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4-26-2010 Haiti Epidemic Advisory System

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 00:04:00 UTC

Haiti Epidemic Advisory System (HEAS) April 26 Situation Report

http://biosurveillance.typepad.com/haiti_operational_biosurv/2010/04/haiti-epidemic-advisory-system-heas-sitrep-updated-26-apr.html

Excerpts from this Situation Report:

The situation represents a high risk for a Category 3 or 4 pediatric diarrheal disease event to develop.

IDIS Category 3. Infectious disease event associated with non-routine organized response. Category 3 events are essentially the beginnings of a community crisis.

IDIS Category 4. Infectious disease event associated with social disruption. Category 4 events highlight when organized response has occurred, yet significant social disruption has been documented.

Malaria (falciparum). We elevated the alert status to a WATCH on 21 APR for malaria based on multiple credible reports of steadily INCREASING prevalence in multiple sites in PAP. This finding was not unexpected and now represents an IDIS Category 2 eventgiven there is an organized response to this report.

Watch. Indication of increasing incidence of an infectious disruptor agent, without alignment of optimized conditions to support transmission.

IDIS Category 2. Infectious disease event associated with routine organized response. Category 2 events often reflect locally well-known diseases that nevertheless generate a demand for organization-level time-sensitive action. This action is local routine.

We assess malaria cases will increase due to the combination of an increase in vector container breeding sites in the garbage piles at the camps and crowding of people. We do not expect the case counts to rise quickly enough to represent a disruptive event (i.e. crisis). However we have changed our assessment to MODERATE risk for triggering a crisis due to the potential of an accumulation of cases high enough to eventually strain the medical infrastructure.

IDIS Category 1. Reported infectious disease event. The typical Category 1 infectious disease event reported by a community reflects a sensitivity to public health or medical significance. No other significant features indicative of immediate public health or medical infrastructure impact, public anxiety, or civil unrest triggered by the event are noted.

Pandemic H1N1. The trend of acute respiratory infections has been STABLE since last report. We are unable to determine to what extent, if any, the current reporting of acute respiratory infection and pneumonia represents pH1N1. To-date, acute respiratory infection events have not been reported higher than an IDIS Category 1.

Dengue. The current situation is STABLE. Dengue events have not been reported in Haiti higher than an IDIS Category 1.

Anthrax is currently IDIS Category 1.

Vaccine-Preventable Disease. MSPP, WHO, and UNICEF have reached an estimated 25% of the overall goal of 2M children to be vaccinated.

The true risk of cholera is assessed to be neglible

Increased leptospirosis incidence has been observed in other countries during periods of heavy rainfall and flooding, and one military responder was reported to be infected. This week several suspect cases of leptospirosis were reported at General Hospital-PAP, however laboratory confirmation was not done. These event reached no higher than an IDIS Category 1.

West Nile virus is present in Haiti.

Tuberculosis in its various forms of drug resistance has the potential to become a larger problem than it already was due to divestment and loss to follow up of tuberculosis patients from the sanitarium. If they have joined IDP camps, the opportunity for transmission to others, including responders, is a risk. We are concerned about adherence of proper infection control standards to protect responders. Current crowding may favor increased transmission.

We have seen documentation and death of a responder due to meningococcal meningitis. Both tuberculosis and meningococcal meningitis may be transmitted in close, crowded conditions as it observed in the IDP camps. Heavy sustained rain encourages more person to person contact. Meningococcal meningitis transmission is typically favored by low humidity, however the effect of crowding cannot be discounted as a concern for increased transmission. One of the HEAS partners have encouraged the consideration of malaria in the differential diagnosis. In March, Praecipio sent an Intercept Team to a hospital reporting an apparent outbreak of meningitis that was laboratory confirmed to be pneumococcal meningitis.

Rabies as a risk has declined significantly because the Ministry of Agriculture, in conjunction with NGO partners such as ARCH estimate a 70-75% vaccination coverage among free roaming companion animals in PAP.

Additional Updated Information:

A reliable malaria surveillance system should be established as soon as possible. The system should detect cases and monitor trends, based upon laboratory confirmation of Plasmodium falciparum infection in persons with fever. This may require strengthening existing systems.
Use of Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDTs) at peripheral health facilities will be important to target appropriate treatment, differentiate malaria from other causes of febrile illness, and help define the local epidemiology.
If an increase in the number of malaria cases is detected, targeted vector control strategies based on an entomologic assessment should be implemented; active case detection may be useful, including screening (using RDTs) of febrile individuals living in the same household as the index case.
If there is a large malaria epidemic, mass RDT-screening by mobile teams of all individuals in the region of the outbreak and treatment of persons with positive tests (regardless of symptoms) may be indicated. If it is operationally difficult to obtain laboratory confirmation for each case, presumptive treatment of malaria/fever cases based on a standard case definition could be considered to reduce morbidity and mortality.
Because P. falciparum malaria has non-specific symptoms, can be fatal, and is easily treated if therapy is begun promptly, it is important to include malaria in the differential diagnosis of febrile illnesses. Unless there is another obvious cause of illness, all cases of fever should be tested for malaria and treated based on the results.
Entomologic assessments should be done to assess levels of insecticide resistance and to monitor mosquito abundance. The latter helps to measure the impact of vector control interventions such as larviciding, spraying, or deploying insecticide-treated materials.

The number of people in the camps has recently doubled from 1.1 to 2.1 million. The NGO community is mystified.
I believe that when people are in dire need, and ONLY the camps are getting aid, then it is self evident that people who are not getting aid will go there.

Risks Threats etc.

Since the 1950s, Haitian society has demonstrated a tendency to deteriorate into civil unrest during times of political instability. Triggers for incendiary riots have included flooding, where the social outcry is driven by the following cited issues:

access to shelter;
access to food and safe water; and
perceived exposure to a higher risk of infectious disease

Multiple reports have highlighted escalating tensions related to the relocation process. HEAS has detected a cluster of suicide attempts, and HEAS members have reported seeing signs of possible automatic weapons fire in gunshot victims based on number of bullet wounds seen in the patients. Recently it was reported gangs in Cite Soleil were arming themselves to engage in conflict with the established government.

4-26-2010 - WASH Update

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 00:04:00 UTC

Funding, for the current method of water distribution, runs out end of April (in a week).
Sometimes it seems like Haiti is stepping from one immediate crisis to yet another, where the sources of the funding are oblivious to situation on the ground..

Notes on Draft Strategy for the WASH Cluster for Water Supply

Beyond Water Trucking – WASH Cluster Meeting

Background

Much of the water supply provided to the approximately 1.2m displaced population has been through water trucking. As the end of the first phase of the emergency approaches, there is a desire from the WASH Cluster to have a coherent and coordinated strategy to look at more medium and potentially longer term options for water supply for many of the displaced.

The table below outlines the options which have been put forward by various members of the WASH Cluster as ideas for their own strategies to reduce their current water trucking footprint and costing and some suggestions of how to take this forward

Water Supply Option	Assumptions/Issues	Suggested Next Steps	Focal Point to take forward
Continue water trucking in the camps	Alternative solutions are not available right now to stop water trucking in the camps. Funds are currently provided by UNICEF to DINEPA, allowing to contract 50 water trucks but contracts will end on April 30^th. Water needs to be chlorinated before distributed into the camps. Accordingly, HTH must be provided to boreholes owners.	ACF is willing to take over and to continue water trucking and ECHO is willing to fund it Signature of a protocol between ACF and ECHO, allowing them take over the water trucking from DINEPA-UNICEF Follow-up on the appropriate water coverage and chlorination.	ACF to submit a proposal to ECHO and ensure proposal is signed for May 1^st. ACF to hire a person responsible for the follow-up of the water trucking and chlorination on a daily basis
Water trucking bringing R.O. water to the kiosks (paid)	Currently RO water supplied free from private sector Expensive water supply option to subsidize Important in providing drinking water quality around PaP for several decades. Good communication Strategy needs to be put in place asap	Withdraw from subsidies over 1 month starting 26 April Free until 25 April Proposed 2 gourds per gallon from 26 April – 15 May Full price (from 5 to 7 HTG/gallon) from 16 May: decision to be taken if first step (2 HTG/gallon) does not create problems among the population and according to the results of livelihood study and Oxfam, Goal results	DINEPA/UNICEF to finalize dates DINEPA to develop a communication strategy to start ASAP but latest 15 April, to give 1 month notice to population. Oxfam and Goal (coordinated through Hygiene Working Group) to look at Household surveys on water usage.
Buy Tankers¹ to run own tankering operation	Potentially complex operation to manage fleet operation Wouldn’t fill all needs To whom will the water tankers be ‘handed’ over to	Preparation of an analysis of the capital and running costs of such an operation (including price per gallon) Preparation of existing running costs of water delivery, (including price per gallon)	IFRC to lead and link with WVI IFRC to link with key actors in water trucking to prepare estimated costs of running existing trucking
Connection from Camps to Network	Unclear as to how many camps can be connected If connections can be physically made, is unclear how many will have water and on what frequency of service How will water be paid for? Who will manage the water points in the short and longer term?	Analysis of existing camps and network coverage to see which can physically be connected to the network Analysis of the functioning of the system in that area	DINEPA (perhaps with support of consultants?) to analyze the practical ability to connect all of the camps – giving priority to the larger camps. DINEPA - Approx analysis of costs of connections DINEPA/CAMEP – proposal for water charges and management
‘Quick-win’ repairs to networks including the kiosks (CAMEP kiosks in priority) and reestablishment of on-site chlorination in CAMEP kiosks	There seem to be some more simple repairs that can be done to make quick impact Julien (consultant for DINEPA) has an idea on what can be done at relatively low cost Some agencies have already had discussions with CAMEP on what can be done on a local level to help the system	Analysis of quick wins of the 18 borehole networks of CAMEP Quick collation of interventions that are already known about Analysis of Initial Phase 1, Phase 2 and Phase 3 interventions and costs Analysis of donor interest and existing commitments Produce recommendations for phases and levels of intervention and relative impact Assess likelihood of who would get involved in small repairs to networks	DINEPA (perhaps with consultant support – only those who already have CAMEP knowledge-Julien) Agencies who already have had discussions with CAMEP (Action International; Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation)
Repair/ Rehabilitation of Network,	1. Lack of clarity of impact that small scale interventions can have 2.Understanding the timing and level of intervention on water supply from larger donors	Analysis of Initial Phase 2 and Phase 3 interventions and costs Analysis of donor interest, timing and existing commitments Produce recommendations for phases and levels of intervention and relative impact Assess likelihood of who would get involved in higher levels of investment	DINEPA (perhaps with consultant support – only those who already have CAMEP knowledge - Julien?)
Use of Existing Boreholes/ Springs around Camps/Construction of micronetworks	Is there a mapping of existing boreholes – can it be known? Many boreholes privately owned; implications of making a micro-network with private supplies; cost of water Water quality Is it important to produce clean water that’s chlorinated or is RO type necessary Extent of land where fresh water can be tapped at reasonable depth Capacity for drilling in-country Unknown drilling costs Who will own and manage the boreholes and the micro-networks after construction Assess likelihood of who would get involved in making networks	Analysis of existing boreholes in proximity to camps – prioritizing the approx 200 largest camps Analysis of implications of using existing boreholes – private and public Analysis of cost of construction of micro-networks Assess likelihood of who would get involved in making networks Ensure that distributed water is chlorinated in an appropriate way	DINEPA & CAMEP
Drilling of New Boreholes around Camps/construction of micronetworks	Extent of land where fresh water can be tapped at reasonable depth Water quality Capacity for drilling in-country Unknown drilling costs Who will own and manage the boreholes and the micro-networks after construction Assess likelihood of who would get involved in drilling and making networks	Analysis of ability to drill boreholes in proximity to camps – prioritizing the approx 200 largest camps Analysis of cost of borehole drilling and construction of micro-networks; analysis of running costs Assessment of Country capacity and unit cost for borehole construction Assessment of Capacity which can brought in - complications Analysis of management implications of using existing boreholes – private and public Assess likelihood of who would get involved in drilling and making networks	DINEPA/UNICEF
Rainwater Harvesting integrated into transitional shelters and reconstruction of institutions	Opportunity to utilize the roofs of transitional shelter and reconstruction of institutions to collect rainwater Could be used for drinking or multi-use water Need to examine quality of water collected in urban areas	Discuss with Shelter and Education Clusters to ensure this is incorporated Work with Education and Shelter clusters to provide specifications if necessary Discuss with Ministry of Education and Ministry responsible for reconstruction	WASH Cluster Coordinator contacts with Clusters DINEPA to emphasize in WASH Strategy DINEPA to make contact with Min of Education and for reconstruction
Rehabilitation of water storage tanks at household level of at institutional level (schools, health posts) used to store the water during CAMEP water shortage	1. Important part of the population has lost its water storage capacity. CAMEP will not be able to improve its delivery capacity to replace this storage capacity	Evaluation of the status of the storage tanks Estimation of approximate numbers of tanks in needs of repairs Evaluation of the costs of reparation/versus replacement by PVC tankers or ferro-cement tankers Make link with groups working on return/houses evaluations	DINEPA/partner to identify
Household Water Treatment	Particularly for areas where access to safe water is limited Unclear on number of products, which products are used in which area; willingness to use HWT, willingness to use chlorine based products and differences in different areas	Mapping of products and availability in-country Household surveys in different types of areas to understand interest, what has been used already and willingness to use different types of products Analysis of cost implications of different products Analysis of ease of use of different products Analysis of access to different products	Household Water Treatment Technical Working Group being set up as sub group of Hygiene Promotion Need individual or team to work on this ASAP.

Potential Issues for Strategy Development

It was felt that the communities know that water will eventually have to be paid for. Experience in 2004 and 2008 showed that whilst there was some nervousness at bringing on-line water costs again, there were not any problems.
Targeting (or prioritizing only larger camps? There are approx 200 sites which are 5000 or more; larger camps will have more difficulty in finding access to sufficient quantities of water and the distance to water points
Navigating the DINEPA-CAMEP dynamic
Need for analysis of likely scenarios on longevity of the camps, implications/usefulness of systems if the camps were to be disbanded

Next Steps

Initial DINEPA review
Send out to Strategic Advisory Group and participants of Beyond Water Trucking meeting for comment and commitment to various aspects and fix tight timeframe
Get agencies to indicate level of interest in different options

Water Supply Option	Indication of Agency Interest in Analysis Phase (Yes/Possibly/Don’t know/No)	Indication of Agency Interest in Implementation at Field Level (Yes/Possibly/Don’t know/No)
Buy Tankers² to run own tankering operation
Connection from Camps to Network
‘Quick-win’ repairs to networks
Repair/ Rehabilitation of Network
Use of Existing Boreholes/ Springs around Camps/Construction of micro networks
Drilling of New Boreholes around Camps/ Construction of micro networks
Rainwater Harvesting for Transitional Shelter/Institutions
Rehabilitation of Water Storage Tanks
Household Water Treatment

CDC Comparitive Analysis of Drinking Water in Haiti

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 00:04:00 UTC

Attached is a CDC report, which is like a Consumer Reports comparative analysis of the different products used in Haiti to help the people get safe drinking water. Without efforts by the humanitarian relief to sustain water delivery, this is what the people will be using.

Water Point of Use

Water Point Use PPT Notes

I realize that there has been significant turnover since I was in Haiti for 5 weeks studying household water treatment in the emergency context 3-8 weeks after the quake. I think some of the findings from the evaluation (444 homes across PaP, Jacmel, Leogane, rural areas) using chlorination and filtration options may answer some of the questions about using household water treatment that were detailed in the draft plan, including:

· Mapping of products and availability in-country

List of products available before and after the earthquake as of March 14, 2010 included.

