mVAM Bulletin 1: Food Security Perceptions in Metropolitan Port-au-Prince and Surrounding Communes, June 2016

This first mVAM bulletin presents results from a 10-question online survey WFP VAM conducted through RIWI in French and Creole, reaching random respondents in metropolitan Port-au-Prince (Carrefour, Cite Soleil, Delmas, Port-au-Prince, Tabarre, Petionville) and surrounding communes (Croix-des-Bouquets and Kenscoff) from 20 May to 9 June 2016, with 991 responses. The survey was designed to measure urban food security perceptions, since existing drought-impact assessments had focused only on rural areas in a country where more than half the population lives in urban centers, amid rapid inflation and political instability.

Unemployment was the most commonly reported difficulty for the poor in every commune, consistent with a 40 percent urban unemployment rate and over 60 percent youth unemployment (World Bank 2014); electricity and either insecurity or food prices ranked second and third almost everywhere. Nearly all respondents reported food prices increasing over the prior three months (March-May 2016), consistent with official CNSA data, and perceived the security situation as unchanged or deteriorating amid political demonstrations that sometimes turned violent, with gang-related crime concentrated in Cite Soleil and robbery more dispersed citywide.

Most respondents reported that the quality of life for poor people in their neighborhood had deteriorated over the same period. The sample skewed young, male and well-educated, so results describe perceptions rather than a statistically representative picture; WFP notes that as online access grows, such surveys could become a viable food-security monitoring tool.