Humanitarian assistance in cash for Haiti

Rashaed Esson

Staff Writer

#Haiti, September 9, 2023 – The gang run Republic of Haiti, in its current state of chaos is receiving the attention it deserves and among this is monetary support from the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) which recently released US$125 million to support underfunded humanitarian operations in 14 countries across Africa, Asia, the Americas, and the Middle East. According to reports, Haiti is the only Caribbean nation to benefit from this.

Haiti is set to receive $8 million of the $125 million, according to the CERF in a statement.

Surrounding this effort, UN relief chief Martin Griffiths, head of the UN humanitarian affairs office (OCHA), pointed out that in 2023, global funding requirements exceeded US$55 billion to aid 250 million people whose lives are plagued by disease outbreaks, conflict, climate change and other crises, as reported by the Jamaica Gleaner, which added that with this existing data, less than 30 percent of the desired finding goal has been reached.

Griffiths expressed the need for monetary efforts such as this, highlighting the heart breaking nature of the lack of funding saying, “It is a cruel reality that in many humanitarian operations, aid agencies are scraping along with very little funding right at a time when people’s needs compel them to scale up,” further thanking contributors which allows CERF to perform its duty.

“Thanks to the generosity of a vast range of donors, we can count on CERF to fill some of the gaps. Lives are saved as a result,” he said.

Additionally, the chief highlighted the need for “individual donors to step up” also, adding that the fund is “by all and for all.”

With this newly added funding, it is reported that emergency funds total support is now more than US$270 million in 2023.

Haiti aside, the other countries to receive humanitarian aid include Venezuela, Bangladesh, the Central African Republic, Mozambique and Malawi.

Despite the fact that this is good news and that funding has increased, the need only grows larger as expressed by Jens Laerke, OCHA spokesperson.

“Funding, generally, is growing in absolute dollar terms. The main issue is that the needs are outpacing that growth, so the funding gap widens,”