· Household surveys in different types of areas to understand interest, what has been used already and willingness to use different types of products

444 surveys completed with chlorination and filtration products across PaP, Jacmel, and Legoane

I am reattaching the PP presentation (PDF format) and data (notes) on this for the group, if anyone is interested, and I am happy to answer any questions. The full PP (7 MB) is available at
http://home.earthlink.net/~haiti-earthquake.

PMCC Daily Update – 17 April 2010

Sun, 18 Apr 2010 00:04:00 UTC

PMCC Daily Update – 17 April 2010

Project Management Coordination Cell

Executive Summary

IDP movement from Golf Delmas 48 to Corail Cesselesse: 351 today, 1,980 total. The average family size is four, which differs from the original planning assumption of five. This translates into a requirement for more plots, which is currently being assessed. There will be no movement tomorrow, thus providing an opportunity to set up tents for next week.

IDP movement from Bourdon Valle to Tabarre Issa: 65 total.

At the Ancien Aeroport camp, pre-movement reconnaissance identified a total “must-move” population of 50.

Canals: ECD for Orphelin canal (USAID) was 16 Apr. Cleanup of Brea, Papacito and Martelly canals (World Bank) did not start 14 Apr – PMCC awaiting revised ESD.

Priority Camp Mitigation Plan

Golf Delmas 48 – 55% complete; 29 Apr ECD (25,000 may move)

Bo Marche – Complete

Centre Tapis Vert – 0% complete; 20 Apr ESD (8,000 may move)

Camp 14 – 0% complete (2,000 may move)

At-Risk Phase Mitigation

DRAINAGE CANALS

Canal (Implementing Partner) Status

Orphelin (USAID) ECD 16 Apr
EH (OXFAM) ECD 24 Apr
Georges (USAID) ECD 19 Apr
Delmas (USAID) ECD 19 Apr
Bois De Chene (World Bank) ECD 12 May (in-progress)
Brea (World Bank) ESD 14 Apr; ECD 30 Apr
Papacito (World Bank) ESD 14 April; ECD 30 Apr
Madan Gano (MINUSTAH) Completed
Martelly (World Bank) ESD 14 Apr; ECD 7 May

DEBRIS MANAGEMENT/REMOVAL

MTPTC list of the top six priority roads for debris removal. Certain areas of the following roads are almost completely blocked:

Ave Magloire Ambroise, from Romain Street to Ruelle Cameau
Ave Pouplard, from Ruelle Chretien to St. Antoine
Ruelle Cameau, from Rue Magloire Ambroise to Mgr. Guilleau
Rue Oswald Durant, around Faculté De Médecine
Rue Dalencourt, from Canapé Vert to Bourdon
Christ Roi, the entire length

USACE Debris Managers

1. Last 24 Hours

Continued our assistance and consultations with the on-site management of Varreux (Port) Debris Disposal site [unclear who is providing current management of on-site operations-USACE does not have presence there anymore.];
Continued assessment of private property debris removal and demolition (preparing outline of pros and cons). Continue to recommend that there be careful movement towards such operations;
Field inspection of canal clearing operations material disposal activities being funded by USAID.

2. Next 24 Hours

Continued support to canal clearing and debris removal and management operations;
Develop potential measures to address private property debris removal to present to debris planning group;

3. Next Critical Milestone(s)

Continued discussions on Government landfill operations. Outline potential impacts to overall recovery operations should landfill become unusable.
Continued identification of sites for use of clean rubble / debris as base material, road material or fill material rather than disposal.
World Bank is planning to support debris management and proper waste disposal at the Truitier landfill site. Current operations need to change so landfill will be in compliance with anticipated EA for the landfill operations.

COMMUNICATION STRATEGY

1. Last 24 Hours

Social mobilization continued in Vallee de Bourdon.
Planning meetings held with OCHA and MINUSTAH and the contractor in charge of developing content for the mass media campaign supporting the Safer Shelter Strategy.

2. Next 24 Hours

Continue with communication campaign in Vallee de Bourdon while movement of IDPs to Tabarre Issa begins.

3. Next Critical Milestone(s)

Further development of communication strategy at Corail. Expounding upon this, the idea of screening films in Corail has arisen and been discussed by PIOs. The idea is viable but questions regarding mitigation efforts involving Corail camp IDPs and surrounding individuals often called “squatters” pose problems. If films and PSAs are shown at Corail, it is likely to attract non Corail IDP population, which is unfavorable according to camp management. If a mitigation strategy is developed, we can go ahead with this communication plan.
Implementing a comms plan for other sites that are slated to be implicated in IDP movement.
Analysis and development of a “best practices” document on strategic communication.

4. Objective(s) for Next CSC Brief

A more clear idea of strategic communication and public information objectives for the next phases of CSC project implementation.

PERI-URBAN SITES:

Tabarre Issa:

1. Last 24 Hours

Camp manager requested a hand over inspection with MINUSTAH engineers.

2. Next 24 Hours

Remainder of the gravel to be delivered to site tomorrow.
Exterior drainage and access roads to be completed.
Brazilian engineers will remain until Sunday to complete Block 3.

3. Next Critical Milestone(s)

Continue the relocation to Tabarre Issa.

Corail Cesselesse (Sector 4)

1. Last 24 Hours

Oxfam (Wash lead) latrines and showers on plot #2 are expected to be finished by next Sunday.
Placement & compaction of rumblais still slow, just 15 CNE dump trucks were working today.
More dump trucks are needed to finish rumblais placement & compaction before next Tuesday.
Improvement works on external canals are approximately 90% completed.

2. Next 24 Hours

MINUSTAH Engineers will continue working with internal drainage of plot #1, placing and compact rumblais on plot 7 & 8 and will continue with improvement works on external canals. Placement & compaction of rumblais on plot #3 which is currently being used as IDP’s receiving area will start next Sunday.

Shelter clusters installing tents on plot #4

Corail Cesselesse (Sector 3)

1. Last 24 Hours

Seabees are laying down rumblais on access and exterior roads.

2. Next 24 Hours

Seabees will continue laying down rumblais on access and exterior roads.

Seabees continue laying down rumblais on “sector 3” exterior road.

IDP Camp Security Lighting

1. Last 24 Hours

Engineers visited Ancien Aeroport after dark to assess the installation of lights in the camp.
All 15 lights delivered to the (5) camps.

2. Next 24 Hours

Resident engineers (at the 9 IDP camps being tracked) are to assess their camps for lighting needs.

3. Lighting Issues @ Ancien Aeroport

The lights have padlocks on them to discourage unauthorized tampering.
Developing a system to refuel the generators.
Some lights will be rearranged to get optimum affect.
UNPOL and the Haiti Police are not patrolling inside the camp at night. Some lights may be rearranged to help illuminate these areas.

4-13-2010 Haitian Relief News - Shelter

Sat, 17 Apr 2010 00:04:00 UTC

CEPR has like a Haiti (disturbing) news portal
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/concerns-about-shelter-and-sanitation-persist-three-months-after-earthquake/

I linked from it to the latest OCHA overall Situation Report on Haiti
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/MUMA-84FVT4/$File/full_report.pdf

I draw your attention to the following (on page 8 of the 10 page PDF) within the Education detail

Several cases of eviction letters being issued to displaced people occupying school grounds have been reported in the South East Department. The CCCM and Education cluster coordinators are planning a special meeting to identify strategies to allow for schools to be used again for educational purposes while at the same time providing sustainable shelter solutions for displaced people.

Some Haitians get relocated to safety, while others get evicted. There have been more incidents than the ones I am sharing links to here. I just don't have urls handy with additional details.

* forceful removal of IDP camp in Caradeux Delmas 75, Port au Prince, Sunday evening 04 APR 2010

* 11,000 Haitian families at Saint Louis de Gonzague. The "Christian" school leadership selected Easter Sunday as the date to force all of these people off the school land.

* About 7,335 people from the National Sports Stadium in the last few days.

* Approx 1,500 forceably removed from Villa Manrese in March, by a "Christian" organization.

* Red Zones where relief aid denied by Gov of Haiti and UN military fiat, because homeless unwelcome there.

http://www.malaysianmirror.com/foreigndetail/10-foreign/36617

http://news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/World/Story/A1Story20100412-209724.html

After the Jan 12 quake, and many aftershocks, over 1 million people became homeless. They found any piece of flat land where they could spend the night. Some of that land is at risk of flooding or mudslides in rainy season, and Gov of Haiti struggling to find alternative sites to relocate some of the people most at risk to.

A lot of that land happens to belong to businesses that want to get back in business, and consider the homeless encampments to be in their way, so they call the police, or others, to forceably remove the trespassers, with little or no warning, no place else to go, and no help to carry their meager possessions.

Under normal circumstances, in other nations, the homeless are unwelcome.
That is normal, but we expect them to be taken SOMEWHERE.

Apparently the Haitian Constitution has something to say about a right to housing, that many other nations do not have, plus the UN has Human Rights standards, that apply to people in refugee camps.

http://biosurveillance.typepad.com/haiti_operational_biosurv/2010/04/tension-levels-in-haiti.html

http://www.mediahacker.org/2010/04/displaced-fear-expulsion-from-makeshift-camps-in-haiti/

http://bagaydwol.wordpress.com/2010/04/05/an-account-of-11000-displaced-people/

http://www.knowthelies.com/?q=node/5338

http://haiti.ushahidi.com/reports/view/3860

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iuSZBIOUGI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaEfgsW8FG0&feature=watch_response_rev

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTLknVKY6hI

http://bagaydwol.wordpress.com/2010/04/03/red-zone-reactions/

In some rural areas, the quake refugees are now occupying school buildings, whose owners want them evicted.

A somewhat related topic is the massive funds promised, such as the March 31 Donor's Conference still being MIA (missing in action) on the ground in Haiti. We have been hearing stories of

Relief efforts shut down due to funds depleted
Hospitals closing due to funds depleted
Relief efforts eager to come to Haiti, but blocked by various stupidities

Add latest news stories to this picture.

One of the UN refugee agencies needs

US$12.5 million to help people living outside of formal camps in Haiti and other quake survivors who have fled to neighbouring Dominican Republic.

The evidence is that the people who survived the quakes, but are not living in the formal camps, are getting virtually no help whatsoever, and are not yet in the target audience that the UN does progress reports "80% of the people now got this that & the other needed aid" ... SOS via Ushahidi, the 3/4 million sent to rural Haiti, etc.

4-14-2010 Haiti Gap Analysis

Sat, 17 Apr 2010 00:04:00 UTC

Here's another report, with my summary digest of what we can learn from what's in there.

http://reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/KHII-84H2S4/$File/full_report.pdf

Gap = what the NGOs know is missing between the audience they seek to serve, minus what they have accomplished. There's a LOT of statistics in this report.

At present there are some 1,371 temporary settlements comprising approximately 411,090 households, or 2,090,877 individuals.
To date, the (Emergency Tent & Tarp) Shelter Cluster has reached some 1,167,590 people or 233,518 families (based on 5 persons per household).

I need a term most people will recognize to describe the people not on their radar screen ...

rural (3/4 million left city for country side)
red (people who ended up where they are unwanted big time, so aid blocked)
ignored (we see in Ushahidi & other places where SOS from people without help big time long time)
war (people ended up on private land, and the land owners forced them off)

After the rains came, the Red Cross reports on a rapid analysis of 33 sites where 7 found to be in big trouble.
I suspect the Red Cross did not in fact do this analysis themselves, but are taking credit for what the UN did weeks ago.
http://reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/KHII-84H2S4/$File/full_report.pdf
For more on the ICRC response:
www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/haiti-earthquake-interview-120210

Problems:

Rainy season has begun.
- so far two inches above average precipitation rates for the year
- which is consistent with El Nino ... we knew it would be worse, just could not predict how much worse ... UN NGOs etc. chose to ignore this & never explained why
Hurricane season is not far off.
- Researchers at Colorado State University released a forecast predicting
  a likelihood of 15 named storms between 1 June and 30 November - four of those major hurricanes. They predict 58% chance of a major hurricane tracking into the Caribbean (the long-term average is 42% for people who choose to ignore La Nina, which is all UN NGOs etc. in Haiti). It is thus essential to have well defined contingency plans in place to address the increased needs that will arise in the event of heavy rains or hurricanes.
Increased diseases
- Predicted result of combination of people outdoors without good shelter for so long, quakes messing with infrastructure support for relief coming in, quakes blocking sanitation run off, weather, powers that be decision not to do air drops, new harbours, etc. like they have done in military invasions of infrastructure wrecked by war
Haitian government decision, this month, to stop food distributions.
Haitian government plans to curtail the provision of free water and health care.
Haitian government apparent inability to make clear decisions about land use.
Increasing number of security incidents.
Major lack of various infrastructure before current disaster season.
Lack of access to basic services
Extreme Poverty
Extreme Unemployment
Major Illiteracy
The nation has become dependent on NGO aid.
Idiot border crossing regulations blocked the delivery of all sorts of logical things like green stoves, so we have lots of accidents with unsafe cooking in the camps.
Haiti has a lot more in common with Anarchy, than Civilization
Every document floods us with new acronyms, seldom explained.

Constraints identified as a common experience of Cluster members implementing activities in
response to the earthquake.

1) land ownership issues/availability of space (many sites are on privately owned land);

lack of clarity over land tenure and ultimate ownership

Until a clear mechanism is in place to identify available land and legally assign and guarantee the scope of use and the rights to use the land under national law, the efforts to provide individuals with transitional shelter and move forward with longer term sanitation plans are being delayed and facing additional challenges. In parallel, the increasing number and size of existing sites is also a major challenge
for humanitarian partners.

2) no clear camp management beyond the communal committees;
3) no agency coverage of sites/too many agencies working in one site;
4) customs procedures;
5) human resources; and
6) uncertainty of sites.

Plan Haiti links - kids

Sat, 17 Apr 2010 00:04:00 UTC

Reviewing various Haiti archives again, looking for updates since last visit, after exhausting usual search to find any evidence of any movement in what the UN Donor's Conference agreed to. There's too many places to check them all every day, so my mix of updates will reflect where I most recently checked.

Attached is latest directory of Haiti documents I have downloaded, that I could forward people by request (name which ones you want to see).

Here's the PDNA main site, other than specific events like the Donor's conference.
I was looking to see if there was anything new there, since my last visit.
Some of the resources there are worth a review by Plan Haiti, since some of the stuff probably useful to you, that I glossed over before I met you guys.

