Haiti is the most impoverished country in the Western Hemisphere with one of the highest levels of food insecurity in the world. 60% of Haitians live below the national poverty line. One of the drivers of food insecurity is the poor performance of the agriculture sector and the heavy dependence on food imports, which account for more than half of the food and 83 percent of the rice consumed.
Haiti also remains extremely vulnerable to natural hazards mainly hurricanes, floods and earthquakes. Extreme natural disasters such as the 2010 earthquake, Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and an ongoing political crisis that started at the end of 2018 have inevitably affected welfare in the country. The poor population’s vulnerability due to the continuous reliance on agriculture and the lack of a social assistance network, may be further increased by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.