UNICEF Annual Report for Haiti

The 12 January 2010 earthquake represented an unprecedented “worst-case scenario” for Haiti: a sudden-onset “Category Three” emergency with high fatality rates, extensive geographic scope and severe magnitude, hitting the political and economic core of the already impoverished, post-crisis nation, exacerbating acute and structural gaps in national capacity. The Executive Director immediately triggered an organisation-wide response that led to the rapid deployment of technical expertise and supplies; mobilisation of financial resources through two appeal mechanisms and the establishment of a satellite office in Santo Domingo, ‘Operation Life Line Haiti’. No UNICEF staff lost their lives in the earthquake, but all were directly affected and several lost immediate family members. Since the UNICEF office was destroyed, a temporary base was established at MINUSTAH Logistics Base.