covid-gender-initiative   June 2021   UN experts: G7 Governments must ensure vaccines’ access in developing countries. (OHCHR)   UN human rights experts have called on leaders of the world’s largest economies to make sure people in the Global South get equal access to COVID-19 vaccines and not to allow the profit motive to undermine global health and equity.   “Everyone has a right to have access to a vaccine for COVID-19 that is safe, effective, timely and based on the application of the best scientific development,” the experts.   “Now is the time for international solidarity and cooperation to provide effective assistance to all governments in their vaccination efforts and to save lives,” they said.   “It is not the time for protracted negotiations or for lobbying to erect barriers in order to protect corporate profits.”   The experts stressed that the extraordinarily speedy production of safe and effective vaccines against COVID-19 has not been followed by swift action to ensure equity of access across all countries and regions.   “Billions of people in the Global South are being left behind. They see vaccines as a mirage or a privilege for the developed world,” the experts said.   “This situation will unnecessarily prolong the crisis, drastically increase the death toll and deepen economic distress, possibly sowing the seeds of social unrest.”   The G7 leaders must make it their top priority to protect the rights to life and health of people in the most socially and economically precarious situations at a time when millions face poverty and hunger, said the experts.   “It is shocking that, according to WHO reports, less than one percent of all vaccines administered so far have gone to low-income countries,” they said.   They stressed the importance of ensuring that intellectual property rights do not become a barrier to low-cost production and expanded supply. Also they urged pharmaceutical companies to join WHO’s COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP) for sharing know-how, data, and to facilitate technology transfer.   “Maximising production of safe vaccines must take precedence over profiting from a global pandemic,” they said. “States must ensure that legal protection for intellectual property and patents doesn’t undermine the right of everyone to get access to a safe, timely and effective vaccine.”   They also highlighted the need to strengthen the capacity of developing countries to produce vaccines themselves by ensuring financial and technical support for local manufacturing – some of which are already taking off – and safeguarding access to active ingredients required for production.   The experts endorsed a recent statement by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights that said unequal access to vaccines for least developed and developing countries is not only discriminatory, but also undermines progress on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.   http://bit.ly/3wLjPzd http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/no-one-safe-until-everyone-safe-why-we-need-global-response-covid-19 http://reliefweb.int/report/world/decolonising-human-rights-how-intellectual-property-laws-result-unequal-access-covid-19 http://en.emergency.it/press-releases/two-thirds-of-epidemiologists-warn-mutations-could-render-current-covid-vaccines-ineffective-in-a-year-or-less/ http://peoplesvaccine.org/ Visit the related web page
	Haiti is struggling in a hunger and security crisis by Reliefweb, agencies   Mar. 2023   Haiti: Amid rising hunger levels, ‘world cannot wait for disaster before it acts’, WFP warns.   “Haiti can’t wait,” said Jean-Martin Bauer, World Food Programme (WFP) Country Director for the country. “We cannot wait for the scale of the problem to be expressed in deaths before the world responds, but that is where we are heading.”   Half the population – 4.9 million people – are now struggling to access food, according to the new Integrated Food Security Phase Classification analysis. Findings reveal a substantial increase in the number of severely hungry people in Haiti, with the number tripling since 2016.   Eight out of ten Haitians are currently spending less on meals, and the country is among the top ten most affected by food price inflation, according to the World Bank.   Farmers have been forced to reduce areas sown due to the high cost of seeds and fertilizers at a time when the spread of armed groups has plagued rural areas with violence.   The multiple emergencies are having a significant impact on the health and nutrition of Haitian children who have limited access to nutritious food. Malnourishment is compromising their immunity, making them vulnerable to diseases like cholera, and causing other lifelong health issues including poor cognitive development.   Sustained humanitarian aid has managed to support the most vulnerable communities in Cité Soleil, an area of the capital city of Port-au-Prince. However, WFP operations are underfunded and compromised and require $125 million over the next six months.   “It is critical that both life-saving food assistance keeps reaching the most vulnerable Haitians and resilience and safety-net initiatives continue being prioritized so we can address the root causes of hunger,” Mr. Bauer said. “We desperately need an increase in funding and political will to be mobilized. The world cannot wait for a big disaster before it acts.”   The agency’s focus remains on strengthening national social protection and food systems that are critical to Haiti’s recovery efforts and development. While it is certain that life-saving assistance is an urgent need, building long-term resilience for the people of Haiti needs to be a top priority, he said.   http://news.un.org/en/story/2023/03/1134972 http://www.ipcinfo.org/ipc-country-analysis/details-map/en/c/1156263/ http://reliefweb.int/report/haiti/almost-half-haitis-children-face-acute-hunger-economic-and-security-crisis-worsens-post-earthquake http://www.ohchr.org/en/statements/2023/02/un-high-commissioner-human-rights-volker-turk-concludes-his-official-visit-haiti http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/haiti-armed-violence-against-schools-increases-nine-fold-one-year-unicef http://www.icrc.org/en/document/haiti-severe-levels-insecurity-must-not-be-obstacle-much-needed-humanitarian-aid http://www.unicef.org/haiti/en/press-releases/1-2-children-depend-humanitarian-aid-survive-year   http://www.wfp.org/stories/comment-there-no-time-waste-responding-rising-hunger-haiti http://www.ohchr.org/en/statements/2022/11/immediate-action-needed-save-childrens-lives-haiti-amid-triple-threat-cholera http://unocha.exposure.co/this-is-not-a-country-where-you-can-dream http://www.msf.org/haiti-msf-forced-suspend-activities-after-armed-men-kill-patient http://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/investigation/2022/11/14/Haiti-gang-violence-women-gender-based-violence-war-humanitarian-needs http://reliefweb.int/report/haiti/remarks-special-representative-helen-la-lime-security-council-open-briefing-haiti-24-january   Aug. 2022   Haiti is trapped in a hunger and security crisis after a massive earthquake killed more than 2,200 people in the Caribbean nation a year ago, with about 4.5 million people experiencing acute food insecurity.   Haiti is currently experiencing a major economic crisis, with inflation at 26%, making it difficult for families to afford food and other essentials, or to sell crops at local markets.   Across the country, hunger is becoming a norm for children, many of whom have no idea if they will get food tomorrow. In food crises, children are always the most vulnerable and at risk of becoming acutely malnourished without enough to eat and the right nutritional balance. Malnutrition can cause stunting, impede mental and physical development, increase the risk of contracting deadly diseases, and ultimately cause death.   On 14 August last year, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck the Tiburon Peninsula in Haiti, about 150km west of the capital Port-au-Prince. The first quake was followed by a series of aftershocks, impacting more than 800,000 people.   Since July 2022, hundreds of people have been killed in clashes between gangs in Haiti's Cité Soleil. Many others have been trapped in the fighting, cutting off their access to drinking water, food and health care. Overall, OCHA estimates that nearly 280,000 people are affected by this situation.   Urban violence in Port au Prince continues to further deteriorate an already precarious situation for children and their families notably in communes of Croix de Bouquets, Cite Soleil, La Saline, Martissant and others leaving 500,000 children without regular access to schools, limited access to water and alarming malnutrition rates.   Malnutrition rates in the Cité Soleil neighbourhood of Port-au-Prince have risen with 20 per cent of children under five suffering from acute malnutrition, a key indicator of a crisis situation.   The high level of insecurity is compromising humanitarians' access to affected people, for example for food or cash distributions. Insecurity is also compromising access to basic services such as health and education for at least 1 to 1.5 million people who are trapped in gang-controlled neighbourhoods in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area.   As Haiti's economy teeters on the brink of collapse and essential services crumble, residents of the capital Port-au-Prince are caught in a horrifying crossfire of surging gang violence, with rising accounts of murders, kidnappings, rape and forced displacement.   Access to the few health centres and hospitals that are still functioning has become treacherous if not impossible. Not being able to receive critical sexual and reproductive health care is endangering the lives of women and girls in need, particularly survivors of sexual violence and an estimated 85,000 currently pregnant women -- around 30,000 of whom are due to give birth in the throes of the crisis over the next three months.   Haiti already has the highest level of maternal mortality in Latin America and the Caribbean. Now with intensified fighting in the capital and many essential services and health facilities still damaged or destroyed in the south of the country following last year's earthquake, humanitarian needs are soaring.   