Haiti - Background

In its function as provider of technical advisory support, UN-SPIDER conducts Technical Advisory Missions to support national agencies in charge of disaster-risk management and emergency response in tasks related to accessing and making use of space-based information to support all phases of the disaster management cycle.

The mission to Haiti was conducted with the following goals in mind:

• To assess of how space-based information has been used by different agencies (national and international).
• To assess how best to support the Civil Protection Agency of Haiti (CPA) to rebuild its capacity to access and make use of space-based information for disaster reduction.
• To gather elements to provide recommendations related to risk management and emergency response, particularly in the context of the coming hurricane season.
• To liaise with international and national agencies on the ground to make them aware of UN-SPIDER and the technical advisory support it can provide.

The mission was conducted from 14 to 20 March, 2010, and benefitted from the substantive support provided by the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations to Haiti (SRSG) and the MINUSTAH-GIS unit. The member conducting the mission established contact with representatives from a variety of agencies on the ground, who provided documents and insights into the recovery situation in Haiti, as well as on current gaps and needs.

The mission was able to find examples regarding how space-based information was and is currently used to support ongoing recovery activities and established links with several units which are conducting tasks such as the MINUSTAH GIS unit and the OCHA Information Management Unit (OCHA-IMU). However, due to the impacts of the disaster on many government agencies, including CPA and the National Center for Geo-Spatial Information (CNIGS), such information is basically accessed and used by international agencies and agencies from abroad. To this end, the mission recommends that CNIGS be supported so that it can become an effective partner in the generation of information to be used in the recovery process.

The mission also provided an opportunity to meet with the SRSG of MINUSTAH in Haiti, and with representatives of a variety of UN agencies including ISDR, OCHA, UN-DSS, and UNICEF. In addition, the mission included meetings in Washington with representatives of GFDRR of the World Bank, and with government agencies of the United States (Department of State, US-AID, US-OFDA, NASA), as well as with representatives from Thermopylae Sciences and Technology, a consulting company providing support to US Southern Command.