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The aim of the UNJLC bulletins is to provide a concise weekly overview of UNJLC activities and the present logistical situation in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, with marked initial focus on Haiti situation, due to its weaker national disaster response capability.  In addition sector/country specific reports will be released regularly in order to provide in-depth coverage of priority areas. 

CONTENTS

• 1. Overview
• 2. Security and Tropical Cyclone Watch
• 3. Agency Roles and Responsibilities
• Haiti - UN Technical Committee on Disaster Management
• MINUSTAH Logistics
• Front-Line UN Agencies
• 4. Emergency Stocks
• EMERGENCY STOCKS STATUS AS OF 13 JULY 2004
• TRANSPORT CAPACITY STATUS AS OF 13 JULY 2004
• 5. Logistics Co-ordination
• 6. Air Operations
• 7. Infrastructure
• HAITI AIRFIELDS
• HELICOPTER LANDING ZONES
• 8. Points of Contact – Logistics and Emergency Management
• Humanitarian Coordinator and Disaster Management:
• OCHA:
• UNJLC:
• MINUSTAH:
• PAHO-WHO:
• UNICEF:
• WFP:
• 9. Civil-Military Coordination and Civilian-Police
• 10. UNJLC Haiti Coordinates

1. Overview

Activation of UNJLC was requested 29 June 2004, by the UNCT Haiti, in order to facilitate inter-agency logistics coordination.  More specifically, UNJLC will report to the Humanitarian Coordinator and work closely with UNDP Disaster Management team and UN OCHA in order to plan and facilitate UN response to potential natural disasters during the hurricane season.  In order to do so, UNJLC will develop a general understanding of the logs requirements/plans of the major humanitarian actors in Haiti and identify likely logistics bottlenecks, which need to be addressed in a collective fashion.  UNJLC will also endeavour to build on current logistics coordination mechanisms, facilitate flow of logistics information and identify specific needs for information collection, analyses and dissemination.

As hurricane season in the Atlantic and Caribbean generally lasts from June – November, with its peak being from August – October, it is crucial that current response mechanisms be reassessed.  In this context, the office of the Humanitarian Coordinator, with the assistance of the UNDP Disaster Management Team has conducted a bi-national Disaster Planning exercise, between the Dominican Republic and Haiti UNCTs, on 9 – 10 July 2004, to which UNJLC was invited.  Several of the updated planning figures and response mechanisms agreed upon during this exercise and an ensuing UN Haiti Disaster Management and Logistics Workgroup meeting, have been incorporated in this bulletin.

As new UN partners, who could play significant roles in the initial phase of disaster response are currently in the process of deploying to Haiti, Bulleting 01 endeavours to highlight (1) most probable natural disaster threat of the coming months (2) general Roles and Responsibilities of UN partners who would respond, in the event of a crisis, and (3) current UN emergency stocks and assets, critical points of contacts and information on infrastructures.

2. Security and Tropical Cyclone Watch

All Haiti departments are designated as UN Security Phases II, III or IV.  The only area currently at Phase IV is the City of Gonaïves, in the Department of Artibonite. Otherwise, areas at Phase III are the Departments of Nord-Ouest, Nord, Nord-Est, Artibonite, Centre, Ouest and Sud-Est. The remaining areas are at Phase II.

Hurricane development monitoring and tracking is done through information provided by the Tropical Predication Center/National Hurricane Center – Miami (http://www.nhc.noaa.gov).  The NOAA outlook for 2004 calls for 12-15 tropical storms, with 6-8 becoming hurricanes, and 2-4 of these becoming major hurricanes. These numbers indicate a likely continuation of above-normal activity that began in 1995.

Source: NOAA

Political instability of the past years has resulted in a drastic lack of funding and monitoring of Haiti’s national meteorological component, effectively rendering it non-operational.   Early-warning and localised weather forecasting is, therefore, inexistent at this time; tools critical in protecting lives and preventing property loss.  Although re-establishment of basic meteorological capability, with the assistance of the World Meteorological Organisation and the international community, would require some time, ready support from the Dominican Republic National Weather Centre could offer a technically feasible short-term alternative.  Such a request would, however, need to be formally addressed to the Dominican Republic authorities.

3. Agency Roles and Responsibilities

Haiti - UN Technical Committee on Disaster Management

Reporting to the Humanitarian Coordinator, the UN Technical Committee on Disaster Management is chaired by the UNDP Chief Technical Advisor – Disaster Management and is responsible to coordinate UN inter-agency disaster response.  In support to the Technical Committee are UN OCHA and UNJLC elements, ensuring agency specific general and logistics inter-agency coordination and military liaison functions with UN agencies, governmental authorities and the IGO/NGOs community.