3W = Who does What Where
- CWGER = Cluster Working Group on Early Recovery
EMMA = Emergency Market Mapping Analysis
ER = Early (next) Recovery
PCC = Haiti Priority Channel Cleanup Maps
PDNA = Post Disaster Needs Assessment and Recovery Framework
PMCC =Project Management Coordination Cell
Other acronyms abound here

http://oneresponse.info/Disasters/Haiti/Early%20Recovery/Pages/default.aspx

For those of you in Haiti or with contacts in Haiti.
Schedule of Meetings April 12-17 in PaP for Haiti Humanitarian Relief
http://oneresponse.info/Disasters/Haiti/publicdocuments/Cluster_PaP_Meeting_Schedule_current.pdf

For those of you in contact with people struggling to get cargo into Haiti, across the border, etc. here is a resource that you might find helpful ... The Logistics Operational Guide (LOG)
http://www.logcluster.org/about/blog/logistics-operational-guide

Here's (not very helpful) FAQ on Logistics
http://www.logcluster.org/ops/hti10a/frequently-asked-questions

More helpful
http://www.wfp.org/logistics/blog/men-let

There is now a working group on evictions. Watch for news of their April 15 meeting. I reported on this problem in recent days, labeling it a "war crime" to evict thousands of quake survivors, with no notice, and no place else to go.
http://oneresponse.info/Disasters/Haiti/Protection/Lists/Events/DispForm.aspx?ID=20&Source=http%3A%2F%2Foneresponse.info%2FDisasters%2FHaiti%2FProtection%2FPages%2Fdefault.aspx

Here's some documents that look to me like they might be useful to Plan Haiti:

Key documents:

Construction process flowchart.xls
Selection criteria - priority schools for reconstruction
List of damaged schools - Ouest and Sud-Est.xls
Examples of temporary school structures: ACT Alliance; Fondation Digicel; Plan International (Ministry approved models, design plan); UNICEF;bamboo structures (Please note that approval for construction must be granted by the Ministry on a case-by-case basis)

The priority schools is in a format not intelligible on my PC.
The damaged schools Excel has a wealth of data (in French)
The PI model looks pretty much the same as we saw in the PH webinar, but what's missing in my eyes is explicit info about how resistant to Hurricanes & other predictable disasters.
PH needs to communicate the case-by-case approval process to PH participants & include in some kind of flow chart of what all needs to be done (along with land tenure clarification).
The flow chart Excel (also in French) is a possible starting point.

Also see Resource section.

INEE Guidance Notes on Safer School Construction:

http://oneresponse.info/DISASTERS/HAITI/EDUCATION/Pages/default.aspx

Damage to what passed for an educational system in Haiti

Vast majority of schools and universities got demolished
Spontaneous schools in the camps got evicted by land owners
Offers of international free education aid to the masses refused, because it would compete with exclusive expensive education to the elites
At the time of the quake, afternoon session was in progress, so many students and teachers in the death toll
Illiteracy rate extremely high

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60H12G20100118

The plan to spur growth away from Haiti's capital.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/31/arts/design/31planning.html?pagewanted=1&hpw

There are Haiti Water system maps for 16 communities here.
http://oneresponse.info/Disasters/Haiti/Water%20Sanitation/Pages/default.aspx

Emergency Telecommunications has lots of interesting looking documents, but none are available to be accessed by the general public. (I gave up after trying to look at about 2 dozen of them.)
http://oneresponse.info/Disasters/Haiti/Emergency%20Telecommunications/Pages/default.aspx

Haiti Health Facilities Directory (900+)
http://sites.google.com/a/netspective.org/haiti-health-facilities/home

Haiti's Farmers are still hurting

Sixty percent of the food produced in Haiti is planted at this time of year. It's hard work done with basic tools.

But many farmers lost the tools they need in January's earthquake.

http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/americas/Help-Falls-Short-for-Haitis-Farmers-89768522.html

Haiti Food Security Interactive Tool
Check out various tabs
http://fenix.fao.org:8080/fenix-web/org.fao.fenix.web.modules.haiti.Haiti/Haiti.html?country=108

The UN cluster system has spawned several sub-clusters.
Here's a focus on nutrition needs for the youngest children.
http://oneresponse.info/Disasters/Haiti/Nutrition/Pages/Infant%20and%20Young%20Child%20Feeding%20IYCF.aspx

Baby formula donation plus polluted water equals poisoned Baby.
Solution includes instructions in Kreole label on baby food container, and delivery to mother.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23800003-thousands-of-haiti-infants-at-risk-of-death-from-milk-donations.do

Child Trafficking is serious problem in Haiti

Officials believe that traffickers were already responsible for an estimated 2,000 child abductions each year.

After the quake, the relief situation is trafficker-friendly, unless extreme care by relief workers.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23798778-haiti-child-protection-teams-work-to-stop-trafficking.do

Rape epidemic in Haiti

Sexual violence was a problem before the earthquake, and now social networks and services have broken down, camps are cramped, civil society is destroyed and the population is traumatized. Rape is under-reported everywhere

http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2010/03/25/even-one-rape-in-haiti-is-too-many/

Women and children as young as 2, already traumatized by the loss of homes and loved ones in the Jan. 12 catastrophe, are now falling victim to rapists in the sprawling tent cities that have become home to hundreds of thousands of people.With no lighting and no security, they are menacing places after sunset. Sexual assaults are daily occurrences in the biggest camps, aid workers say.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35899757

Weekly Active Volcanoes report came out.
I posted to Google Buzz & Reader which ones most active.
Local authorities for each appear to have appropriate action under control.

I did a bunch of additions to my "Acronyms" reference document again today, will send out an updated copy periodically. It is now just over 5 pages.

I feel a new Murphyism coming on.

A picture is worth 1,000 words, but people in my (computer) profession prefer to use the 1,000 words whenever possible.
People's vociferism on any given topic is inversely proportional to their expertise on the subject.
UN staff can't function without compressing all phrases into acronyms.
An oxymoron tells us more about the person telling us about it, than the topic at hand.

Haiti Aid Situation - Hurricane Season

Sat, 17 Apr 2010 00:04:00 UTC

Many people are ignorant of the risks. See for example my PDF attachment labeled "Haiti Camps and Historic Flooding." It would seem to me that many of the quake survivors were stunned, moved to where they could collapse. Individually they probably did not know they were collapsing in a risky spot.

Maps
http://oneresponse.info/Disasters/Haiti/MapCenter/publicdocuments/100128_hti_IDP_mapbook_ALL%5B1%5D.pdf

https://www.cimicweb.org/cmo/haiti/JIHACC/mapping/Pages/default.aspx

https://www.cimicweb.org/cmo/haiti/mapspage/Pages/default.aspx

https://haiti.harmonieweb.org/Wiki/Wiki%20Pages/Damage%20Assessment%20Photos%20and%20Maps.aspx

http://reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/doc404?OpenForm&emid=EQ-2010-000009-HTI&rc=2

http://groups.google.com/group/cccmhaiti/web/mapping-and-gis?_done=%2Fgroup%2Fcccmhaiti%3F

The EU seems to have done the most work, of any effort I have noticed, when it comes to correlating different kinds of map data, such as
"These sites" based on their GPS locations, are at risk because when placed on geophysical map of slopes of hillsides, proximity to ravines etc. with prior year water patterns, implies they are about to get hit with landslide or flood.
Or combine satellite images of damage with street map, so people can zoom in, see where problems are.
http://oneresponse.info/DISASTERS/HAITI/MAPCENTER/Pages/default.aspx

http://lunar.jrc.it/disasters/Crisis/HaitiEarthquake/tabid/425/Default.aspx

http://oneresponse.info/Disasters/Haiti/Camp%20Coordination%20Management/Pages/default.aspx

Map of probable flood risk areas (in red)
http://cccmhaiti.googlegroups.com/web/ProbableFloodAreasLR+%282%29.jpg?gda=bA5XuFMAAACk-Tc7XQZwImTUbkanfGdfloxH9p2UblIVD-W3agrVhwIqOeNXSwGdhHoQd0_GZdgjB_mfXBUdJUZccPXS2K3eMrYifh3RmGHD4v9PaZfDexVi73jmlo822J6Z5KZsXFo&gsc=e_QJAAsAAACbrX3ElqpjCLN8a0Zg7EkF

Map of sites each with more than 5,000 inhabitants, known to the UN
(Amnesty International apparently found additional ones, that NGOs have ignored)
http://groups.google.com/group/cccmhaiti/web/mapping-and-gis?_done=%2Fgroup%2Fcccmhaiti%3F

Chart of camps with GPS coordinates
http://oneresponse.info/Disasters/Haiti/Water%20Sanitation/publicdocuments/Forms/DispForm.aspx?ID=69

Land tenure:
The ownership of large parcels is needed for large camps ... but why
large camps? Why not small camps? The idea of big camps sounds like a
decision made by bureaucrats. Maybe a 100 or even 500 smaller sites
would be a quick practical solution.

The selection of camps is driven by land tenure, which I have written about extensively.
The new camps are on parcels of land the GoH owns.

GoH needs money, that they do not have, that the Donor nations may have promised, but they are acting like there is no hurry to pay, this money to compensate the land owners if seize their land for more camps, or for other recovery. It is no secret to the Donor Nations that have collectively pledged $ 10 billion, that this money is needed for this purpose. We have know this for at least 2 months. At the rate things are happening, I would not be surprised if we go another 2 months with nothing happening to resolve this.

I do not know how long the legal process if the land owners dispute this. I know that in the USA such disputes can go for many months. If they were to do this in USA, starting today, it could be a year before the land actually change hands. In Haiti the courts are backed up because of quake damage.

Thus, if legal process in Haiti like that in USA, plus impact of backed up due to quake damage, then it could be several years before other land is available for reconstruction, after the GoH gets the money to pay for the seized land.

Then the paperwork regarding who owns what, at least in Port au Prince and to the South where main quake, was in gov buildings collapsed in the quake, with the paperwork also gone.

I agree with the London video that the UN HQ should go out of town in the desert, with the people, who do not have good transportation, getting camps close to where there are potential jobs. But I don't see that happening.

In addition to the land tenure issue explained above, there is also the need for building codes in Haiti, which we have also discussed before. Apparently there are still none, but there are Gov of Haiti politicians resisting new construction until that issue is resolved.

See my attachment PDF April 5 JOTC with news of that lack of progress.

10 families own big parcels ... who specifically are these owners?

Haiti insiders call them "the elites."
There is a class divide.
The darker skinned tend to be the poorer people.
The lighter skinned (is mulatto the correct term?) tend to be the upper class.
I think Mark Weisz can speak to this better than I.

What else do these people own? Are these people part of the solution
to the future of Haiti or part of the problem ... but who are they?

I have often said the disaster in Haiti is a combination of natural disaster and human disaster. Human disaster is related to this class divide, also the conflict between Christian and Voodoo religions, also the extreme conservative attitude that women are a third or fourth class citizen, that in fact there are several groups of people who are below second class citizen. There is extreme lack of trust across these divisions.

Debris:
40 million cubic metres is a lot of debris. How much needs to be moved
urgently and how much over a longer time.

Where is it being moved to ... and how is it being processed?

There were some reports on this that I saw over a month ago.
It seems to me that management of this is chaotic, and the volume is astronomical. Think WTC times 100, or cities of Europe bombed out at end of WW II.

If it was for me to decide priority on removal.

Roads blocked by debris ... I think they have got that part completed, but in the last week, some major highways have got blocked by landslides, and expectation is more will get blocked by flooding as the rainy season builds up, which is already 2" above average, as predicted by El Nino but ignored by powers that be.
Drainage channels blocked by debris, so as to relieve the pressure of flooding where the people are. My understanding is that the PAY HAITI WORKERS programs were intended to solve this, but those programs very underfunded, so way behind. Based on my understanding, this is mismanagement at the level of UN and Donor Nations and NGOs. In addition to the NGOs getting hundreds of millions from ordinary people, they also tell the UN FTS (Financial Tracking System) what is needed for particular purposes, then the UN does a flash appeal for more money for the NGOs to carry out what they asked of the FTS, then when they get the money, it goes to the NGOs based on the budget requests thru FTS. The Flash Appeal to pay for this was in February. It is no secret to the Donor Nations that have collectively pledged $ 10 billion, that this money is needed for this purpose. However, the NGOs spent maybe 1/3 of the money donated by the ordinary people, also got some money thru FTS. So the failure of the donor nations to pledge or deliver money in response to the Flash Appeal for specific projects are being blamed, but I don't believe they are exclusively to blame.
Get Hurricane shelters implemented.
Replace damaged homes with safe homes, so as to relieve the pressures from over 2 million homeless (last count the official homeless inside Port au Prince had gone from 1.3 to 1.5 million, the count of people gone to rural areas in range of 600-700 thousand people, plus we continue to see evidence that there are many clusters of people inadequately served).
Clear debris from agricultural land, so the farmers can resume their livelihoods.
Replace critical infrastructure with safe infrastructure, in which some priorities need to be set, what's most critical. I see the bulldozers have started to remove rubble from the national government buildings. I consider them critical infrastructure because government needs to function, but I do not consider them to be as critical as drainage channels or decent shelter for the population rendered homeless by the quake.

What is the financial and economic picture around the debris removal
activity? My impression some time back was that contractors were being
paid to move debris ... then they would be paid to process it into
useful building materials ... and then they would be paid to buy it to
construct something.

That's the plan. I think reality is

Pay contractors to move it out of the way.
Repeat step 1 an infinite # of times.

The classic model of excessive cost in relief and

development ... when it might well be feasible to set up a "business
sector" that did all the required processes using essentially one set
of money.

Where the debris is going is another sore point. It seems to me that it is basically being moved out of the way. On HEDR in the first few weeks after the quake, there were many many ideas bandied around about constructive uses, which kind of died down when we recognized the Ground Zero spiritual implications.

Among my attachments:
PMCC Situation Report which includes where they are on Debris movement

PMCC = Project Management Coordination Cell

You could compare two consecutive reports to see quality of progress implied
CWGER update from end of February with some figures on PAY HAITIANS to do debris removal where

· CWGER = Cluster Working Group on Early Recovery

I like the fact that 70,000 people are being paid (note that the idea
of a paid volunteer seems a bit weird) for their labor by the UN. What
a novel idea (sarcastic)! My impression is that all the UN staff and
most NGO staff are being paid in order to work in Haiti. Why should a
Haitian work and not get paid ... and the answer should not be because
they are poor and in a developing country and not part of the ODA or
local elites.

Not sure the Red Cross is my idea of the best agency to be doing the debris work

Camps
460 spontaneous camps ... where might one find a list of these camps,
where they and the status of each.

One attachment is 10 page WASH (Water Sanitation Hygiene) cluster PDF report from March 29 (the most recent WASH that I have downloaded). Note that this summary report total is 1,000 camps, not 460.

Another attachment is 10 page OCHA (UN agency overall humanitarian efforts) PDF report from April 12 (most recent OCHA that I have downloaded). Note this summary report total is 1,373 camps, not 460.

There are several elements of confusion in camp counting.

There are spontaneous camps and there are camps organized by relief effort.
There are camps in Port au Prince metropolis.
There are camps in other urban areas.
There are camps in rural areas along side roads connecting urban areas.

This is key management information,
and by now it should be pretty well organized. If not ... why not?
What is the service status in each? Which of these camps are "red
camps". The military survey presumably shows where and which camps are
involved!

The last report I saw & shared, the spontaneous camp count was over 1300.
This is the number that the NGOs had found, done some kind of assessment of, were trying to service. Amnesty International and other outfits had found numerous camps not on the UN NGO service radar screen. We constantly hear stories on Ushahidi and other places about places not on the relief radar screen.

"Red Camps" can be interpreted 2 ways.
There are the camps at risk of flooding, landslides, which have already had trouble from rain causing sanitation overflow, or people waking up in the water.
There are refugees in red zones, which for a combination of reasons are to be refused any kind of relief.

The idea that people are behaving just like "economic man" should not
be a surprise. Why are there differences in service between the
different camps? Is it the people in the camp or the people organizing
the camp? Who is in charge at each camp?

There are several sets of people in charge of a camp.
(a) There is some kind of democratic process in each camp, where the population select people from among their own numbers (volunteers with particular skills) to manage what's needed ... think of them as Village Mayor, Village Town Council, within the camp
(b) There are NGOs who are regular visitors to a particular camp ... think of them as teams of workers, who have some team leaders

Some camps have both a+b, some have a but not b, some have b but not a, some have neither.