An estimated 4.9 million Haitians - about 43 per cent of the total population, need humanitarian assistance this year. The Haiti Humanitarian Response Plan, asking US$373 million, is currently 14 per cent funded.   Haiti is facing multiple crises concurrently and is at high risk/vulnerability for natural hazards. The population is still reeling from the assassination of President Moise last year on 7 July 2021, with indefinitely postponed elections and a challenged Government with the growing gang violence, social unrest and insecurity notably in the capital’s metropolitan areas.   Almost one year since the 14 August 2021 earthquake, of the 1,250 destroyed schools in the most affected departments of Sud, Grand'Anse and Nippes the majority are yet to be rebuilt, leaving an estimated 300,000 children in non-conducive learning environments and some of them completely deprived from their right to education. The violence in the capital Port-au-Prince has led to 1,700 schools being closed under pressure from armed groups, depriving children of their right to education.   The urban gang violence also continues to have an impact outside Port Au Prince, presenting operational challenges, as well as safety and security concerns which are resulting in restrictions along the main route for ground transportation route to the South. The humanitarian corridor which allowed for lifesaving supplies to reach the south following the earthquake, remains interrupted, due to continued gang violence and capacity limitations of the Haitian National Police. Transportation of supplies and materials is also being severely hampered by the continued shortage of fuel throughout the country, causing important delays on the response delivery. http://bit.ly/3ArBBup   http://www.savethechildren.net/news/haiti-hunger-economic-crisis-stall-recovery-year-after-devastating-earthquake http://www.unfpa.org/news/amid-gruelling-violence-and-economic-collapse-women-and-girls-haiti-need-urgent-support http://www.msf.org/haiti http://www.ipcinfo.org/ipcinfo-website/where-what/latin-america-caribbean/haiti/en/ http://reliefweb.int/report/haiti/unicef-haiti-humanitarian-situation-report-mid-year-2022 http://reliefweb.int/country/hti http://www.humanitarianresponse.info/en/operations/haiti   Dec. 2021   Six months after the earthquake many challenges are ongoing. (OCHA/UNICEF)   With its epicentre located approximately 13 km south-east of Petit-Trou-de-Nippes, the earthquake had a major impact on the 1.5 million people living in the affected area, as well as on infrastructure and services, and on humanitarian access. The earthquake affected at least 800,000 people, 650,000 of whom require emergency humanitarian assistance. The earthquake killed 2,246 people, injured 12,763, and left many more with disabilities.   Access to basic healthcare, nutrition, and safe water, sanitation, and hygiene services remains critical. According to the Post-Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA), total damages and loss are estimated at US$ 1.62 billion, while recovery needs at US$ 1.98 billion.   The earthquake has worsened the already difficult humanitarian situation in the country with already 4.4 million people in need of humanitarian assistance (HRP 2021), including 2.2 million children, a deepened socio-political crisis and rising insecurity.   Relief efforts have been hampered by a shortage of fuel throughout the country, while the humanitarian corridor has been interrupted due to security challenges. Humanitarian and early recovery needs remain urgent and pressing.   With more than 115,000 homes destroyed or damaged and access to health, water and sanitation facilities impacted, the effects on the assets and livelihoods are devastating for vulnerable families with children. The impact to homes, infrastructures and livelihoods have been up to seven times harder in rural areas (with up to 80% of the affected population) than in urban centers.   While the response is ongoing, emergency nutrition assistance, continuity of primary health care services, services to prevent family separation, support children, including children with disabilities, and the resumption and expansion of learning opportunities for affected children, remain high priorities.   The return to school for children remains a major challenge in the three departments most affected by the earthquake, with many schools damaged or destroyed. While the new school year started on 4 October, only 231 out of 1,250 schools had received support (school kits), leaving an estimated 250,000 children at risk of losing out on their education.   http://reliefweb.int/disaster/eq-2021-000116-hti http://reliefweb.int/report/haiti/six-months-after-earthquake-mothers-chardonni-res-fight-their-childrens-health http://unocha.exposure.co/six-things-to-know-about-the-haiti-earthquake-emergency-response http://reliefweb.int/report/haiti/un-and-partners-appeal-1873-million-support-quake-stricken-haiti-recover http://www.ipcinfo.org/ipcinfo-website/alerts-archive/issue-44/en/ Visit the related web page
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