MINUSTAH Logistics

The MINUSTAH logistics arm falls under the CAO – Chief Administration Officer.  Reporting to the CAO is the CISS – Chief Integrated Service Support who oversees the use of logistics resources supporting MINUSTAH activities.  The JLOC – Joint Logistics Operations Centre coordinates the effective and efficient use of logistics assets and coordination mechanisms, which include; Movement Control (Mov Con), Air Operations (Air Ops), Transport, Medical, Engineering and Supply.

Front-Line UN Agencies

In the event of a natural disaster Pan-American Health Organisation – World Health Organisation (PAHO-WHO), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) will be providing ready front-line relief assistance to affected populations.  They will normally be part of the adhoc UN team conducting an assessment after the report that a community has been hit. Through implementing partners (i.e. MSF) PAHO-WHO will normally distribute medical kits and medication, in order for these partners to provide communities with immediate medical support.  WFP will provide food and UNICEF will re-establish basic education functions.  These agencies also have varied capabilities for the provision of shelter, water and sanitation and psychological support.

4. Emergency Stocks

EMERGENCY STOCKS STATUS AS OF 13 JULY 2004

TRANSPORT CAPACITY STATUS AS OF 13 JULY 2004

Note: (1) A number of scenarios are being studied by WFP regarding the 30 x 3.5MT trucks which were donated by the Norwegian government, in support to its current Special Operation, which is scheduled to end in early August 2004.  An important consideration factor will be operating and maintenance costs.

Agency Warehouses are mainly located in Port-au-Prince, with the exception of WFP which also has a warehouse in Cap-Haitien. Agency warehouse coordinates and points of contact are as follows:

5. Logistics Co-ordination

Regular Joint Logistics Working Groups will be held in order to oversee logistics preparation for disaster response.  A first Haiti team joint meeting took place, between UNJLC, UNDP Disaster Management, OCHA, the MINUSTAH and operational UN agencies, Tuesday, 13 July 2004, as a follow-up to a bi-national UN meeting which took place in Santo Domingo on 9 – 10 July 2004.  The objective of the 13 July 2004 meeting was to act on recommendations raised during the Santo Domingo meeting; namely identifying current in-mission emergency stocks and transport capacity and confirming emergency and logistics points of contacts.  As the MINUSTAH will be an important partner in any upcoming emergency response, it was agreed that a half-day disaster response workshop would be held in early August 2004, in order to familiarize its staff with natural disaster problematic in Haiti and introduce them to the UNCT integrated contingency plan.  The meeting should also provide the right forum to integrate MINUSTAH into the UNCT contingency plan, define relief assistance planning assumptions, define current UNCT response capability and shortfalls and see how MINUSTAH may alleviate them, until other resources can be mobilized.

It appears an initiative has been put in place by some members of the NGO community, to organize an NGO Joint Logistics Centre.  UNJLC will try to encourage and assist in this process, in order to help streamline NGO relief efforts, in the event of a natural disaster, with an emphasis on traditional UN agency implementing partners (i.e. MSF, CARE and Concern).

6. Air Operations

Historically, floods in Haiti are also associated with the destruction of portions of the road network, thereby preventing ready access, by road, to affected populations.  Although preliminary repairs can generally be conducted relatively rapidly, this nevertheless requires, at best a few days to a few weeks.  In the context where successful victim assistance is often counted in hours rather than days, the conduct of air operations to deliver initial relief assistance (medical, water, shelter and food) is crucial in preventing death as well as a number of effects associated with emergencies (i.e. illnesses and malnourishment) particularly in the context where, as happened in the recent Mapou floods, the national and international community were only made aware the area had been affected some four (4) days after the floods had happened.

With national airlift capability being close to non-existent any effective relief operation would undoubtedly require initial MINUSTAH support.  This would likely need to be followed up by a sustained operation, not unlike that coordinated by WFP following the Mapou – Fonds Verrette floods of May 2004, until such time as road access is permissible.

By mid-August, MINUSTAH is expected to have 12 x medium lift helicopters, as reflected in previous table of transport assets.

A handful of commercial fixed-winged national and international carriers are operating in and out of Haiti.  Upcoming bulletins will chart airlines and destinations, as these may prove useful in providing airlift in support to relief operations as well as for the possible re-location of non-essential staff and their families.  Main airport capacities and capabilities as well as Haiti civil aviation issues will also be raised.

Although a small Christian NGO is known to provide some measure of in-country flights, these are very limited both in scope and capacity.  No other known IGO/NGO is currently offering air services in Haiti. 