(c) There are the criminals who rape girls as young as 2 years old, and engage in other uncivilized behavior, terrorizing the camps.

One of my attachments here is attachment is 10 page OCHA (UN agency overall humanitarian efforts) PDF report from April 12 (most recent OCHA that I have downloaded). At the top of page 3 there are some statistics on camp management, and related topics:

Of these identified 1,373 sites, 289 have Camp Management agencies registering an overall coverage rate of 21%.

Relevant to that above figure that most of the camps do not have local management, another of my attachments is April 2 PDF update which talks about training in camp management and gives some mapping info on the first of the relocation places.

I sense there is a sad lack of management information ... all sorts of
summary information ... repeated but not organized. If I was in the
middle of this I would have a list of all camps ... and a status brief
for each every week ... presented in a tabular form showing the
changes ... hopefully improvement ... week by week. Something like
this must exist ... if not I would be very surprised, and if not I
would also be absolutely disgusted.

There are over 10,000 NGOs in Haiti. The relief work is organized into a dozen industry clusters, some of them with sub-clusters. Most clusters have on the average maybe 100 NGOs cooperating with that cluster, some a little more, many much less. Some NGOs are active in more than one cluster. Figure that maybe 1,000 of the larger NGOs and other actors (UN agencies, foreign governments) are working with the clusters, and over 9,000 NGOs and other actors are functioning totally outside the cluster system.

These NGOs are supposed to supply the cluster leadership with weekly reports on what they have accomplished, what is in the pipeline, what is needed. It would appear that not all NGOs in any given cluster are in fact filling out all the paperwork requested.

There are also regular meetings of these clusters, where to be effective, an NGO needs a staff member permanently located at the site of one meeting after another, to represent the interests of the NGO there, to inform the cluster management what that NGO doing, and to have good communications with the rest of the NGO staff out in the field.

Do the math
10,000 NGOs 20 clusters and sub-clusters = 200,000 relief members assigned to the meetings, get nothing else done other than the meetings.
That math is what would be needed for the system to work, to get the info everyone wants.

In fact most NGOs are getting a job done, instead of participating in the meetings and cluster paperwork. Because of the disaster situation in Haiti, there are not good alternatives.

Then the UN combines their info into these Situation Reports, many of which I have downloaded, some I have shared. Very few of them are structured to easily show what got accomplished since the last progress report. A human being would have to compare data from two consecutive reports. Some NGOs then take that data and issue Progress Reports in which the line is extremely blurred between what that NGO did all by itself, and what credit they are sharing with all the other efforts.

Hard work of the international community ... yes, but also very
expensive, are arguably very disorganized. It is now more than three
months after the earthquake, and the dataflows are not showing the
sort of progress one would expect. Frankly ... not sure what is
getting done any more!

I think the correct spelling is Petionville.

Petionville Camp ... 44,000 people in temporary shelter on a golf
course! Who is in charge? How much of the nearly $2.5 billion or
resources made available to Haiti has been allocated to this camp ...
including $1.5 billion allocated to Haiti by the USA according to a
document from the UN Special Envoy's office!

As I have stated earlier, money and resources allocated to Haiti is often fictional compared to what has actually been spent.

One of my attachments is the UN Special Envoy financial report PDF March 29 on eve of March 31 donor's conference. It hows money needed, promised, gap (unfunded mandates), actually delivered, spent.

One of my attachments is April 9 PDF from USAID that gives a lot of break down of where money expended, through which organization into which community. It is not at the level of detail you want to see, but more like budget of police dept, fire dept, hospitals, etc. for a major city like Brooklyn or South Side Chicago. This is about as good as it gets.

The camp on the golf course ... IMAT went there soon after it got started. You might get time line from Stephen. A chunk of its occupants got moved to the camp in the desert because that chunk was on a steep ravine that was getting regularly flooded.

I expect the rest will eventually need to be moved because Petionville is a gated community where many of the "elites" live, who do not want a homeless camp in their back yard. At some point, whoever owns the golf course will call on the police to have them all evicted because the economy of the golf course getting back in business will be more important than the homeless currently there, just like what happened with the national sports stadium, and a few other cases I recently cited, under the heading of "war crimes".

"A recent UN memo" ... I am reminded of my early years in England
where "management by memo" was practiced! It does not work!

Race against time ... the Red Cross is proposing! Who is actually
doing? If anyone?

(1) evaluate/confirm ... this should have been done and done well
weeks ago ... except that the management dimension and data of this
whole effort has been catastrophically discounted by those running
things

The people on the ground are doing what they can, with their hands tied behind their back for many reasons.

(2) evaluate/execute ... who besides the Red Cross?

The other 10,000 NGOs in which maybe 100 or so are huge like Red Cross.

(a) containers ... I saw this proposed almost 10 weeks ago / whatever
happened! Who got in the way?

Lots of people propose the obvious. Getting into Haiti, getting approval to do it, is a whole other subject. Before the quake, Haiti was one of the most hostile nations to capitalism that existed outside of communism, and after the quake it is worse.

It is extremely difficult for new volunteers groups to get into Haiti to get anything meaningful accomplished.

Even well established groups have trouble. There was one story of a Red Cross relief cargo. The trucker shows all the paperwork to the SINGLE border crossing person, who finds something wrong. The trucker gets that fixed, then gets back in line with the other 50 truckers at the border. Each time the border crossing person finds something different that is wrong. This had been going on for a week, with no end in sight when the journalist visited the border crossing to report on the situation. The suspicion was that the border crossing person was in need of a bribe to let anything through.

See my most recent posts to HEDR thread about GoH rule changes, which was triggered by a new member who is about to go to Haiti in a week, and only now asking for guidance getting cargo in. Since our exchange he has called around, found that Fed X says they will ship to Haiti, he has sent 1 test package to see what happens, will let me know.

The people on the ground have their way of doing things, usually do not welcome newcomers, viewed as tourists. Well some are, but most are not.

(b) prefabricated steel frame buildings ... many proposals for this
have been circulating for weeks, but no interest from the people
controlling the money ... and now crisis. Again, who got in the way?
(c) modules ... many ideas in play, for several weeks now! Who stopped
the progress?

b+c same as a

There are logistics problems for big programs ... but they are less
when there are many small programs with competent motivated
supervision. Bureaucrats and supervisors are not the same! Skill
levels may be low, and literacy may be low, but brain is present in
the working population probably in more abundance than with the
bureaucrats that know how to run a meeting but not to actually build
anything. Clear goals ... good supervision ... modest money ... and a
lot can be done in a short time!

Adequate ventilation, interior lighting, access to latrines, kitchen
facilities, security, camp management are NOT the problem to be
addressed in the next immediate days and weeks

If you had to share one toilet with 900 other people, you might disagree about access to toilets not being a priority. I was thinking about this a week ago when I was in toilet with indigestion & thinking how many minutes, over 1 hour accumulated I had been in there that day, and if other people were sharing it, maybe 40-50 people could share it, but I don't know about you, I cannot "hold it" for 20 days until my turn comes again, I would be in the back yard along with many other people, stinking up our neighborhood big time.

If it was your wife and daughter getting raped every nite, you might disagree about security not being a priority.

... and temperature and
humidity are also a given ... it is protection from weather (rain and
wind ... flood and landslides) that is the urgent priority. These
details are either already in place, or can be added when people are
safe!

If the people are moved to camp sites not at grave risk of flooding, landslides, eviction, and in shelter that keeps out the rain water, then supplying them with security against rape, and adequate toilets, that can be carried on by personnel other than those who are supplying shelter from hurricanes. The main issues in the way of both paths is land tenure, and matching promised money with where needed.

The issue of temporary ... or not. Any temporary measures will become
permanent unless the socio-economic circumstance of Haiti is
progressing. The "official plan" talks about this but it is not clear
how there will be implementation of it.

Did you see the "expanded" versions of PDNA?

* PDNA PDF 13 page summary March 24
(PDNA = Post Disaster Needs Assessment)

    * PDNA PDF 55 page more detail March 31

    * PDNA PDF 55 BIMStorm priorities mark up 1-A Bob Smith

    * PDNA PDF 55 BIMStorm priorities mark up 1-B Bob Smith (I don't have capability of checking to see if later copy has what changes not in earlier copy)

    * PDNA PDF 115 pages March 31 Goh 1.5 meg

An urgent issue is how to get
people "safe" for the next 6 months!

3 Relocate 250,000 people to camps not yet built ... Who is it that
should be paying attention to this and making something happen? Years
ago, I had some experience handling a flow of refugees that amounted
to more than 1 million over a period of about 6 months ... part of the
solution was multiple camps ... as well as every possible
collaboration with local communities to help. Most of the initiatives
worked ... some did not. Almost all the "planning" was done "on the
fly" because people were at risk today and needed help by tomorrow!

The summary details:
Interesting but not actionable as a summary ... I want to know about
each camp ... and more especially I want to know who is in charge of
each camp ... both NGOs and local people.

One of my attachments is an Excel listing Priority Camps for moving people out of danger. It includes

GPS coordinates,
number of people need to evacuate,
who is in charge there, both NGOs and local people

One of my attachments is an Excel on Sanitation issues, which includes

GPS coordinates
number of people population there
who is in charge there, both NGOs and local people
types of problems there, including flooding

How much resources are flowing to each camp ... and why are there
differences. My guess is that many of the problems are people and
organizational ... good leadership and oversight makes a huge
difference ... so who is doing well and who is not. Where are the data
about this ... and if no data, why not. This is not complicated ...
this is the basics of old fashioned management and supervision.

I also attached World Bank Statistics of Haiti in general perspective.

4-16-2010 Haiti News Summary

Sat, 17 Apr 2010 00:04:00 UTC

See links at bottom of each news flash summary for more information on what I am sharing.
The Haitian Parliament voted to approve an Interim Haiti Recovery Commission.
There are severe problems tracking diseases prevalent in the camp populations. The worst known situation is probablypediatric diarrheal disease

Relocations continue to be criticized, some unfairly. This undermines ability to attack the root of the problems, and encourages the same kind of problem to repeat itself.
I update & share my Acronyms document periodically as it grows. It is now just over five pages. Here is the latest clarification I added there.

· SHELTER

o When we see the word “Shelter” in UN NGO Gov documents about Haiti, it usually means “Emergency Shelter” from rains, such as tents tarps etc. ideally on land not at high risk of flooding or mudslides or landslides.

o When we see OTHER folks using the word “Shelter”, they usually mean “Housing” that meets Building Standards that includes protection from Hurricanes, Earthquakes, and other hazards that are normal reasonable expectations for the people of Haiti.

The Haitian Parliament has voted, in middle of April, to approve the Donor's Conference Plan to form an Interim Haiti Recovery Commission.
Remember the March 31 Donor's Conference, where we (well me anyway) had been checking regularly to see if anything had been done yet about all the pledges of money and do what with that money. This is critical as people on the ground are at risk of additional disasters. Hospitals and other relief has shut down due to insufficient funds. Many relief efforts have come to a halt because they ran out of money. Some critical work going very slowly because under funded. There's a critical requirement to match up donated and pledged funds with where most needed.

The Haitian Parliament has voted to approve the Donor's Conference Plan to form an Interim Haiti Recovery Commission, which would share power between the Donors and Haiti Government.

The national assembly's lower house had endorsed it first, then it passed by the Haitian Senate late on Thursday.

The assembly also extended a post-quake state of emergency for 18 months, corresponding to the commission's tenure.

The joint commission, to be co-chaired by former U.S. President Bill Clinton, the U.N. special envoy for Haiti, and by Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive, will determine which reconstruction projects will receive backing from multibillion-dollar funding pledged by foreign donors.

President Rene Preval is due to sign the bill into law and the president will have final veto over rebuilding projects.

Sitting on the commission, under the joint chair, will be an equal number of Haitian and non-Haitian representatives. The latter include officials of international organizations, multilateral lenders and major donors.

The body will operate for 18 months before handing over to a government redevelopment authority.

Reconstruction financing will be administered through a Multi-Donor Trust Fund, to be supervised by the World Bank.

http://reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/MINE-84KL83?OpenDocument&rc=2
A WARNING has been posted for pediatric diarrheal disease due to thepotential for seeing a Category 3 or 4 event.

It is unknown to what degree, if any, pandemic H1N1 transmission is occurring in Haiti. An ADVISORY was posted as a precaution, with a caveat noting the high uncertainty levels of the assessment. Acute respiratory infection, however, represents a broader array of pathogens. Acute respiratory infection events have not been reported higher than a Category 1 event.

Malaria events have not been reported higher than a Category 1 event. The HEAS community has reported an increase of malaria activity, however the presentation of cases has not been abrupt enough to inundate medical clinics and overwhelm them. AnADVISORY was posted as a precaution. Prevention and preparedness activities have been initiated due to the potential of seeing an increase in malaria.

Dengue. Although dengue has been reported among responders, dengue events in Haiti have not been reported higher than a Category 1 event.

Anthrax. Unconfirmed report of two cases of cutaneous anthrax seen at the PAP General Hospital was received approximately one month ago. Assuming this was an “event”, this was no higher than Category 1.

Vaccine-Preventable Disease. Tetanus has been the most significant event, reaching a Category 2 because active disease observed in quake survivors drove organized vaccination campaigns two months ago.

Other Waterborne Disease. Suspected and confirmed leptospirosis and hepatitis A have been reported at a Category 1 level, respectively.

Other Vector borne Disease. For example, West Nile Virus. No report.

Other Respiratory Transmitted Diseases. Tuberculosis has not been reported as an “event” to-date. Rabies. No report.

Compared to other nations, Haiti's ability to detect medical crises is still brain dead.

In other nations, doctors notice a problem, they both report it immediately to a central authority, and take samples from the patients, sending to labs, so the nature of the problem can be rapidly identified, get statistics on where there may be an epidemic, how fast it spreading. But Haiti infrastructure is still a disaster not yet recovered from the Jan 12 quake, won't recover any time soon. The facilities just do not exist yet to track diseases. Thus there is a HUGE gap between what doctors on the scene are observing, and what has been proven to central authorities.

People from all over the world are in Haiti relief efforts. They have different semantic standards for what they observe.

There's also failure to correlate WHERE a problem reported, with what happening there, with respect to heavy rain, what happened when flood hit the sanitation, state of protection the people there have from the elements.

There are many reasons the # of sites reporting is declining.

Many hospitals have had to close because their funds ran out.
Many people in the camps are tired of filling out paperwork and seeing zero results benefiting them. This is a problem in business also. If you have a system where one bunch of people supply data to benefit a different group of people, and not share results with first bunch, the first bunch can conclude that this is a wasted effort.
A lot of the data is sampling, where people on the ground are supposed to supply data to the UN for correlation. Thus there will always be a lag of a week or two with the data anyone gets to see in correlation.

http://biosurveillance.typepad.com/haiti_operational_biosurv/2010/04/the-latest-report-from-the-usaid-office-of-us-foreign-disaster-assistance-ofda-stated-the-following---the-pan-american-hea.html

There continues to be lots of criticism, from many quarters, about the "forced" relocation of large numbers of Haitians, some of it misdirected. Plus many people are, in my opinion, messing up their interpretation of UN NGO reports.

By mixing in grievances about temporary inconveniences with actions that are massive collections of felonies, outrage about the latter can easily get hidden.

By blaming victims of problems, instead of in depth journalism, causes of problems will never get fixed. This is a systemic problem with many blogs.

There are several kinds of relocations going on.

