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Haiti Food Insecurity Issues

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This report will examine the food insecurity issues in Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the world, and look at the actions which have been taken to improve the situation. Food insecurity is a raging dilemma that affects 38% of the population of 10 million. In addition to Government corruption, there are multiple factors that have contributed to the availability of food including weather extremes, natural disasters, and the social hierarchy gaps, which continue to exacerbate the divide between the rich and poor. Coordinated efforts to improve the situation continue today.

Background of weather and its impacts
Haiti’s physical geography is prone to natural disasters and extreme weather patterns. 2008 was the worst year for Haiti as it was struck by multiple hurricanes. This was followed in 2010, by a catastrophic earthquake. In October 2012, hurricane Sandy affected the vast majority of the rural areas in Haiti. Sandy flooded the land, destroyed infrastructure, wiped out ‘90,000 hectares of crops’ (USAID 2013), and more than 39 thousand families were affected. Figure one shows that 3.2 million out of 23.2 million dollars of …show more content…

70 percent of their income is spent on food for their family, which leaves around 60 US cents for other needs, including education. However over 40 percent of the total population are unemployed and struggle to provide for themselves (although after the 2010 hurricane, more jobs became available for reconstruction). A day’s income can barely feed more than two individuals. Malnutrition is very common with around 44 percent of Haiti’s population undernourished, 18 percent being children. Malnutrition is also the main cause for deaths of children. Many children are left stunted as their body struggles to develop from the lack of food and energy. One out of five children will die before the age of five in

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