(2024-10) Haiti: Increased Internal Displacement Heightens Food and Health Needs in the Grand Sud Region (Anticipatory Note, 3 October 2024)
Summary — This ACAPS anticipatory note assesses the strain that rising internal displacement is placing on Haiti's Grand Sud region (Grande-Anse, Nippes, Sud, and Sud-Est), which by September 2024 hosted nearly half of the country's roughly 703,000 IDPs, most fleeing gang violence in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area. It anticipates food assistance as the priority need, with over one million people in the region projected in acute food insecurity, and warns that a weak health system and La Niña-related rainfall raise waterborne disease risks for displaced and host communities.
Key Findings
- Displacement in Haiti rose 60 percent in 2024, from 362,000 IDPs in March to 702,973 in September, with more than 90 percent originating in Ouest department and 85 percent in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan zone.
- Nearly half of the displaced (315,200) sought refuge in the Grand Sud region, and Sud department alone received about 116,000 IDPs despite having no official IDP sites, pushing arrivals into already strained host communities.
- Food assistance is the priority need, with over 1.05 million people in Grand Sud projected in IPC Phase 3 or above, food prices up 40 percent since the start of 2024, and gang roadblocks and attacks on transport constraining supply to local markets.
- The health system cannot absorb the influx: 4.7 million people nationally need help accessing health services, 73 percent of the country's 22 major hospitals reported an inability to function normally at end-2022, and La Niña rainfall raises waterborne disease risks.
- Political instability, gang control of routes and infrastructure around the capital, rising rents, and WASH deficits (26 percent of Haitians lack clean water) compound needs for both IDPs and host communities.
Full Description
ACAPS documents a 60 percent rise in displacement in Haiti during 2024, from 362,000 IDPs in March to 702,973 in September, driven primarily by deteriorating security in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan zone (ZMPAP): more than 90 percent of IDPs originated in Ouest department and 85 percent in the ZMPAP itself. Nearly half of the displaced (315,200) sought refuge in the Grand Sud departments of Grande-Anse, Nippes, Sud, and Sud-Est, on top of over 116,000 IDPs already hosted there by late 2023. Sud department received about 116,000 IDPs in 2024 despite having no official IDP sites, forcing arrivals into host communities. The note assesses absorption capacity in a region where over one million people already required humanitarian assistance in 2023 and identifies humanitarian constraints from gang roadblocks on routes out of the capital, the February-May airport closure, and sporadic port closures that raise supply costs.
Food assistance emerges as the priority need: more than 1.05 million people in Grand Sud were projected to face acute food insecurity (IPC 3+), within a national caseload of 4.4 million, as below-average agricultural production, 40 percent food price inflation since the start of 2024, gang attacks on food transport, and rising transport costs restrict supply, particularly in Grande-Anse and Sud-Est. Health risks compound the picture: 4.7 million people nationally need assistance accessing health services, hospitals in Grande-Anse, Nippes, and Sud cannot meet demand, and La Niña conditions expected from late 2024 raise the risk of cholera, dysentery, typhoid, and other waterborne diseases. The note also reviews aggravating drivers, including political instability since the 2021 Moïse assassination, gang attacks on state infrastructure since March 2024, rising rents squeezing IDP housing access, and WASH deficits, with 26 percent of Haitians lacking clean water access.
Notes
ACAPS thematic/anticipatory analysis