SERVICES: National Platforms
Haiti
Context: In the immediate aftermath of the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the CDAC Network undertook its first ever ground initiative. Its work included establishing an overview of the communication environment; working with local media; promoting coordinated messaging to affected populations via mass media; information-sharing and coordination of communication activities; and integrating CDAC Haiti in the existing humanitarian system. The response had distinct phases: a preparatory phase in Jan-May 2010 when representatives of the CDAC Network members on the ground in Haiti (OCHA, Thomson Reuters Foundation, Internews, and International Media Support) helped recruit organisations to join the initiative; from May-September 2010 a CDAC Haiti secretariat was staffed with a Coordinator, an Information Officer, a Media Liaison Officer and an accountant (contracted via host Internews). The secretariat based its operations in the same building as Reporters sans Frontières and closed in November 2011.
The Internews’ Humanitarian Information Service in Haiti, which ran from October 2016 to February 2017, aimed to improve the quality of timely and actionable information exchanges with Haitian communities affected by Hurricane Matthew. Internews’ two-way communication model relied on gathering feedback from affected populations in order to directly address the issues that concern them the most, and to help humanitarian partners integrate their concerns into their programming and interventions. On-the-ground teams conducted data gathering and rumour tracking for feedback-based publications targeted to the affected population and for a humanitarian audience. It partnered with the ETC on radio rehabilitation.
In 2017, Ground Truth Solutions undertook the first round of perception surveys of affected people, humanitarian staffand local partners in Haiti as part of a seven-country study with the OECD to track progress against the goals of the Grand Bargain. This monitoring exercise continued in 2018 when the Humanitarian Country team used the findings in the Humanitarian Needs Overview for 2019 to track progress against perceptual indicators, as well as referring to the survey results in the 2020 Humanitarian Response Plan’s strategy for Community Engagement and Accountability. In early 2019, a concept for setting up a common feedback platform ‘Mécanisme de Plaintes, Référencement et Feedback’ is being socialised using the latest perception data. This initiative is led by the protection cluster.
Government links: In 2010/2011, a GoH representative from the President’s Office attended on occasion and at one meeting was accompanied by a member of the Civil Protection Department (DPC, part of the Ministry of the Interior) who outlined the GoH’s plans and initiatives in relation to emergency messaging for earthquakes and hurricanes.
Leads/Chairs/Co-Chairs: N/A
National and international actors involved: The Second Phase, May 2010 onwards, saw an increase in the number of attendants at the weekly meetings to approximately 25 to 30 participants. OCHA, Internews, IOM, UNDP, IMS, Helpage, Oxfam and CECOSIDA attended most of the minuted meetings, with at least five humanitarian NGOs, five media and communications organisations, and five UN agencies usually attending. The American Embassy or USAID was represented at most meetings (as outlined in CDAC Learning Report)
Donors: The 2010-2011 initiative, was funded largely through the OCHA’s ERRF with some additional short-term funding in 2011 from the global CDAC Network and the World Health Organisation (WHO). In total, CDAC Haiti received US $615,000. In 2016 Internews received DFID funding for a common feedback analysis project for about six months in response to Hurricane Matthew. New funding is being sought for the common feedback mechanism.
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