Gang violence and rising prices contribute to Emergency (IPC Phase 4) outcomes in Cité Soleil

Occupied by gangs since September, the resumption of control over the main Varreux storage center is improving the availability of fuel at filling stations. However, public transport prices, recently adjusted upwards by the government, are more than 200 percent above December 2021 prices. As a result, the prices of basic foodstuffs continue to rise against a backdrop of steep depreciation of the gourde/dollar exchange rate.

The official exchange rate reached an unprecedented level: 138.7 gourdes to the dollar on November 29. On the informal market, the dollar is selling for over 155 gourdes.  Prices of imported foodstuffs, which are more closely correlated with the informal exchange rate, remain at an atypically high level compared to the average. The year-on-year price of imported rice is up 68 percent and over 118 percent compared to the five-year average. This price upsurge is particularly worrying given that more than 75 percent of Haiti's overall cereal food supply (rice, corn, wheat, sorghum) comes from imports.

Insecurity has reached record levels, with the number of cases of political violence and deaths between January and November 2022 rising from 866 to 1,700 --nearly double that recorded between January and November 2021, according to ACLED. In Cité Soleil, one of the neighborhoods most affected by gang violence, humanitarian access is still very limited, despite clearing the Varreux terminal. The main sources of income remain severely disrupted. As a result, households in the area have consumption deficits indicative of Emergency (IPC Phase 4) outcomes. Poor households in other districts of Port-au-Prince, still engaging in livelihood activities, though below average, are in Crisis (IPC Phase 3).

In the rest of the country, poor and very poor households, who typically depend on their own harvest are selling productive goods and consuming seed stocks. Households hard hit by climatic shocks in Nord HT03, Artibonite HT03, Grand'Anse HT08 and HT07, Nippes HT01 and HT07, Sud and Sud-Est HT07, are using these strategies. Households are also dependent on Port-au-Prince to supply their markets with imported food products. Most of the country is in a state of Crisis (IPC Phase 3) food insecurity.