There are property owners who want to use their property for its intended economic purposes, and they see the homeless camps on their land as getting in the way. Apparently they have a legal right, in Haiti, to evict those people, with the help of the National Police, and zero legal obligation to help those people find some other place to stay. Until the Gov of Haiti says otherwise, the property owners will be taking actions against fellow citizens, rendered homeless by the quake, in a manner that shocks our consciences.

There are new camps designated by the Government of Haiti without enough time for proper preparation to accommodate not enough of the people at dire risk of death via flood or landslide. The reason not enough time I have explained many times ... a combination of the land tenure issue, and donation management taking forever to be matched with needs. But while I have explained this to HEDR & FB and other contacts, there are millions of writers out there who just do not get it.

This is a failure of journalism research that is a systemic problem with blogging.

Before relocating these people, they were offered alternatives.
The alternatives are all pretty bad, because of the nature of the disaster.
My point is that the people were not forced to accept this particular solution.
It is perhaps the best short term alternative, given the current situation.

In the article below, the math is wrong.

The figures of 80 90% of people served was based on the 1.1 million people to be served, which was the official figure for a while, until assessment data got correlated. In the last month, the # has jumped to 1.3 then 1.5 million then 2.1 million, without recalculating the percentage. The percentage applies to 1.1 million, not 2.1 million.

The 1.5 million does not include approx 3/4 million who left Port au Prince and are now living in rural areas, with next to no relief of any kind. We see from Ushahidi and other sources that the 1.5 million needs to grow considerably more, before all the Haitians in need are on the relief radar screen.

http://biosurveillance.typepad.com/haiti_operational_biosurv/2010/04/eviction-and-relocation-of-portauprince-idp-camp-residents-initiated.html

Haiti News Updates - financing, engineering, science, scapegoats

Sat, 17 Apr 2010 00:04:00 UTC

As usual, I share summaries of the news, sometimes comment on them, and supply my latest primary sources. In general, the url is after my text.
There continue to be many people in need in Haiti.
The rule of law is alien to Haiti legal system.
The World Bank makes announcements that sometimes are hard for ordinary people to grok.
Another bank has a Haiti announcement.
US military support shifting from rescue to engineering in Haiti.
More science coming out about Chile quake and tsunami, answering some questions.
Connecting the Dots of: Global Warming; Ice Caps Melting; Iceland Volcano; Weather Patterns; Ash Cloud; Europe Air Travel; Poland Funeral. Something does not compute.

In ordinary times, you have an injured child, you rush to the hospital, maybe call for an ambulance, especially when only a few blocks away, but in Haiti, the situation is not ordinary.

http://haiti.ushahidi.com/reports

I am glad that so many groups are sitting up to take notice of serious problems, and make sure they don't get covered up. Some of this is crazy, a total break down of the rule of law.

Remember the challenges of land owners wanting their land back, so they evicting masses of quake survivors from camps, so many people scrambling to try to help them?

Camp Canaan received "Autorisation Speciale", which "secures their right to inhabit the privately owned land for two years."

However, the same site was designated as the place where the people are to be moved who are being evicted from the camp at San Louis Gonzague school.

To accomplish this, the people at Camp Canaan are being forceably evicted, despite the fact that Camp Canaan received "Autorisation Speciale".

Even though there are tents and tarps and other shelters there, the entire Camp Canaan is being bulldozed so that a new set of tents and tarps can be installed.

Our $ donations at work.

Summary:
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/transafrica-forum-report-on-forced-evictions-neglect-in-camps/

More detailed report on multiple confusing incidents like this.
Typically the people who are evicted are not told WHY they are being evicted.
It is only after the damage has been done, when journalists and other investigators are able to piece together what multiple witnesses have to say, that some sense can be made from the information.
http://www.transafricaforum.org/files/Memo%20on%20Forced%20IDP%20Relocations%20041210.pdf

The World Bank is arranging additional financing to Haiti Rural Communities

to support scaling up of direct transfer of public resources to local community organizations in poor rural and peri-urban communities:
(i) to improve their access to basic and economic infrastructure and support income-generating activities by financing small-scale investments proposed, implemented and managed by the community organizations themselves; and
(ii) to improve governance and build social capital of local communities through an increase in citizen participation and transparency in open decision-making processes.

Summary Dated April 15
http://reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/EGUA-84KNAT?OpenDocument&rc=2

Sector:

General agriculture, fishing and forestry sector (60%);
Roads and highways (20%);
Irrigation and drainage (10%);
General water, sanitation and flood protection sector (10%)

Theme:

Participation and civic engagement (29%);
Rural services and infrastructure (29%);
Poverty strategy, analysis and monitoring (14%);
Municipal governance and institution building (14%);
Managing for development results (14%)

Detail PDF 8 pages
http://reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/EGUA-84KNAT/$File/full_report.pdf

$ 100 million to Haiti administered by Inter-American Development Bank on behalf of Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), which includes Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Surinam, Uruguay and Venezuela.

$ 100 million might not seem much on the scale of total aid to Haiti, but it can be a big help when other sources seem to take forever to deliver on promises.

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/ASHU-84JS95?OpenDocument

While US military troops have been pulling out of Haiti, several specialized services remain, such as the engineers.

Japanese and U.S. Navy Seabees are working inside camps to install drainage systems and build reinforcements to some of the walls. The task force also is supporting the United Nations in building camps north of the capital city so displaced people can be moved out of harm's way.

Joint Task Force Haiti ends next month. It was focused on rescue and stabilization.
It will be replaced by "Operation New Horizons" mission, focused on rebuilding Haiti.
http://reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/ASHU-84KSB6?OpenDocument&rc=2

An image of the entire area affected by the Chile quake has been released, thanks to the Japanese Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) or 'DAICHI'.

The scientific data compares the shape of the ground before and after the February earthquake from pictures taken on 10 April 2008 and on 1 March 2010, two days after the earthquake, which measured 8.8 on the Richter scale. The image reveals that the displacement across the 600 kilometre fault line where the earthquake occurred was not uniform, which explains why the impact was greater in some areas than in others and why the tsunami triggered by the earthquake had varying heights, forces and directions.

http://mobile.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/scidev/127143449360.htm?=_lite_&1=

I posted yesterday, I think, about how the ash cloud from Iceland volcano has caused shut down of air travel with most of Europe, and this is predicted to not clear up any time soon, which is going to be major disruption for European economy.

Think loss of air travel for a while.
Think people whose plane tickets got canceled, maybe not refunded.
Think loss of income for airline industry, from people and cargo.
Think terrorists observing this, and seeing potential for future opportunities to exploit ... maybe not only civilian aircraft are grounded for a while, but also military aircraft, rescue aircraft, visibility disrupted.
ABM systems only work when a reasonably clear atmosphere to shoot through. Europe's ABM systems could be non-functional until the ash cloud clears. This is extremely related to the Bush vs. Obama theories on the best way for an ABM system to function. I don't want to get into that science in this news update. At this time, I am only sharing some major dots that I do not believe have been adequately connected, in government planning and strategies.
Think people with ashma (spelling?) breathing problems.

The science of volcanoes, my understanding, is that when a volcano has the latest instruments, scientists can now predict fairly well about a week in advance when a volcano is going to blow its top.

However, I have been subscribing to Volcano news. I only get the news via RSS once a week, so if there's a big one coming, we need better warnings. Maybe I need to find a better service to subscribe to.

Oh we did get a major warning on the Iceland eruption, but I am not yet sufficiently understanding of this to comprehend the significance of different types of category warnings. I saw RED in the warning, new vents, plume went up 8 km, there was talk of different kinds of lava flows. Well maybe I should take another look at the OTHER red warnings associated with Volcanoes in Indonesia Italy Japan and other locations.

Similarly weather forecasting has got to be pretty good. Thus, science could have predicted the ash cloud shutting down European air travel, had relevant people connected the dots.

I mention this because many world leaders will not be attending the funeral in Poland of their latest disaster, and the ash cloud is being blamed for this. I believe aircraft can land outside the area covered by the ash cloud, then take ground transport, such as trains, the rest of the way.

Some science is less certain, such as the connections between global warming and volcano activity. I had always believed that

The Earth goes through cycles of global warming and cooling thanks to cycles of output from our Sun.
Human activity plays a smaller role than mother nature.
Volcanic eruptions tend to add stuff in the atmosphere that get in the way of heat from the Sun getting to planet Earth.

I am now being told, and I do not yet know enough whether or not to give it any credence, that in addition to Volcanic dust in the atmosphere contributing to our planet's climate, in addition changes in our planet's climate has an impact on the probability of Volcanoes erupting.

A thaw of Iceland's ice caps in coming decades caused by climate change may trigger more volcanic eruptions by removing a vast weight and freeing magma from deep below ground, scientists said on Friday.

"Our work suggests that eventually there will be either somewhat larger eruptions or more frequent eruptions in Iceland in coming decades," said Freysteinn Sigmundsson, a vulcanologist at the University of Iceland. "Global warming melts ice and this can influence magmatic systems," he told Reuters. The end of the Ice Age 10,000 years ago coincided with a surge in volcanic activity in Iceland, apparently because huge ice caps thinned and the land rose.

I also saw some news where government of Poland criticized for having too many top leaders riding in same aircraft.

This wisdom was something I first encountered maybe 20 years ago, when there was a need to send a bunch of co-workers to a training session. Middle management arranged to shut down the company for a few days, send all of the people who needed training to the classes, by air. The CEO censored this because he said that while the odds of a plane crash were extremely remote, he did not want all of the brains of the company traveling together like that. It is Ok to have them all at the place of work, but at no other time.

We have also seen this wisdom with top leadership of other nations, even before 9-11, during the Cold War. There is a system for replacing leadership, even if Washington DC gets wiped off the map with no warning.

I sure hope there is a competent investigation of the causes of the crash.
Poland does not need any conspiracy theories on top of this.
http://mobile.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LDE63F110.htm?=_lite_&1=
http://mobile.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LDE63F0QU.htm?=_lite_&1=
http://blogs.reuters.com/environment/
http://www.volcano.si.edu/reports/usgs/index.cfm?wvarweek=20100407#eyjafjol

See links at bottom of each news flash summary for more information on what I am sharing.

The Haitian Parliament voted to approve an Interim Haiti Recovery Commission.

There are severe problems tracking diseases prevalent in the camp populations. The worst known situation is probablypediatric diarrheal disease

Relocations continue to be criticized, some unfairly. This undermines ability to attack the root of the problems, and encourages the same kind of problem to repeat itself.

I update & share my Acronyms document periodically as it grows. It is now just over five pages. Here is the latest clarification I added there.

·         SHELTER

o        When we see the word “Shelter” in UN NGO Gov documents about Haiti, it usually means “Emergency Shelter” from rains, such as tents tarps etc. ideally on land not at high risk of flooding or mudslides or landslides.

o        When we see OTHER folks using the word “Shelter”, they usually mean “Housing” that meets Building Standards that includes protection from Hurricanes, Earthquakes, and other hazards that are normal reasonable expectations for the people of Haiti.

The Haitian Parliament has voted, in middle of April, to approve the Donor's Conference Plan to form an Interim Haiti Recovery Commission.

http://reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/MINE-84KL83?OpenDocument&rc=2
A WARNING has been posted for pediatric diarrheal disease due to thepotential for seeing a Category 3 or 4 event.

It is unknown to what degree, if any, pandemic H1N1 transmission is occurring in Haiti. An ADVISORY was posted as a precaution, with a caveat noting the high uncertainty levels of the assessment. Acute respiratory infection, however, represents a broader array of pathogens. Acute respiratory infection events have not been reported higher than a Category 1 event.

Malaria events have not been reported higher than a Category 1 event. The HEAS community has reported an increase of malaria activity, however the presentation of cases has not been abrupt enough to inundate medical clinics and overwhelm them. AnADVISORY was posted as a precaution. Prevention and preparedness activities have been initiated due to the potential of seeing an increase in malaria.

Dengue. Although dengue has been reported among responders, dengue events in Haiti have not been reported higher than a Category 1 event.

Anthrax. Unconfirmed report of two cases of cutaneous anthrax seen at the PAP General Hospital was received approximately one month ago. Assuming this was an “event”, this was no higher than Category 1.

Vaccine-Preventable Disease. Tetanus has been the most significant event, reaching a Category 2 because active disease observed in quake survivors drove organized vaccination campaigns two months ago.

Other Waterborne Disease. Suspected and confirmed leptospirosis and hepatitis A have been reported at a Category 1 level, respectively.

Other Vector borne Disease. For example, West Nile Virus. No report.

Other Respiratory Transmitted Diseases. Tuberculosis has not been reported as an “event” to-date. Rabies. No report.

Compared to other nations, Haiti's ability to detect medical crises is still brain dead.

http://biosurveillance.typepad.com/haiti_operational_biosurv/2010/04/the-latest-report-from-the-usaid-office-of-us-foreign-disaster-assistance-ofda-stated-the-following---the-pan-american-hea.html

There continues to be lots of criticism, from many quarters, about the "forced" relocation of large numbers of Haitians, some of it misdirected. Plus many people are, in my opinion, messing up their interpretation of UN NGO reports.

By mixing in grievances about temporary inconveniences with actions that are massive collections of felonies, outrage about the latter can easily get hidden.

By blaming victims of problems, instead of in depth journalism, causes of problems will never get fixed. This is a systemic problem with many blogs.

There are several kinds of relocations going on.

There are property owners who want to use their property for its intended economic purposes, and they see the homeless camps on their land as getting in the way. Apparently they have a legal right, in Haiti, to evict those people, with the help of the National Police, and zero legal obligation to help those people find some other place to stay. Until the Gov of Haiti says otherwise, the property owners will be taking actions against fellow citizens, rendered homeless by the quake, in a manner that shocks our consciences.

There are new camps designated by the Government of Haiti without enough time for proper preparation to accommodate not enough of the people at dire risk of death via flood or landslide. The reason not enough time I have explained many times ... a combination of the land tenure issue, and donation management taking forever to be matched with needs. But while I have explained this to HEDR & FB and other contacts, there are millions of writers out there who just do not get it.

This is a failure of journalism research that is a systemic problem with blogging.

Before relocating these people, they were offered alternatives.
The alternatives are all pretty bad, because of the nature of the disaster.
My point is that the people were not forced to accept this particular solution.
It is perhaps the best short term alternative, given the current situation.

In the article below, the math is wrong.

The figures of 80 90% of people served was based on the 1.1 million people to be served, which was the official figure for a while, until assessment data got correlated. In the last month, the # has jumped to 1.3 then 1.5 million then 2.1 million, without recalculating the percentage. The percentage applies to 1.1 million, not 2.1 million.

The 1.5 million does not include approx 3/4 million who left Port au Prince and are now living in rural areas, with next to no relief of any kind. We see from Ushahidi and other sources that the 1.5 million needs to grow considerably more, before all the Haitians in need are on the relief radar screen.

http://biosurveillance.typepad.com/haiti_operational_biosurv/2010/04/eviction-and-relocation-of-portauprince-idp-camp-residents-initiated.html

Project Management Coordination Cell

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 00:04:00 UTC

PMCC Daily Update – 10 April 2010

Project Management Coordination Cell

Executive Summary:

IDP movement from Delmas Golf Club to Corail Cesselesse started today as scheduled. Approximately 60 IDP were relocated. Registration and boarding process is still slow, with some gaps. It took almost 4 hours from the bus/truck arrival time to departure. A debrief was done to improve methods. Debarkation and receiving processes also need improvement in order to accelerate relocation. Movement Coordination Center proved vital for proper operational control. Security in both sites was done by PNH, UNPOL, FPU (India) and MINUSTAH Military. There were also US JTF-H MP on both sites. Convoy escort was properly done by PNH and UNPOL. There is a need for more PNH in Corail Cesselesse, especially during the night.

