Post Earthquake Jacmel (Haiti) Report and EMMA

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Internal marketing system
IDPs (Internally displaced persons)
Overall Income
Overall Expenditures
grocery stores were damaged, at least two of
which were leveled), and to bakeries.(several
of the largest bakeries were put out of
commission as well); rural storage facilities
were also damaged, giving an advantage to
those komèsan who were not hit especially
hard.
Physical blow to the internal marketing market
chain were depòt. But market resilient;
principal complaint was the decline in urban
market demand.
Increased burden on household but also
increased non-remunerated labor supply,
increased income for taxi traffic, and increased
sales of phone cards.
Difficult to estimate—see main text
Difficult to estimate—see main text
7. Summary Interpretation of Crisis and Response
This report could not be complete without inserting, somewhere, a summary of the overall
impact of the earthquake and subsequent aid effort.
The primary physical impact of January 12 th was the destruction of major sectors of the
Port-au-Prince urban area where lives 30% of the Haitian population, and where one finds 80%
or more of all medical, education, and administrative infrastructure. In the Southeast the primary
impact was the city of Jacmel. In both cases the tendency among decision makers and aid
workers is to see these areas as indispensable mainstays of the regional and national economy,
focal points of administrative functions, political and economic organization upon which the
provincial majority depends. The destroyed National Palace became a symbol of the chaos and
suffering to come. In reality, the opposite may be the case. For the vast majority of Haitians, the
police and military have most often acted as agents of repression; the government as
impediments to commerce and development. The earthquake temporarily eliminated both.
While swooning, a large fraction of formal sector--albeit less than 300,000 workers to
begin with--was back to work within weeks of the earthquake. For example, at least some of the
factories in SONAPI duty free zone—where 500 workers were killed in a single factory--were
back in operation within one to two weeks of the earthquake. The same was true of most major
bakeries, beverage and water bottling companies, grocery stores, and banks. In the informal
urban sector welders, mechanics, electricians were once again clogging the rubble strewn streets
of the central city within three weeks of the earthquake. The more robust internal marketing
economy was arguably only dazed by the physical impact of the earthquake. Within two days of
market women from the Southeast, goods perched on their heads, were walking out of the