FAO emergency food production support helps vulnerable Haitian families produce food and meet urgent needs

Emergency food production support provided by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) with funding from the Regional Humanitarian Fund for Latin America and the Caribbean (RHPF LAC) is helping some 13 000 vulnerable households – approximately 65 000 people – restore local food production and meet urgent needs across ten municipalities in the high-needs departments of Artibonite, Centre and Ouest.

Funded with more than USD 16 million through the Regional Humanitarian Pool Fund for Latin America and the Caribbean (RHPF LAC), the programme will ultimately support 326000 vulnerable people by providing farming households in crisis-affected communities with over 205 tonnes of crop and vegetable seeds alongside over 160 000 small livestock suited to local production and consumption systems. The support will rapidly restore food availability and meet immediate needs.

Amid a time of crisis, a ray of hope

Haiti continues to face one of the world’s most severe food crises. Violence, economic instability, disrupted supply chains, and recurrent climate shocks have significantly reduced access to food, while weakening production at the local level and rural livelihoods. More than half of Haiti’s population is experiencing acute food insecurity, according to the latest report of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), making timely humanitarian assistance essential to save lives and protect livelihoods.

“In humanitarian crises, emergency food production is a life-saving intervention that empowers vulnerable households to quickly produce food and reduce reliance on importations and repeated humanitarian assistance. These distributions mark a significant milestone in the implementation of the Regional Humanitarian Fund for Latin America and the Caribbean, giving affected households in Haiti the tools and supplies they  need, when they need them most”, said Pierre Vauthier, FAO Representative in Haiti.

Community engagement is central to intervention. FAO works with affected communities throughout implementation, from identifying and validating vulnerable households to ensuring that assistance responds to local needs and priorities

“This emergency food production campaign demonstrates that investing in local capacities is one of the most effective ways to respond to the food crisis. Implemented by Haitians for Haitians, it enables vulnerable households to rapidly produce their own nutritious food, protect their livelihoods and address their most immediate needs trhough their own efforts”, highligted FAO Representative in Haiti.

Upcoming steps

As part of its second phase of implementation, over 160 000 small livestock – comprising ducks, poultry, guinea fowls, rabbits, and goats – will be distributed to more than 29394households, enabling immediate access to proteins and animal-derived products in vulnerable communities’ diets.

By providing life-saving support for immediate food availability through its different phases of distributions, the program helps reduce the adoption of negative coping strategies and strengthen households’ capacity – ending over-reliance on continued humanitarian assistance and putting local families and communities on a path to self-sufficiency.

About FAO’s work with Country-Based Pooled Funds

FAO is implementing emergency food production funded through OCHA-managed Country-Based Pooled Funds in nine countries.* These interventions provide rapid support to crisis-affected rural households, enabling them to meet urgent food needs, and maintain or restart food production during emergencies. By acting quickly, FAO helps crisis-affected households meet urgent food needs, maintain food production, and reduce reliance on more costly forms of humanitarian assistance.

*Countries: Bangladesh, Chad, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, Honduras, Myanmar and the Syrian Arab Republic.