Post-Disaster Needs Assessment in Haiti: Earthquake of August 14, 2021 in the Southern Peninsula, Executive Summary

The earthquake struck at 8:29 a.m. on August 14, 2021, with its epicenter reported at Petit-Trou-de-Nippes, and the report counts 2,246 dead, 12,763 injured and 329 missing across the Sud, Grand'Anse and Nippes departments. The Prime Minister launched the assessment on August 30 and 31, 2021, national technical teams finished data collection on September 22, 2021, and the Ministry of Planning and External Cooperation (MPCE) coordinated the work with the World Bank, United Nations and European Union, joined by the Inter-American Development Bank. The method covers nine sectors in four groups (productive, social, infrastructure and two cross-cutting issues, disaster risk reduction and the environment), then five human-impact indicators, the macroeconomic impact and a recovery strategy.

Damage and losses total US$1,620,071,414, of which US$1,246,499,834 (77 percent) is damage and US$373,571,580 (23 percent) is losses. Public effects are 26 percent and private effects 74 percent. Recovery needs are US$1,978,063,102. Social sectors (housing, health, education and food security) account for US$1,187,298,010 of effects (73 percent) and 76 percent of needs, and housing alone has needs of US$1,027,151,142. Productive sectors show US$213,210,570 of effects and US$197,259,243 of needs, infrastructure US$176,362,986 and US$172,130,279, and the cross-cutting sectors US$43,199,848 and US$93,794,911.

The summary reports that 115,000 households saw their homes damaged, 34 percent of them destroyed, that 307,359 pupils lost school services and that 1,069,000 people had their access to the road network obstructed. Effects equal 10.9 percent of 2019-2020 GDP, and GDP growth for 2020-2021 is expected to fall from -0.6 percent to -1.1 percent, with the central government deficit up about 0.1 point of GDP. The recovery strategy, drafted at an MPCE workshop on September 23, 2021, sets a vision of resilient recovery, three guiding principles and four priority axes: recovery governance, economic recovery, resilient infrastructure with territorial planning and better living conditions, and protection and social inclusion. Annexes give the damage, loss and needs table, the coordination structure, key recommendations on human impact and a report of consultations in the three departments.