‘Haitians deserve better’: WFP calls for funds and resources as gang violence fuels hunger

Jean-Martin Bauer got locked out of Haiti the last time he left the country. Thanks to his tenacity (Bauer is known for being in the gym every morning at 5am), the Country Director for the World Food Programme (WFP) in Port-au-Prince managed to make it across the border from the Dominican Republic.

In early March, the capital’s airport was attacked by gangs, grounding flights – then on 12 March Haiti's acting Prime Minister Ariel Henri, stranded in Puerto Rico, stepped down as law and order suffered an almost total breakdown. 

‘The rest of the world needs to realize that there’s a problem here that's been unaddressed’

Undeterred and super-eager to get back to his desk, Bauer took the somewhat risky option of a road journey to reach Cap-Haïtien where several relocated WFP staff are doing their best to steer operations across the country, including in the capital, Port-au-Prince.

(Cap-Haïtien is on Haiti's northern coast, 128km northeast of Port-au-Prince, on the western coast.)

In recent weeks the world has watched the security situation in Haiti deteriorate, charred corpses of murdered people in the middle of the street. Yet all the WFP staff I’ve spoken to want to return to their posts in Port-au-Prince. 

“The rest of the world needs to realize that there’s a problem here that's been unaddressed – that's been left to fester and that’s blowing up in our faces,” says Bauer – who has since made it to Port-au-Prince – on a call.

In the first three months of this year, 1,660 people, including 40 children were killed by gang violence in Haiti (compared with 1,104 people in the last quarter of 2023). Thousands have fled their homes to find shelter in schools, churches and health centres. 

Since the latest wave of violence kicked off in March, with the support of the tireless staff from Haitian partner organizations, WFP has served around 655,400 hot meals to more than 88,623 people in Port-au-Prince. 

We set up a central kitchen, partnering with two local associations serving thousands of meals daily – using rice and beans supplied by WFP, and fresh local products such as sorghum and vegetables. 

Countrywide, the displacement problem’s “gotten a lot worse”, says Bauer. “We have 362,000 IDPs (internally displaced people) officially – to put that in perspective, this time last year it was close to 100,000.” 

Bauer adds: “(Displaced) people aren’t really allowed to set up tents so they cram themselves into rooms and there are usually no facilities or services.” 

Around 5 million people, nearly half Haiti’s population, are acutely food-insecure – that includes 1.64 million people at ‘emergency’-level on the global standard for measuring hunger.

“The country's been ignored and it's only when there’s blood involved that people wake up to the fact that there’s a crisis,” says Bauer. “That’s really frustrating.” 

In a slither of good news, though ports and roads may be vulnerable to blocking, WFP’s resilience work carries on because of a decision to buy foods locally while supporting agriculture – including responses to mitigate the impacts of climate change. 

“We’re doing the (home-grown) school feeding programme in Haiti – we decided to shorten our supply chain and not import food from halfway across the world to feed people in the Haitian countryside,” says Bauer. “We’ve got Haitian farmers feeding Haitian children now.” 

‘I can’t tell you how many times I’ve warned “It’s going to blow” and then it’s only after the fact that we get the attention’

In urban areas, food is running out. “In Port-au-Prince ... we still have stock, but we can only keep efforts going a few more weeks. We do need more funding” – US$103 million for its crisis response in Haiti over the next six months, to be precise.

“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve warned ‘It’s going to blow’ and then it’s only after the fact that we get the attention,” says Bauer. “I wish we were able to act before, act ahead of things, and not after things got out of control.” 

(Indeed, in June 2023 he said: “The social fabric in this country has been ripped to shreds. Neighbours don’t trust neighbours. There’s aggression, there’s violence, and people are doing whatever it takes to protect themselves.”)

Bauer reflects on missed opportunities to intervene. He warns of “huge implications” for both Haitians and the wider region. “You had mass hunger for years. That means mass unrest, civil strife, displacement and migration.” 

According to the International Organization for Migration, 95,000 people left Port-au-Prince in March.

But of course, “These problems didn’t start ten days ago, they’ve been brewing for decades. It’s a political and security crisis that’s become a humanitarian crisis.” 

Still, perhaps Bauer would not have returned to Haiti so eagerly were he not optimistic. And passionate – raised in the US, he is of Haitian descent and speaks Haitian Creole. 

“I sense that things will likely get better short-term, which means maybe we get back to the status quo,” he says. That itself “would be a tense situation, but one where we’re at least able to move around and implement programmes in a way that is less constrained.”

So what can be done? '

“There is a very positive role that we can play as the international community as long as we’re willing to try and find the opportunities and work with the right people and have a plan that supports this country as opposed to coming with a ready-made plan from outside – I think there’s actually quite a lot to be done here. And there’s a great contribution that we can make to getting Haiti back on the right track.” 

He adds: “The people of Haiti deserve better than the chronic instability and poverty and hunger that they’ve been exposed to – I really feel the world owes a debt to Haiti. This is basically where slavery came from. It’s where people shook off their chains, and for some reason they’re still paying the price.”

Learn more about WFP's work in Haiti