Haiti's Civil Protection Agency

The Haitian Civil Protection Agency’s headquarters in downtown Port-au-Prince appears to only be moderately damaged by the devastating 7.0 earthquake which struck Haiti on January 12^th, 2010. However, it is still vacant, manned only by one armed guard who kindly assists visitors in finding the temporary office in another part of town. Thus the Haitian Civil Protection Agency, responsible for the entirety of Haiti’s domestic disaster response (the equivalent to FEMA in the U.S.), currently functions out of a converted home. This new location often lacks electricity and has no functioning generator. There is no office phone. The computer monitors look relatively new but are not actually connected to a hard-drive. What should be a hive of activity coordinating, managing and leading a massive relief and recovery effort is instead a sleepy and inadequate facility for the considerable task at hand. The plight of the Civil Protection Agency is in stark contrast to those major international aid organizations working in Haiti. These agencies have justifiably and rapidly built up massive operations given the funds they have raised organizationally and the $5.3 billion committed by international governments in support of Haiti over the next two years.

The lack of resourcing of the Haitian Civil Protection Agency must be addressed if this unprecedented international effort is to be sustainable and have a lasting impact (more than simply placing another band-aid on a gaping wound). Haiti’s Civil Protection Agency must be restored to both manage the current operation and ensure they are better positioned for future inevitable disasters. This rebuilding of Haitian disaster management capacity will not happen overnight; but targeted and significant capacity building efforts must begin now. This should include at a minimum:

· Recruitment and development of national and international advisors needed to ensure that the Civil Protection Agency has the full range of expertise needed for response, recovery, reconstruction, disaster preparedness and risk reduction efforts. This would include project managers, civil engineers, water and sanitation engineers, disaster telecommunications specialists and other experts that underpin any successful recovery operation.

· Reconstruction of a well functioning Civil Protection Agency headquarters with a national emergency operations center from which this and future disasters can effectively be managed.

· Securing standardized equipment needed for disaster operations either through rental contracts or as permanent assets. This includes light and heavy transport vehicles, permanent and temporary warehousing facilities and a comprehensive telecommunications network that will be fully functional during a disaster response.

· Finally, expertise and focused resourcing is needed to construct contingency plans for future emergencies and create disaster risk reduction strategies specific to the Haitian context.

Given the level of funding involved, respected and independent entities can be utilized to provide the technical support needed for these efforts while ensuring the highest possible level of accountability. The critical components of this work can be tendered through a rapid competitive bidding process. This all needs to be carefully managed according to accounting and contracting standards without restricting the flow of support from international donors to the Haitian Civil Protection Agency. It has been done before in some of the most challenging places around the world by experienced organizations and companies; it can be done again in Haiti.

A major hurricane and heavy rains will almost certainly batter Haiti at sometime between July and November of this year. Natural disasters pose an ongoing threat to Haiti. A strong Haitian Civil Protection Agency is needed, along with other civil society institutions, to respond. The international community must urgently seize upon this tremendous opportunity to build the resiliency of the Haitian people in meeting the challenges of today and the future.

By Langdon Greenhalgh