7. Infrastructure

HAITI AIRFIELDS

UTC -5

HELICOPTER LANDING ZONES

Sources: CHC Helicopters Intl, through the MINUSTAH Air Safety section

8. Points of Contact – Logistics and Emergency Management

Humanitarian Coordinator and Disaster Management:

• Humanitarian Coordinator - Adama Guindo: Tel: +509 244 9350 to 65, E-mail: adama.guindo@undp.org
• UNDP CTA Disaster Management - Michel Matera Tel: +509 513 9567, E-mail: michel.matera@undp.org              

OCHA:

• Senior Humanitarian Affairs Officer – John Bevan: Tel: +509 554 1088, Email: bevan@un.org
• Humanitarian Affairs Officer and NGO Liaison – Fernando Arroyo Tel: +509 525 5271
• Civil-Military Coordination Officer – Eric Mouillefarine Tel: +509 525 5282, Email: mouillefarine@un.org

UNJLC:

• Chief UNJLC – François Desruisseaux Tel: + 509 550 0142, Email: Francois.Desruisseaux@wfp.org

MINUSTAH:

• CAO/CISS - Antonio Gomez de la Torre, Chief Administrative Officer Email: gomezdelatorre@un.org
• JLOC Logistics Operations Officer - Brady Kershaw Tel: +509 525 5276, Email: kershaw@un.org
• Chief MOVCON - Sandro  Calavalle Tel: TBD, Email: calavalle@un.org  
• Chief Air Ops - Hiran Anibal Ferrera Tel: +509 552 5303
• Chief Air Safety Unit - Roberto Briend Tel: +509 556 6394, Email: briend@un.org  
• Chief Transport Officer - Roberto Coling Tel: +509 554 8237, Email: coling@un.org  
• Chief Medical - Dr Collette Tel: +509 557 5916
• OIC Engineering Section - Ricardo Sheldon Tel: +509 556 6369
• Chief Supply Services Section - James ‘Skip’ Boynton Tel: +509 556 6376, Email: Boynton@un.org

PAHO-WHO:

• Emergency Coordinator – Dr. Aboubacrine Maïga Tel: +509 260 5700, E-mail: maigaa@hai.ops-oms.org
• Emergency Consultant – Paula Frankema Tel: + 509 417 2325, Email: frankemap@hai.ops-oms.org
• Logistics Coordinator – Bienvenu Boko Tel: + 509 417 2302, Email: bienboko@hai.ops-oms.org

UNICEF:

• Emergency Coordinator – Gricha Lapointe Tel: TBC Email: glepointe@unicef.org
• Programme Manager – Paulo Sassarao Tel: +509 401 3666, Email: psassarao@unicef.org

WFP:

• Emergency Coordinator – Elise Benoit Tel: +509 554 6443, Email: Elise.Benoit@wfp.org
• Logistics Officer – Belkacem Machane Tel: +509 551 0791, Email: Belkacem.Machane@wfp.org  

9. Civil-Military Coordination and Civilian-Police

In addition to UN Civil-Military Coordination (CMCoord) elements deployed by OCHA, UN agencies may deploy Military Liaison Officers (MLOs) to focus on specific sectoral and operational civil-military issues and DPKO may deploy Civil-Military Liaison Officers (CMLOs).  Where established, as is the case in Haiti, the UNJLC also provides a civil-military coordination function on an operational logistics level.  OCHA and UNJLC normally execute their respective CMCoord functions in support to the Humanitarian Coordinator.

In Haiti, CMCoord elements will generally be based out of Port-au-Prince, although they may punctually be deployed to the field, in order to ensure on-site coordination, for instance, in the event of a natural disaster.  It may occur, however, that field personnel be in a position where they need to liaise directly with military forces in the field, which may or may not have formal CIMIC – Civil-Military Cooperation elements.  Agencies with field presence are, therefore, encouraged to establish preliminary contact and exchange contact information with MINUSTAH military elements operating in agency areas of responsibilities, in order to facilitate coordination should a crisis develop and military support be required (i.e. use of means of communications).

Civilian-Police (CIVPOL) is building up its presence in Haiti and will increasingly extend its operations to Haitian departments.  Although their assistance capability may be limited for some time yet, liaison with them is encouraged for the same reasons as for that expressed regarding CMCoord.

Upcoming bulletins will sketch MINUSTAH military and CIVPOL deployment and points of contacts in Haiti.

CMCoord Officers in direct support to the Humanitarian Coordinator in Haiti are:        

• OCHA – Eric Mouillefarine Tel: + 509 525 5282, Email: mouillefarine@un.org (General CMCoord)
• UNJLC – François Desruisseaux  Tel: + 509 550 0142, Email: Francois.Desruisseaux@wfp.org (Logistics CMCoord)

10. UNJLC Haiti Coordinates

UNJLC Office is located on the ground floor of the WFP building.

UNJLC:
387, avenue John Brown

Bourdon

Port-au-Prince

Haiti