French engineers continue to press forward with focused debris removal efforts in PaP. Of particular note are 11 projects that involved demolition and debris removal from school grounds so that UNICEF could install school tents.

Communication: An Information Sheet compiled by the GoH was released Friday evening which outlined the movement process, the new sites, the role of MINUSTAH and the humanitarian community and the efforts of UNOPS. 15 information kiosks opened at Golf Delmas 48, disseminating information on the movement process and on the “green house” option. It has been reported that the kiosks had long lines and that people were very interested in receiving this information.

Priority Camp Mitigation Plan

Golf Delmas 48 – 23% complete; 29 Apr ECD (25,000 may move)

Japanese engineers are working on drainage in Area B, started work on lighting pad in Area A and continue working on roads.

Bo Marche – 20% complete; 15 Apr ECD (1,200 may move)

USACE Geotechnical Engineer evaluated the mitigation measures being planned for the site, and concluded that the slopes are stable provided that drainage controls are implemented. The scope of work for this camp has therefore been modified to include deleting sandbag retaining walls and adding sandbag swales and check trench. The ECD has been brought forward to reflect the lessened effort for the modified scope of work.

Centre Tapis Vert – 0% complete; TBD ECD (8,000 may move)

CNE committed to this sizable mitigation effort today. Scope includes drainage ditch, canal and culvert clearance using heavy equipment.

Camp 14 – 0% complete; TBD ECD (2,000 may move)

PMCC is working to match this drainage canal clearance project with an implementing partner by Monday 12 Apr.

500, 510 and 150 must move from Camps 23 Mission Market, Old Airport and Bourdon Vallee respectively.

DRAINAGE CANALS

Canal (Implementing Partner) Status

1. Orphelin (CHF/CRS) ECD 16 Apr

2. EH (OXFAM) ECD 24 Apr

3. Georges (USAID) Started 8 Apr

4. Delmas (USAID) Started 8 Apr

5. Bois De Chene (World Bank) ECD 12 May (in-progress)

6. Brea (World Bank) ESD 13 Apr; ECD 27 Apr

7. Papacito (World Bank) ESD 13 April; ECD 27 Apr

8. Madan Gano (World Bank) Completed (MINUSTAH)

9. Martelly (World Bank) ESD 13 Apr; ECD 4 May

DEBRIS MANAGEMENT/REMOVAL

USACE Debris managers continue to assistance on the following projects:

1. Continuing assistance in developing scope and cost estimates for University d'Etat d'Haitoi and Universite Lumiere debris removal.

2. Continuing assistance in developing debris/rubble use strategy as a base material for Terrian Golf / Delmas 48 IDP camp and other locations.

3. Continuing assistance to identifying additional Proximity Site locations for Terrian Golf / Delmas 48 IDP's, and for on-site consultations with the on-site implementation of the Turgeau Debris Removal Project.

4. Awaiting permission/funding for debris site improvements at Truitier and new Proximity

5. Will provide debris management assessment for a private boys school damaged by the earthquake

COMMUNICATION STRATEGY

1. Last 24 Hours

· An Information Sheet compiled by the GoH was released Friday evening outlining the movement process, the new sites, the role of MINUSTAH and the humanitarian community and the efforts of UNOPS.

· 15 information kiosks opened at Golf camp, disseminating information on the movement process, on the “green house” option. It has been reported that the kiosks had long lines and that people were very interested in receiving this information.

· A meeting took place in Vallee Bourdon to discuss the communication strategy for this camp contingent with the move to Tabarre Issa. It has been determined that an intention survey be conducted by IOM in order to assess how best to include the population in the communication process.

2. Next 24 Hours

· Media relations for the movement tomorrow

· Conception of intention survey

3. Next Critical Milestone(s)

· Vallee Bourdon intention survey being completed, followed by the development of the communication and outreach plan in that camp.

· Clarification of various issues pertaining to services provided to IDPs

4. Objective(s) for Next CSC Brief

· Outline the communication strategy for Vallee Bourdon

· Have an overall idea of how best to develop strategic communication for other camps which need to be moved.

5. Showstoppers

· The Protection cluster on the “host family” option is particularly pertinent for Vallee Bourdon, according to camp managers and community leaders. Based on the results of the intention survey, we will know further what will be necessary/desirable to entice IDPs to move with a host family in the provinces, but based on anecdotal evidence IDPs in this camp have communicated their need for cash/bus fare. Not having a clear package or plan for option 3 is thus clearly a showstopper for communicating this option to this and other communities.

PERI-URBAN SITES:

Tabarre Issa:

MINUSTAH Engineers continued to work on the site. Plots 1 & 4 have been completed and handed over to Concern Worldwide. IOM Contractor continues to deliver gravel but at a slower then necessary rate to meet April 14^th deadline. Relocation of IDP’s to happen between 15^th to 18^th April if gravel delivery is increased. The first tents on site should start to be assembled on Monday, the 12^th of April. Security shall be reinforced on site from that day onwards to avoid “unauthorized occupancy” of the tents. MINUSTAH and Concern Engineers met to concur on the dates for completion of the different areas of the project. The following was agreed:

CARE also came out with a 3 month (mushy touchy feely) progress report on their work in Haiti. It answers even less questions than Red Cross or Save the Children.

In common with other NGO progress reports, there is much prose on the good work they doing, packaged to solicit additional donations, with not much numbers nor explaining how come the news media, and other sources, shows people in desperate conditions, provided just enough to keep them barely alive. It is nice that they are helping the women and children that got raped. But what is also needed is to stop the epidemic, provide a modicum of security. e-mails from CARE workers, participating in UN clusters, provide a hell of a lot more specificity than this official report.

CARE 3 month
http://reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/FBUO-84FE8U/$File/full_report.pdf

International aid agencies Oxfam, World Vision and CARE urge the Haitian government to ensure new camps are ready to receive earthquake victims before more evacuations take place.

Apparently for many of the people to be relocated, they get next to no notice of upheaval, and for the camps they are to be moved to, those camps often not ready for the people.

This is an emergency move to get people to safety before the rains, which were known to be coming at this seasonal time, just as the hurricane season is predictable.

http://reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/FBUO-84FGHN?OpenDocument&rc=2

SAVE THE CHILDREN 3 month
http://www.savethechildren.org/publications/emergencies/STC_Haiti_v6.pdf

MERCY CORPS 1 month
http://www.mercycorps.org/20459

SALVATION ARMY Jan 25 progress report
http://blog.salvationarmyeds.org/?p=562

Well as you saw from my prior major links installment, with the "war crimes" focus, the people in the sports field got evicted this weekend, because the sports industry has no regard for the welfare of the refugees who ended up there. At least the Salvation Army kept them alive until the sports industry evicted them.

http://www.salvationarmycarib.org/www_car.nsf/vw-news/DABA890CD28E6C87052576B60049BC1A?opendocument

Gina ... here is RED CROSS video which does nothing to answer the complaints by multiple people claiming they have been unable to find any evidence that the Red Cross has accomplished anything in Haiti.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SDHaQKk3Io

RED CROSS attempts to answer the WHY but is unable to do as well as I did in my Facebook Notes

Along with the immediate shock at the continuing human suffering, the images we're seeing are also provoking another reaction; why, when so many of us around the world have given so much, are those affected by the earthquake still living in such appalling conditions?

Why, when the world knew that the rainy season was coming, are people still forced to shelter under tarpaulins? Where are the new houses for the homeless? Where, in short, is the relief effort which might seem to have dissolved under the rains?

The implication below is that the people of Haiti cannot get decent housing protection from hurricanes, rain, earthquakes, etc. for maybe a decade.

In the United States, one of the the richest countries in the world, with teams of the most well equipped experts on earth, it took two years to clear the rubble of the World Trade Centre.

http://reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/EDIS-84FK53?OpenDocument&rc=2

RED CROSS 3 month

WASHINGTON, Monday, April 12, 2010 — The American Red Cross today issued a three-month progress report on its efforts in Haiti since the January 12 earthquake and describing its plans to support Haiti's recovery over the next three to five years by investing in shelter, water, sanitation, livelihoods, disaster preparedness and health programs.

Since the January 12 earthquake, Red Cross and Red Crescent teams from 40 nations, including the American Red Cross, have overcome many hurdles to meet the emergency needs of approximately 2 million especially vulnerable people.

They have counts here of how many of what got delivered.

Since the earthquake, the American Red Cross has raised more than $409 million for the Haiti relief and recovery efforts. To date, it has spent approximately $111 million, with about 50 percent of the money spent on emergency relief, such as food and relief supplies; 39 percent for shelter; 5 percent for livelihood development through activities such as cash assistance; 5 percent for water and sanitation; and 1 percent for health.

Of the more than $400 million raised to date, the American Red Cross expects to spend approximately $200 million to meet the survivors' immediate needs — mostly in the first 12 months following the earthquake. The remainder of the funds raised, now a bit more than $200 million to date, will be allocated for long-term recovery.

They give % breakdown of how they plan to spend that by relief area.

http://reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/EDIS-84FK2G?OpenDocument&rc=2

RED CROSS 2 month
http://newsroom.redcross.org/2010/03/12/haiti-earthquake-two-month-progress-report/
http://www.sdarc.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=LYiFtMwPHcc%3D&tabid=36

RED CROSS 1 month
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/MUMA-82MAGY?OpenDocument

Here's map of camps Red Cross says they gave which kinds of aid to.
There is a disconnect with people visiting OTHER camps, not finding any evidence of Red Cross aid there, then implying Red Cross reports are flawed.
The same kind of logic could be used against all relief efforts, except most are much less explicit about where they went.
http://www.redcross.org/haiti

International Red Cross
3 months after the quake, hundreds of thousands of people are still in desperate conditions, dependent on international relief efforts. Extreme summary totals here.
http://reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/LSGZ-84FGBZ?OpenDocument&rc=2

British Red Cross

Through a partnership with BT, the British Red Cross has been able to reduce international communication costs faced by teams responding to emergencies overseas by 75 per cent, ensuring that more money can go directly to helping vulnerable people in crisis. By providing the latest ICT hardware and software, and helping recovery teams to source and use the most cost-effective communications, BT has assisted the British Red Cross to be more efficient in overseas operations, most recently in Haiti.

http://reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/LSGZ-84FG7N?OpenDocument&rc=2

In the event that we raise more money than can be reasonably and efficiently spent, any surplus funds will be used to help us prepare for and respond to other humanitarian disasters either overseas or here in the UK.

http://reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/LSGZ-84FG5Y?OpenDocument&rc=2

UNICEF next (report expected this week)
http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/haiti_53288.html

WORLD PROGRESS REPORT (Public TV series)

http://www.prlog.org/10612755-world-progress-report-seeks-to-cover-humanitarian-aid-efforts-in-haiti.html

There's the issue of enforcement of whatever is asked of the workers.

In a former job, I worked for a truck company. We wanted our truckers to jot down the mileage every time they crossed a US state border, and also jot down from what state to what state. The reason the company needed this was there is a tax paid the government based on # miles each state, and the tax rate per state is not consistent. No matter how much cajoling or discipline, we could not get the truckers to report this.

Human nature ... cross the border, forget to jot it down in the log.

I had to write a program that used a data base of geographic statistics and what deliveries were being made, to reconcile if we assume the drivers drove the most efficient routes, what must their odometer have been when they crossed which borders.

This was before GPS availability. Today, provided adequate battery availability, GPS in a PDA, it would be simpler for an organization to have a nag program ... buzz people if their GPS says they have moved without updating the log of what they doing.

In spite the current unacceptable situation, I am an optimist ... even though I think it is actually way sillier and more irresponsible than you describe. Every field worker does something workwise every day and in all probability what they are being asked to do is quantified in some way and on a piece of paper, in an e-mail, on a mobile phone text message before they do the work. The system does not lack for meetings and communications to coordinate and plan and, indeed to report back for the next days planning sessions.

What would it take to require all the workers to maintain a "journal" or "daybook" that becomes part of an accountability record. This is, in fact, the origin of old fashioned accounting when merchant adventurers set out round the world with some investor's money and then had to "account" for how the money was used. The modern "audit" word goes back to the idea that the "account" was given verbally with the investor asking questions!

The modern incarnation of good accounting and accountability that I want to see implemented is not very different from the old original merchant venturer system ... people go off to a distant Port-au-Prince with funds, and we just want to know how the funds were spent. I am perfectly happy to get the information a little late, but it should be a day by day account, because human memory is not very reliable ... or perhaps I should say responsible.

I should also observe that I am not looking for summary information ... that usually reflects some convenient "off the books" modification. The system is simple ... every person or (small) team does a journal ... and it is the journal information that gets summarized in an independent manner. In the 21st century it might be possible to do the summarization using some form of clever computerized data processing ... but it is also possible to do this in a very meaningful way by some of the very old fashioned tools of manual accountancy. With decent organization old fashioned manual accountancy can be very quick and efficient ... in my youth I was involved with the audit of the Ford Motor Company in the UK ... the financial reports and the audit was completed for the year ended December 30th by January 10th! It required organization and planning ... but it was done and done well. At another point in my career I worked in a small country's treasury department ... they balanced the government's books every day to the penny before they went home. They did not have a problem with their accounting, accountability or corruption!

I am now at a point in my career where "I really do not have a future" ... and I am absolutely furious about the state of accountancy and accountability ... and the leadership of my generation that has allowed poor performance, bribery and corruption to dominate the socio-economic landscape. If we can combine organized data, commitment to high performance and good ethics with available powerful modern technology ... we can win.

Sincerely

Peter Burgess

http://communityanalyticsca.blogspot.com

Good day. Observers just cannot SEE it on the ground. That's the problem. I wish they had filmed their great distributions, how expensive could that have been? I've always filmed my distributions. People on the ground see them at night partying in Petion Ville, living large in their brand new SUVs all over Port au Prince. Someone even said to me it looks like money laundering how much they are living large... Not just the Red Cross and Save the Children, everyone...

It simply LOOKS bad to those who are looking at it, especially reporters, journalists on the ground.

A few days ago we shared link to Red Cross 2 month progress report, where there was much discussion of what was allegedly missing from the report, but in fact much was there that some people said was missing. Now there were details that many of us would have liked to see, but accusations of missing details, that were in fact there, tended to confuse analysis.
http://newsroom.redcross.org/2010/03/12/haiti-earthquake-two-month-progress-report/
http://www.sdarc.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=LYiFtMwPHcc%3D&tabid=36

Here's map of camps Red Cross says they gave which kinds of aid to
http://www.redcross.org/haiti

Save the Children has also come out with a 3 month progress report, which is not as detailed as the Red Cross report. For example, the Red Cross report came with mapping break down of which camps where got what kinds of aid. Save the Children report includes:

$ break down by sector

Counts # people getting what kinds of aid.

Counts in what kinds of needs.

What they plan to do next.

http://www.savethechildren.org/publications/emergencies/STC_Haiti_v6.pdf

4-9-2010 Haiti News Update

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 00:04:00 UTC

interesting stories & useful additions to our collections, found via tonite's surfing...

More than a dozen urban planning and disaster relief specialists will lead brainstorming sessions at the University of Massachusetts-Boston campus on Friday on ways to rebuild sustainable communities in Haiti after the earthquake.

