News Junkie Post Still Questions World Food Program Efforts In Haiti

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The World Food Program, the leading organization providing food aid in Haiti came under the microscope when I published an open letter to its Executive Director Josette Sheeran on February 19, questioning the number of Haitians that they claim have received aid. Though the WFP responded to my open letter the following day through email, the questions still remains as to the methods they are using to support the figure of “4 million” Haitians they claim are helping.

While I was in Haiti just over a week ago, I came across several Haitians in tent cities that had not received food aid. They were wondering where to go to get aid and how come they had not seen any food trucks drive by. Numerous other independent outlets have also reported on the slow aid. I interviewed relief workers on the ground that complained that there was a lack of visibility of U.S. military troops helping and they also mentioned not seeing any food distribution efforts in Port-au-Prince.

The World Food Program has in fact been distributing aid at 16 points in different parts of the country, but this aid goes on for only a couple of hours a day either very early or late at night. Tickets for sacks of rice are distributed ramdomly and many women came to me wondering where and how they could get a ticket, I didn’t know what to say to them.

The World Food Program’s Deputy Chief Operations Officer Mr. Ramiro Lopes da Silva answered my open letter on February 19 since WFP’s executive director was traveling at the time. But Mr. da Silvas’ response to the question of why so many people still haven’t received food aid didn’t come supported with any documents the NJP had requested.

Here is part of Mr. da Silva’s response:

The challenges faced by WFP and partners in establishing from scratch a food distribution system for some two million earthquake-affected people have been immense. We will be the first in line to declare this. Indeed, this has been the most complex relief operation that WFP has ever faced and, perhaps, that the entire humanitarian community has had to tackle. In this disaster, there was often little or no separation between the victims and those that could deliver help. Ninety percent of WFP’s staff in Haiti lost homes, and many of them loved ones. Yet the morning after the earthquake, they were lining up to help.

Now, more than a month on, we are delivering as much food as we can each and every day. WFP’s operation here is the largest intervention of any UN agency in Haiti. I have confidence in the figures from the food commodity reporting system WFP uses globally, which indicates that we have reached more than 3 million people across the disaster zone using high-energy biscuits and ready-to-eat meals (MREs), staple foods such as rice, and special nutrition products which are now being targeted to the most vulnerable people.

Does this mean that you may find a villager who hasn’t yet received food? Yes. Does this mean that perhaps a family may have only received a two-week ration once? Also, yes. But especially over the last two weeks, our capacity to reach more and more people with food has dramatically increased, and we are increasingly able to focus on getting the right types of food assistance to the right people. Our job is far from over, and we have deployed the best, most experienced hands in our agency who are working as hard as they can.

Sad to say is that I encountered more than one “villager” in the city of Port-au-Prince that had not received food aid or even a tent. It’s important to point out that there are over 9 million people in Haiti and according to their website, the World Food Program claims that it has fed 4 million of them (this is the latest figure as of February 26). That leaves another 5 million people who haven’t seen even a grain of rice from the WFP. Mr. da Silva, that’s more than “a villager,” it’s 5 million.

It’s important to question how has the WFP been able to count the heads it has fed through the distribution of 100 or 50 pounds sacks of rice. It’s common knowledge in Haiti that people are selling that aid in order to supplement their incomes or be able to buy things like a tomato, potatoes, or anything else that can supplement their diet.

In fact, Mr. da Silva did mention why rice has been the main food aid Haitians have been getting:

Rice indeed is the major commodity we have been providing these last three weeks in our general distributions. This was necessary in order to quickly stabilise the situation. It is a highly valued staple food in Haiti and was readily available in large quantities when the earthquake wiped out markets and supply chains. It was the most logical first choice. But rice is by no means the only staple we have been distributing: we have, for example, been giving a range of ‘dry rations’ to the capital’s hospitals and children’s since last month.

And yes, according to my sources the World Food Program warehouses are full of rice — “they want to get rid of it,” one of my sources told me. The rice is labeled with the USAID logo and it’s given to women to carry when distribution takes place. But, my sources also tell me that there are tons of pounds of beans, cooking oil, crackers/biscuits, etc. that hasn’t seen the light of day. Still, Mr. da Silva maintains that aid is also being distributed:

We are progressively adding items such as lentils, salt and vegetable oil to our food basket. In hard-hit areas like Jacmel, these items are given as a hot daily meal to orphanages and hospitals. School meal programmes are underway in non-quake-affected areas and are now starting up in the capital. In camps all over Port-au-Prince, a nutrition drive is underway, targeting 53,000 children under five and 16,000 pregnant and breast-feeding mothers with a ready-to-use food fortified with vitamins and minerals. We airlift MREs by helicopter to the quake zone’s remoter communities and continue to distribute high-energy biscuits in that zone – something we began within 24 hours of the earthquake.

There is no doubt that the World Food Program is mobilizing to reach Haitians and provide them food aid, but it’s important to point that that figures can easily make the public believe that the situation is improving and forget about it. The reality is that Haiti is far from being stable — a two week food ration will last just that, two weeks, then what? Back to the food line? Will the WFP be there to help? Of course, but in its own way, with its own coordination, in the way it suits best: with rice, once a day for a couple of hours, giving tickets to random women.

If the WFP is providing food to hospitals that’s great because those folks need it badly, but there are starving people at tent cities just outside of Port-au-Prince. CNN is staying within city limits with reporters resting at Le Plaza Hotel. You won’t see them venturing out to where the aid hasn’t reached.

Where Are President Clinton’s Pick Up Trucks?

One of the main challenges the World Food Program has according to my interview with President Bill Clinton is that they are not reaching neighborhoods. Clinton said that 100 pick up trucks were coming to Haiti to help drive that aid deeper into communities. Clinton has been concerned with numerous bottlenecks in this operation and sending those pick up trucks seemed like a way to alleviate some of the problems. But, when I asked the World Food Program if the pick up trucks had arrived, the WFP communications person in Haiti wrote to me saying that:

Not that I’m aware right now though it might be in the pipeline. Suggest you talk to the Clinton Foundation.

A day later I get a correction from the same communications person letting me know that there are 32 pick up trucks that have arrived in Haiti:

They haven’t yet gone into service. Will probably be another week or so.

We’re all human, prone to mistakes, but when a WFP spokesperson is in Haiti and doesn’t know that 32 new and shiny pick up trucks are parked in their own lots, it’s an outrage. Are they tucked away somewhere? And how come they haven’t gone into service yet? Does President Clinton know about this?

Accuracy and transparency will make or breake an organization, I believe that the World Food Program hasn’t been very forthcoming with the public about what they are actually doing on the ground. Since the news cycle is over for the Haiti earthquake story, the public will forget and WFP will do whatever it wants. Just know this — no matter how many million people get food aid from the WFP or any other NGO, this is a band-aid solution to a long term problem. At the NJP we will continue informing you about the relief efforts in Haiti even after CNN has pulled out all of their staff from there. For us this is not just news, it’s personal.

Dolores M. Bernal maintains “Eye On Haiti” a new blog by the NewsJunkiePost.com that offers continued coverage on the rebuilding and relief efforts in Haiti. Follow Dolores on Twitter, click here.

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