USAID/BHA Strengthening Community Resilience in Haiti Baseline Report

The project began implementation in June 2021, following the successful implementation of engineer training and damage assessment protocol capacity building led by Miyamoto International and the U.S. Agency for International Development's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA). The baseline assessment focused on a population-based survey for Indicator D05, which measured the percentage of individuals perceiving a high likelihood of being severely affected by specific hazards, including earthquakes, tsunamis, and hurricanes. Surveys were administered verbally in-person through the use of local enumerators and were entered into a database for analysis. The survey included 12 questions, both demographic and substantive, to allow for disaggregation of the data by sex, age, and geography. Key findings from the survey indicate that participants perceived an earthquake as the hazard with the highest chance of affecting their city. Across the two cities, 89% of respondents believed they would be severely affected in the event of an earthquake, 87% believed they would be severely affected in the event of a tsunami, and 85% believed they would be affected by a hurricane. Findings demonstrated relatively equal perception of risk across genders, with a slightly higher perception of risk among respondents living in Cap Haïtien compared to those in Fort Liberté. The population survey results will inform the design of an effective awareness campaign that takes into account fears and perceptions of risk across gender, ages, and geographies. Findings from the survey will also help guide the tools used for the campaign based on respondents' most used channels for receiving information, such as radio, TV, and internet. The project has three main components: Building Community Awareness/Mobilization, Capacity Building and Training, and Policy and Planning. Under the Building Community Awareness/Mobilization Sub-Sector, Component 1 will strengthen community awareness and preparedness with a focus on the youth by investigating multi-hazard risk and disaster risk reduction programming in Northern Haiti. Under the Capacity Building and Training Sub-Sector, Component 2 will build the capacity of the Corps of Civil Engineers and Architects (CICA) through trainings that expand post-disaster safety assessments and plan checks. Under the Policy and Planning Sub-Sector, Component 3 will support national disaster risk management utilizing a data-driven approach. Baseline data collection took place primarily in the northern towns of Cap-Haïtien and Fort-Liberté. Survey methodology training and data collection took place during the week of August 22nd, 2021, and survey data entry and analysis took place during the weeks of August 29th and September 5th. Secondary data compilation and analysis (digital) as well as meetings with key informants (virtual or in-person at the Miyamoto Port-au-Prince office) took place in the first two weeks of August 2021. A magnitude 7.2 earthquake impacted Haiti on August 14th, 2021, just as Miyamoto was gearing up for this baseline study. Despite this significant limitation, the team was able to rapidly train enumerators and collect data.