ActionAid is responding to the earthquake in Haiti. In the UK alone, your support has already raised over £900,000 for our appeal. However, ActionAid also campaigns for long term change to end poverty, and as Haiti emerges from the disaster, the increased aid coming into the country must rebuild a HungerFREE Haiti.

Take Action here (you need a UK postcode)

Further Information

Half the population were already going hungry before the earthquake struck. In 2008 deadly food riots that killed 5 people illustrated the desperate situation Haitians faced with rising food prices. Haiti relies heavily on imported food and was hit by a mixture of rising global prices and a bad hurricane season.

Now, people affected by the earthquake are leaving urban areas, another food price hike is predicted and there is a long-term underinvestment in rural areas and agriculture - this could all lead to another hunger crisis. Agriculture is Haiti's most important sector - more than 70% of the people live off the land. Urgent investment in smallholder farming is needed to tackle hunger.

The UK government must use its influence at the upcoming UN meeting on Haiti, 22-23 March, to ensure donors meet the $68 million still needed in aid to rebuild Haiti's agriculture sector. The UK must contribute its fair share of this money. This is according to the Haitian government's own 2009-11 agriculture plan and UN Food & Agriculture Organisation figure of what is needed to re-build farming this year.

Jenny Ricks, ActionAid's Head of Campaigns said: "The response to ActionAid's appeal has been fantastic. The UK public have shown their support and solidarity with the people of Haiti. We now need to help Haiti become HungerFREE in the long-term by supporting women and other smallholder farmers, and fast.

"Without the $68m still needed in aid to agriculture, Haiti could lurch into a hunger crisis. The UK government and donors at the UN meeting in March must find the money still needed."

Take Action here (you need a UK postcode)

Image note:

KABAgrangou – down with hunger – is the Haiti HungerFREE campaign. On the 12th December 2008, a peasants' rally saw 3,000 people coming from all corners of Haiti to march through the capital city of Port au Prince. It was the first national peasants rally ever to take place in Haiti. The campaign, launched by a large group of organisations with the support of ActionAid Haiti, is calling for an end to hunger by boosting local agricultural production and through urgent action on the environment. It is also saying 'no' to agrofuels, which would divert land away from food production towards fuel production for cars. ©Charles Eckert/ActionAid