There are links to the speakers ... you might want to invite some of them into Plan Haiti.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/worldly_boston/2010/04/rebuilding_haiti_brainstorming.html

Building Earthquake Resistant Cities, in Haiti and elsewhere.

a 7.7 magnitude earthquake is expected in the north, notably in Cap Haitian. Given the configuration of this city which is over-populated and cramped, it would be nothing short of another disaster.

calling for a Seismic Monitoring Network, the production of seismic danger maps for all the districts, the creation of a national institution of specialists to participate in carrying out the works and to ensure constant follow-up, the drawing-up of an urban plan that takes into account threats of natural disaster and finally a reconstruction plan based on previously-acquired knowledge.

http://www.caribbeanworldnews.com/middle_top_news_detail.php?mid=3348

According to the latest UN figures, 218,000 survivors are currently living in makeshift camps in Port-au-Prince, at grave risk from flooding.

http://www.english.rfi.fr/americas/20100316-floods-threaten-200000-haitian-quake-survivors

Remember the contaminated trailers of Katrina?

rebuilding in New Orleans
a plethora of disconnected parties, each intent on doing things their own way. The uncoordinated response created a situation in which the wheel was reinvented constantly. Things didn’t happen — and still aren’t happening — fast enough.

We are seeing the same phenomena with Haiti relief.

The widespread destruction in New Orleans (and Biloxi, Miss.) starkly highlighted the need for context-specific building codes, stable construction and non-toxic materials.

I don't remember seeing non-toxic materials on the lists of what need to be accomplished in Haiti rebuilding. This article also talks about a number of players that ought to be on the Plan Haiti team.

Architecture for Humanity (AFH)
Article 25 (a U.K. charity rebuilding schools),
Habitat for Humanity,
Build Change (which is helping Haitian residents build earthquake-resistant housing),
Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group (AIDG, which works to get residents affordable and environmentally sound access to electricity, sanitation and clean water)
Students Rebuild, a partnership with the Bezos Family Foundation and theGlobal Nomads that consists of a $500,000 matching challenge grant and call to action for middle and high school students and educators around the globe to help rebuild better, safer schools in Haiti.
Lots more (read the article).

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/02/rebuilding-in-haiti/

Here is a list of non-food items that the UN needs in Haiti ... some of them are things people could not donate to Haiti due to idiot border crossing nonsense.
http://business.un.org/en/needs/622

As the Hurricane Season approaches Haiti, the UN has a shopping list that some private enterprises might wish to supply.
http://business.un.org/en/needs/642

Sexual Assaults in Haitian Camps Prompt Security Enhancements

We hear lots of negative news stories about UN police, troops and Haitian National Police, not interacting well with the Haitian quake survivors. This story tells a different tale.

U.N. Police and Haitian National Police are increasing their presence in some camps to 24 hours a day.

"The two police forces will go on joint patrols, foot patrols, in the camps with the focus on protection issues, especially sexual and gender-based violence issues," said Anthony Banbury.

U.N. police and Haitian National Police patrol jointly in teams of four. Two-thirds of the roughly 150 daily patrols are foot patrols.

The United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, known as MINUSTAH, says it has increased the number of U.N. police in earthquake-affected areas from a pre-earthquake 135 to 330, and it has more than doubled the number of patrol vehicles.

It is at the Petionville club settlement camp that the U.N. helped launch a pilot program staffed by female U.N. and Haitian police officers. They deal specifically with gender-based violence and child protection issues.

I had heard the UN was planning this. News to me they actually got it started.

other initiatives include adding lighting and working with camp committees and local organizations to enhance anti-violence campaigns.

http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/americas/Sexual-Assaults-in-Haitian-Camps-Prompt-Security-Enhancements-88857522.html

More such protection is needed.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5idZiVQhHcyG1gpBjzXaAmmk4_OtAD9EG2B4O1

Lots of Haiti statistics

the estimated 100,000 amputees and the thousands of people with serious wound infections that could lead to amputation in the future. an estimated 2% of the population now has an amputated limb.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-blumenthal/health-in-haiti-lessons-t_b_526880.html

$ 100 million is the price tag to buy a seat on the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission
http://www.newstalk1010.com/news/14/1107774

I posted a ton of stuff to my Facebook Wall & Google Buzz & Reader today related to changing medical risks in Haiti.

While watching C-Span today, I learned another meaning of Accountability. In the Politically charged Academic Testing Regime it means firing teachers and closing schools which do the most poorly. All public schools in America have to get 100% perfect scores by 2014 or will be shut down, per legislation approved under Bush. No school is even close. It is considered to be an impossible goal, so a total shut down of public education in America is expected, unless President Obama does something different to change this.

C-Span also covering hearings into causes of the Great Recession. Most of it was over my head, but I did understand some questions where panelists said they did not understand the question.

--
Alister Wm Macintyre (Al Mac) volunteer
http://www.linkedin.com/in/almacintyre
http://www.google.com/profiles/108007903544513887227

On Tue, Apr 6, 2010 at 11:55 PM, Alister Macintyre <macwheel99@gmail.com> wrote:

You may find this to be useful additions to our collections, which I found via tonite's surfing..

British Based grassroots organizations support
http://haitisupport.gn.apc.org/

Haiti Camps map from a month ago.
There are humanitarian links here to help journalists who are doing fact checking.
http://www.alertnet.org/thefacts/satelliteimages/ITHACAWFP/66286da9e7f66f0bfe40bb4d5488cc46.htm

Haiti camps at risk of flooding.
It seems to me that there should be signposts, to warn people of hazards, like

This place floods in rainy season

Here there will be lots of noise due to nearby airport

This bridge is at greater risk of fall down than the recent Minnesota incident

https://www.cimicweb.org/cmo/haiti/Crisis%20Documents/JIAHCC%20--%20Other%20Files/Common%20Operating%20Picture/Haiti_Migration_and_Historic_Flooding_7FEB10%5B1%5D.pdf

http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:-fxXPyVM3aIJ:https://www.cimicweb.org/cmo/haiti/Crisis%2520Documents/JIAHCC%2520--%2520Other%2520Files/Common%2520Operating%2520Picture/Haiti_Migration_and_Historic_Flooding_7FEB10%255B1%255D.pdf+Haiti+IDPs&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESjtPxexf4xERWgAM6MzSQ8ZX6z4mfqxFwKLeHCVOKzkeDpQEix44o9pfbPjYKJp8c1Wg9Kkq_eEU3hfJNDd9p8BuYSzX4XapUrftUlln6mRQOa-NFJW5VR-ookmjUl6fPUTl5OM&sig=AHIEtbRXoO5Z7HZEavin_RyaBWHaOVf9pA
Mapping of IDPs camp sites
http://www.mail-archive.com/talk-ht@openstreetmap.org/msg00089.html
http://mapaction.org//component/mapcat/mapdetail/2040.html

Academic Analysis of situation in Haiti
http://www.brookings.edu/speeches/2010/0308_haiti_kalin.aspx

More on the Land Tenure quandry
plus probably publishing photos of people without their permission, or paying them for the privilege
http://www.100eyes.org/

If you follow me on HEDR & FB, I am sharing new links, about new stories, relevant to Haiti, at the rate of maybe 25 per average day. New = I had not seen that before.

--
Alister Wm Macintyre (Al Mac) volunteer
http://www.linkedin.com/in/almacintyre
http://www.google.com/profiles/108007903544513887227

On Sun, Apr 4, 2010 at 3:19 PM, Alister Macintyre <macwheel99@gmail.com> wrote:

Here is a great graphic, regarding planned population movements facing of imminent rainy season.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2010/04/04/GR2010040404822.html

On Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 1:46 AM, Alister Macintyre <macwheel99@gmail.com> wrote:

Some of this you may already have, plus while I was reviewing the new stuff added to some sites, since last time I was there, I added to my PC download collection ... I will let you know later what the collection has grown to include.

Global Task Force on Rebuilding Haiti ... has a ton of links to what should be in building codes to protect against various risks, various transitional housing proposals to UN NGO clusters.  I suggest that a high priority for you should be to get Plan Haiti listed there.
http://www.unesco-ipred.org/gtfbc/

Here's news story that may be relevant to your interests.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100209123814.htm

Maps
http://oneresponse.info/Disasters/Haiti/MapCenter/publicdocuments/100128_hti_IDP_mapbook_ALL%5B1%5D.pdf
https://www.cimicweb.org/cmo/haiti/JIHACC/mapping/Pages/default.aspx
https://www.cimicweb.org/cmo/haiti/mapspage/Pages/default.aspx
https://haiti.harmonieweb.org/Wiki/Wiki%20Pages/Damage%20Assessment%20Photos%20and%20Maps.aspx
http://reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/doc404?OpenForm&emid=EQ-2010-000009-HTI&rc=2
http://groups.google.com/group/cccmhaiti/web/mapping-and-gis?_done=%2Fgroup%2Fcccmhaiti%3F
The EU seems to have done the most work, of any effort I have noticed, when it comes to correlating different kinds of map data, such as
"These sites" based on their GPS locations, are at risk because when placed on geophysical map of slopes of hillsides, proximity to ravines etc. with prior year water patterns, implies they are about to get hit with landslide or flood.
Or combine satellite images of damage with street map, so people can zoom in, see where problems are.
http://oneresponse.info/DISASTERS/HAITI/MAPCENTER/Pages/default.aspx
http://lunar.jrc.it/disasters/Crisis/HaitiEarthquake/tabid/425/Default.aspx
http://oneresponse.info/Disasters/Haiti/Camp%20Coordination%20Management/Pages/default.aspx

Map of probable flood risk areas (in red)
http://cccmhaiti.googlegroups.com/web/ProbableFloodAreasLR+%282%29.jpg?gda=bA5XuFMAAACk-Tc7XQZwImTUbkanfGdfloxH9p2UblIVD-W3agrVhwIqOeNXSwGdhHoQd0_GZdgjB_mfXBUdJUZccPXS2K3eMrYifh3RmGHD4v9PaZfDexVi73jmlo822J6Z5KZsXFo&gsc=e_QJAAsAAACbrX3ElqpjCLN8a0Zg7EkF

Map of sites each with more than 5,000 inhabitants, known to the UN
(Amnesty International apparently found additional ones, that NGOs have ignored)
http://groups.google.com/group/cccmhaiti/web/mapping-and-gis?_done=%2Fgroup%2Fcccmhaiti%3F

Chart of camps with GPS coordinates
http://oneresponse.info/Disasters/Haiti/Water%20Sanitation/publicdocuments/Forms/DispForm.aspx?ID=69

A lot of stuff delivered for Haiti will need to be translated. Here's info on Creoleautomated translation. If Jeff Allen has joined, he may already have given you this.
http://www.proz.com/forum/892
http://www.translatorscafe.com/cafe/MegaBBS/thread-view.asp?threadid=15780&posts=10

I notice you have link to Ushahidi in general.
You may want to add link to trouble specifically in Haiti http://haiti.ushahidi.com/
and to their blog http://blog.ushahidi.com/

I wonder if you will have sister group interested in similar aid to Chile
http://chile.ushahidi.com/main

Civil Society in Haiti
https://haiti.harmonieweb.org/Pages/Default.aspx
https://haiti.harmonieweb.org/Wiki/Wiki%20Pages/Home.aspx
http://csohaiti.org/
https://www.cimicweb.org/cmo/haiti/Pages/default.aspx

Data on Jacmel area
http://oneresponse.info/Disasters/Haiti/Coordination/Pages/D%C3%A9partement%20du%20Sud%20Est.aspx

Data on Leogane area Quest
http://oneresponse.info/Disasters/Haiti/Coordination/Pages/D%C3%A9partement%20de%20l%20Ouest.aspx

If you are interested in accountability in relief efforts, here are links to some relevant outfits
code of conduct http://www.ifrc.org/publicat/conduct/
http://www.sphereproject.org/content/view/96/218/lang,english/
Peter (CA) blog http://communityanalyticsca.blogspot.com/
Peter home (too busy) http://www.tr-ac-net.org/DBadmin/DBhome.php?vv1=1&vv2=AAA&vv3=1&vv4=1&vv5=1&vv6=1&vv7=DBhome.php&vv8=2&vv9=961177
http://www.hapinternational.org/
http://www.sahanafoundation.org//
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/lib.nsf/db900sid/KHII-7EE9KM/$file/brookings_HR_mar08.pdf?openelement

I shared the Amnesty International report where their inspectors recently went around and found a disgraceful situation. Here is a report on Human Rights Abuses before the Jan 21 quake.
http://oneresponse.info/Disasters/Haiti/Protection/Gender-Based%20Violence/publicdocuments/HRAbuses%20in%20Port%20au%20Prince%20Lancet.pdf

Here is CDC advice for people who are planning on a trip to Haiti.
http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/content/news-announcements/relief-workers-haiti.aspx

When you signing up to subscribe to various news, such as to a news reader, you might want to include this place http://www.gdacs.org/
because it has latest info on natural disasters around the world

UN has lots of clusters and sub-clusters
Starting point for list of them http://oneresponse.info/Disasters/Haiti/Pages/Clusters.aspx
also https://www.cimicweb.org/cmo/haiti/Crisis%20Documents/Forms/AllItems.aspx

Aid Quality Index

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 00:04:00 UTC

Here's another news story on Claudia Williams research.
http://mobile.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/cbe7b3559e650017e058b3d80badb546.htm?=_lite_&1=

While the average donor spends 17 percent on overhead costs, Belgium manages to spend only 0.24 percent on overheads. Italy, Japan, USA and the Netherlands spend less than 1 percent of their overall budgets on salaries and benefits, according to the research, which was conducted by New York University Department of Economics researcher Claudia Williamson.

Numbers do not tell the full story, added aid analyst Karin Christiansen, head of the NGO Publish What You Fund. Overhead costs, for instance, are necessarily higher when channelling aid to fragile states versus those with strong administrations, she told IRIN.

You asked a good question about AID Quality and ISO 9000 Standards.

My guess is there are easy ways than ISO 9000 audits -- the reality check on documentation (and subsequent changes in your HR accounting...) given a checklist of things to look for.

So simple ways of seeing what data is asked for and what data is needed to understand AID Quality processes and outcomes.

Cheers,

I do not know if this ISO 9000 paradigm is applicable to quality of disaster relief.

Remember the new math of US government, 3% of Lexus (Toyota brand) in Ohio at risk, is not a big deal. In 2007 NHTSA found “Unintended Acceleration” problems in 3% of Toyota's, but not being able to figure out how come, no action taken. http://whistleblower.typepad.com/all_things_whistleblower_/2010/02/2007-government-investigation-found-unintended-acceleration-problems-in-3-of-toyotas-.html

I think audits need to include whether the math makes sense.
3% at risk not being a big deal is math that makes no sense to me.

The world of finance, and complex finance, has a track record in the eyes of ordinary people, is recently blackened by scandals and theories what are major causes of current recession. Here to remind you about that reputation.
http://wallstreetfollies.com/diagrams.htm
Don't get me re-started on how the current Great Recession and the Great Depression were both man made, by elements of the world of complex finance. I need to stay focused on Haiti.

I am displeased with what passes for "successful" terminology in aid to date.

Here is a PICTURE explaining the "Future Web"; the "Web of Things"; the "Semantic Web"; and the importance of interoperability. Where things are going. (Goals, Dreams)

http://huddlemind.net/video/video/show?id=1975133%3AVideo%3A26416

One place mentioned in the video = http://www.sti2.org/

I had written that

The Linked Web Data story is a bit out of my league. However, there is much here that reminds everyone of some great truths about computerized data.

A picture is worth 1,000 words - like the Wall Street Follies http://wallstreetfollies.com/diagrams.htm

Many geeks much prefer 100,000 words to a simple understandable picture

Note what I originally forwarded is something I get each weekday, in which usually there is no more than one headline from each major area of disaster relief on-going around the world & I usually only forward it when there is a story in there for Haiti that I think is of major interest to some of my contacts.

