News

A Food Security Emergency Tool for Haiti

26 January 2010

In the aftermath of Haiti 's catastrophic earthquake, the “Haiti Food Security Emergency Tool” has been rapidly set up by the EC-FAO Food Security Programme. This interactive tool pools together information from many sources to support emergency and rehabilitation efforts.

> See the Haiti Food Security Emergency Tool

Indeed, even in the middle of this emergency, it is crucial to keep agricultural production going to make sure there is enough food to feed millions of people. This map based tool allows organizations involved in reconstruction and longer term food security planning with an easy way of visualizing the information they need.

The tool gives information on:

	usable roads;
	livelihood zones;
	land cover and use;
	damage information;
	crops and crop calendars; and
	much more.

The tool uses the Global Information and Early Warning System (GIEWS) Workstation as a base. Because it uses open GIS standards, it is able to pool together information from any organization using these standards.

Partners who contribute information include:

	Haiti’s Centre National de l'Information Géo-Spatiale (CNIGS)
	FEWSNET
	La Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo (AECID)
	Proyecto Araucaria
	Open Street Map
	USAID Geographic Information Support Team (GIST)