When working in a particular nation, like Haiti, which is one of the most hostile in the world to having good business and commerce (I gave links a few days ago), there are challenges for relief effort and development, not found in other nations. Thus the Relief Aid effort cannot be using the exact same measurement systems as in nations where bribes and corruption are unheard of.

Sometimes for marketing purposes, some people take perfectly good terminology, that everyone has a good understanding of, and create brand new names and concepts. The more people not understand what they talking about, the more money they can make in consulting fees.

I think the word "audit" may be misunderstood by many people, whose background in auditing is limited. Here are some I have heard of:

Financial Audit = checking the Accounting Books to make sure they fairly reflect the activities of an enterprise

Computer Security Audit = verifying that a certain level of standards of computer security have been achieved, and identifying any holes in the overall security

Physical Inventory Audit = checking both the precision of the counts, and accuracy of counts entered into computer system

Construction Audit = inspecting a building and its plans to ensure that the specifications meet certain standards, and that the actual construction work was in accordance with the plans

Quality Control Audit = measuring parts per million that do not achieve perfection, and verifying that the processes to obtain perfection are in fact being adhered to

Insurance Audit ... my employer has had several. My involvement was limited to giving a deposition where the questions asked were extremely superficial. I am not familiar with their objectives.

In many companies, these different kinds of things, being audited, are often widely separated, much like the UN NGO industry clusters. Financial auditors may be involved in the physical inventory audit, but never the quality control audit. Construction auditors may utilize financial auditors in a superficial manner, but probably not get into quality control audits of components used in the construction work. Computer security audits are also a separated island which never tells the financial auditors what is not being protected for budgetary reasons.

There is a well developed science of QUALITY, which has advanced to ISO 9000 series, recognized by business enterprises the world over, particularly in manufacturing, supply chain, retail distribution industries.

There are many variants of the ISO 9000 concept.
One of them has to do with having quality computer security.

ISO 9000 includes measurable results of what is done, and the process of achieving it.
It is not one or the other ... results or process ... but both.

My day job employer has achieved one of the ISO 9000 standards (I forget which) which is focused on quality of product we make matching our customers (Original Equipment Manufacturer) standards. It gets there primarily by having documentation of what we are supposed to do, then audits to verify we are doing what we are supposed to do. The audits also compare our documentation with standards of industry and world class organizations to identify gaps between what we are trying to do, and the best that anyone can do.

So for example, in one ISO audit, we were informed that having anyone drive the fork lift trucks around, meant risks of accident, by people unaware of certain safety procedures. Management thought that was an excellent observation, so Human Resources initiated safety classes for everyone authorized to drive them, and gave a small pay raise to those people as incentive for others to sign up for this training.

Our ISO audit six months later observed that we had this great rule about safety training, but there was no documentation proving we were actually doing it. This led to an upgrade in HR record keeping, so it no longer was only in the brain memory of current HR staff who all had had what training.

ISO audits are all about documentation, at least the kind my day job employer has.

The above are all about the quality of products, which are easier to measure than quality of service.

I do not know if this ISO 9000 paradigm is applicable to quality of disaster relief.

Remember the new math of US government, 3% of Lexus (Toyota brand) in Ohio at risk, is not a big deal. In 2007 NHTSA found “Unintended Acceleration” problems in 3% of Toyota's, but not being able to figure out how come, no action taken. http://whistleblower.typepad.com/all_things_whistleblower_/2010/02/2007-government-investigation-found-unintended-acceleration-problems-in-3-of-toyotas-.html

I think audits need to include whether the math makes sense.
3% at risk not being a big deal is math that makes no sense to me.

The world of finance, and complex finance, has a track record in the eyes of ordinary people, is recently blackened by scandals and theories what are major causes of current recession. Here to remind you about that reputation.
http://wallstreetfollies.com/diagrams.htm
Don't get me re-started on how the current Great Recession and the Great Depression were both man made, by elements of the world of complex finance. I need to stay focused on Haiti.

I am displeased with what passes for "successful" terminology in aid to date.

Quake survivors get tents & tarps which are inadequate protection for rainy season, hurricane season, delivery only to 600 registered camp sites, out of the over 1,000 they know about, and not including the many thousands that so far are being ignored, and then they say they have done a "successful" delivery of "shelter."

They were successful in delivering "emergency shelter" to the camps that have been selected for assistance, not yet delivered "adequate shelter" to quake victims who did not have protection from rainy season or hurricane season or next quake, who are not yet on the UN radar screen.

The Kharas Accountability Quality paper states that some stuff is not possible.
Not possible with what is not being done yet.
Entirely possible with Top Down mandates of accountability, to use some paradigm of which many have been proposed, including CA, which do not yet exist on the ground.

This paper loses me pretty fast. I switched majors and minors in my 1960's college education to access classes not accessible by ordinary undergraduates, such as economic geography, atomic physics, and other weird subjects that fascinated me at one time, but as the years roll by, I forget most education, except that related to career continuing education, which has been in a rather esoteric area of midrange computing.

The Linked Web Data story is a bit out of my league. However, there is much here that reminds everyone of some great truths about computerized data.

A picture is worth 1,000 words - like the Wall Street Follies above

Many geeks much prefer 100,000 words to a simple understandable picture

I skimmed over what you kindly provided.

Licensing is a related issue to Security ... some personal data may not be shared outside of certain groups of authorized users, such as social security #, bank account #, data. Some engineering drawings are proprietary.

It is not clear to me whether the proposed paradigm will resolve a major major problem that I have seen in my day job for decades, where most every company in an industry has different kinds of computer systems, data base systems, data format systems, computer language constraints, and need to exchange data such as:

engineering drawings

requests for quotes

quotes

purchase orders

invoices

changes to requirements

the data received from customers and vendors to be imported into the back end accounting engineering quality whatever computer systems of each company, engineers at multiple enterprises collaborate on the drawings upgrades, pricing details changes and shipments tracked. The reality is that companies hire an army of clerks to transcribe from one computer system to another. This is good for an economy that needs more jobs, but it is a bar to rapid communication of data in commerce, and in legal investigations.

Suppose someone dies in an accident due to a defective part. It now can take decades to back track responsibility, due to how the lawyers function, and the data is inoperable.
--
Alister Wm Macintyre (Al Mac) volunteer
http://www.linkedin.com/in/almacintyre
http://www.google.com/profiles/108007903544513887227

I dug down into your reference to Brookings and note the Kharas Aid Quaility metrics paper.

They claim a distinction between Disaster Aid Audits (GAO, INTOSI, and many other initiatives) and Aid Quality....that seems questionable.

The World Bank has long used semantics (Denise Bedford's group) to achieve useful meaning in complicated financial documents. Semantics and related tools have come far in the last decade.

Is there a huge knowledge gap between information/data specialists and this Aid community???

The larger vision towards this Aid Quality Index is headed seems to be well described by Tim Berners-Lee - the document web's transition to a semantic data web.

Attached find an overview of Tim's view of linked open data.

Suggestions about linking Aid Data to data standards and process standards (Business Process Markup Language - BPMN 2.0)?

I particularly want to draw your attention to # THREE in the Headlines below.
We may have seen these guys before, but sometimes I forget individual droplets of info in the waterfall of ideas.
I also posted the link to your LI HEDR CA news discussions, and my FB wall.

Summary:

GLOBAL: Towards an aid quality index

Source: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs - Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN)
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/SMAR-84A436?OpenDocument&clickid=headlines

Donors regularly make grandiose claims and promises, but measuring whether or not they live up to them requires clear aid quality measurement indicators.
A number of academics and institutions are working to create such indicators now that more development aid data is being made public. [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=88617]
You might want to add to your list of people to try to get in contact with = Karin Christiansen, director of Publish What You Fund (PWYF).

Variables PWYF will include are how donors report their aid to databases like through the DAC database; [http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/50/15/5037782.htm] how accessible their aid information is; and whether donors are members of the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI). [http://aidtransparency.net/] PWYF will also draw on data from Debt Relief International on recipient governments' assessments of how transparent donors are about giving forward-planning information; and from the EU Aid Watch [http://www.concordeurope.org/

HAITI: Humanitarian best practice

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 00:04:00 UTC

Dear Colleagues

I get very critical when I read articles like the IRIN article referenced below. It is journalism that confuses rather than analysis that clarifies. As I understand it, a number on a journalist's story gives the story credibility, whether or not the number makes much sense. But I get into an even worse frame of mind when I get to the academic writing that is the base of the article.

I guess these articles put me in a bad mood because the quality of the numbers being used for analysis are so very bad. The amount of aid varies very much depending on where the aid flow is measured. I recall trying to reconcile the assistance actually received by Mozambique based on what I could learn from projects and government records in country with the information flowing from donors to the OECD development assistance committee (DAC) information system. My conclusions was that the donors were simply lying about the scale of their assistance ... and nobody was checking and calling them on it. When numbers do not get checked ... then the numbers are pretty much worthless!

There were plenty of quantification abuses. One donor was delivering a large amount of food aid (corn) which it valued at a price of $700 a ton ... when the world market price was $200 a ton. The amount of food aid was substantial in tonnage ... but why was it necessary to mis-price the value of the aid?

In many cases numbers were based on commitments ... different from disbursements. In some cases the commitment and the disbursement were both counted resulting in a double count!

I do not get much comfort from the low percentage of overhead in some systems versus others ... this is usually nothing more than differences in the allocation of costs in the accounts. The problems are much deeper ... the issue is project design that does something good and project design that does nothing very much of value. Nobody seems to have any benchmarks for what things should cost, versus what things do cost. This is not about a percentage of overhead ... but about a cost efficiency percentage that too often turns out to be outrageously low.

The whole matter of quantification is a big subject ... but all the stories coming back from Haiti suggest that there has been huge waste ... very high costs for doing the work ... and absolutely no meaningful metrics about anything. I am disgusted ... and very concerned.

Peter

Community Analytics (CA)

Tr-Ac-Net Inc ... The Transparency and Accountability Network
Community Analytics (CA)
Integrated Malaria Management (IMM)
Microfinance Focus Magazine in New York
website: www.tr-ac-net.org
tel: 917 432 1191 or 212 772 6918 or 212 744 6469
email: peterbnyc@gmail.com
skype: peterburgessnyc
Books: Search Peter Burgess at www.lulu.com

HAITI: Humanitarian best practice - dignity, not just digits

aid experts say safeguarding the dignity of those affected by January's earthquake requires agencies to think beyond mere numerical benchmarks.

A team of quality and accountability experts [http://hapinternational.org/projects/field/hap-in-haiti.aspx] is currently in Haiti to monitor adherence to Sphere by agencies providing water, food, shelter and sanitation facilities to around 1.5m people in the wake of what the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) described as "the biggest natural disaster in history".

HAP in Haiti
HAP = Humanitarian Accountability Partnership
NEP = New Emergencies Policy

Check list for accountability in new emergencies, like Haiti
http://hapinternational.org/pool/files/quality-and-accountability-in-new-emergencies,-quick-reference-for-staff.pdf

I think what needs to be added here is the issue of COOPERATION
standards for different players to SHARE information, within some information standards
because we keep hearing stories of people hitting a brick wall when it comes to them getting access to the info they need to do their jobs properly

Quality and Accountability resources for Haiti

HAP resources - the following are available in English and French, and will soon be available in Creole:

The HAP 2007 Standard Humanitarian Accountability and Quality Management - English and French

The HAP Principles of Accountability - English and French

Quality and Accountability in New Emergencies, Quick Reference for Staff - English and French

See also HAP’s collection of Case Studies and Tools documenting good practice aimed at strengthening accountability. These have been collected from HAP members during emergencies all over the world. For case studies and tools in French and Creole, including a number developed for Haiti, see Etudes de cas et outils en Français et Créole.

External Q&A portals - two portals have been opened to share resources related to Q&A in the Haiti response:

OneResponse Quality and Accountability subsite (under Cross-Cutting issues) – aimed at field staff for sharing real time knowledge sharing and practical resources (such as tools tools, translations, operational material).

ALNAP Haiti Learning and Accountability Portal – aimed at providing a structured strategic overview of ongoing and planned learning and accountability efforts by agencies operating in Haiti. The site aims to encourage complementarity amongst agencies undertaking such work, through sharing of approaches, contacts, key resources and evaluation plans.

There's a wealth of resources to explore here.

http://www.alnap.org/resources/glossary.aspx

http://www.alnap.org/resources/links.aspx

http://www.alnap.org/current/Haitilearningportal.aspx

Key HAP meeting minutes and Haiti reports

NEP HAP members telecon - On the 2nd February a telecon was held with 23 staff from 17 organisations to share some of the challenges and issues related to Q&A faced by HAP members, agency approaches to date to strengthening accountability, and possible types of support needed. A summary of the main points raised is available here.

Back to top

Updated 16th March 2010

Tracking community complaints, Bangladesh March 2008

"Agencies urgently need to put in place standardised monitoring arrangements. And where accountability mechanisms already exist - such as the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership International - we must use them more systematically."

Gareth Thomas, UK Minister of State for Development, speaking in Geneva to humanitarian aid experts from the UN, including UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres, October 2008.

http://hapinternational.org/projects/field/hap-in-haiti.aspx
http://hapinternational.org/projects/field/new-emergencies.aspx

Sphere is about people having rights to a life with dignity. [http://www.sphereproject.org/dmdocuments/handbook/hdbkpdf/hdbk_c1.pdf]

The WASH cluster in Haiti has a strategy for gradually improving sanitation, Brooks said, by reducing the ratio of people per latrine from 100:1 for the first three months of the crisis to 50:1 for the next three months, and to 20:1 after a year.

"In the beginning humanitarian organizations provided five litres of water per person per day. That has now increased to approximately 10 litres."

While aid workers sometimes use the words "standards" and "indicators" interchangeably, in the context of Sphere they have distinct meanings. Standards are qualitative. Of latrines, for example, the handbook says: "People should have adequate numbers of toilets, sufficiently close to their dwellings, to allow them rapid, safe and acceptable access at all times of the day and night." Indicators are more concrete and in many cases purely quantitative. "A maximum of 20 people use each toilet," for example.

http://mobile.alertnet.org/

eSyndiCat Directory v2.3.02

4-26-2010 Haiti Epidemic Advisory System

Haiti Epidemic Advisory System (HEAS) April 26 Situation Report http://biosurveillance.typepad.com/haiti_operational_biosurv/2010/04/haiti-epidemic-advisory-system-heas-sitrep-updated-26-apr.html

4-26-2010 - WASH Update

CDC Comparitive Analysis of Drinking Water in Haiti

PMCC Daily Update – 17 April 2010

4-13-2010 Haitian Relief News - Shelter

4-14-2010 Haiti Gap Analysis

Plan Haiti links - kids

Haiti Aid Situation - Hurricane Season

4-16-2010 Haiti News Summary

Haiti News Updates - financing, engineering, science, scapegoats

Project Management Coordination Cell

4-9-2010 Haiti News Update

Sexual Assaults in Haitian Camps Prompt Security Enhancements

Aid Quality Index

GLOBAL: Towards an aid quality index

HAITI: Humanitarian best practice

Quality and Accountability resources for Haiti

Haiti Epidemic Advisory System (HEAS) April 26 Situation Report

http://biosurveillance.typepad.com/haiti_operational_biosurv/2010/04/haiti-epidemic-advisory-system-heas-sitrep-updated-26-apr.html