Post Earthquake Jacmel (Haiti) Report and EMMA

Schwartz 04/05/10 40
8.7. Long term recommendations
If we have learned anything over the past 50 years of development in Haiti it is that foreign
intervention agencies are poorly suited to provide efficient long-term development. Moreover the
development process in Haiti must increasingly involve the people it is meant to help, but not as
passengers in schemes drawn up by foreigner experts--most of whom have little long term
interest in Haiti. Aid recipients must be transformed into aid participants. This does not mean
that NGOs should disappear. NGOs can provide the framework in which competitive, honest,
and successful development programs are rewarded for success. The idea is that the process of
economy-building occur not from the top down, as has so often and disappointedly been tried in
the past; but from the bottom up. Suppliers, contractors, and consultants must increasingly be
drawn from the local population or from that pool of expatriates who have long-term vested
interest in the country. This point should become clearer in the following recommendations. xxxiv
1. Control price fluctuations in the agricultural market and stimulate production.
If development organizations are serious about improving agricultural output they should
stop undermining the local market with foreign produce and instead buy Haitian surpluses,
use them in nutritional supplement programs for mothers and children as well as store them
for redistribution in lean seasons. In association with purchasing local produce, organizations
should establish programs for storing grains and beans. Fruits should be preserved through
drying, canning and making of jellies. Meat can be dried and canned. Innovative storage
techniques should be sought for otherwise un-storable but high surplus foods like sweet
potatoes and manioc—e.g. grating and drying. At some point local government—meaning at
the district level--should be encouraged to take over the task of food security and price
supports. Or better still, the organizations that take on these tasks could be spun off as
government agencies for the Haitian State to take over administration from foreign
development intervention agencies. Similarly,
2. Provide access to credit for sound productive ventures that can yield profits and
stimulate the local economy. Example: the storage of grains, something that Diakonie and
ACDI/VOCA are involved in. Seasonal variations in the price of corn reach as high as 300
percent. With access to capital and the appropriate drying and storage technology
entrepreneurs can readily take on the costs of the industry. NGOs can assure profits by
entering into purchasing contracts with the goal of using the food in MCNH (Mother Child
Nutritional Health) programs.
3. Help farmers and entrepreneurs gain access to both local and foreign markets and
eliminate competition with supplemented foreign produce by forbidding its importation
or allowing for the imposition of tariffs. IICA, an OAS funded NGO sponsored a project
that bought coffee from small Haitian producers and used a private coffee broker to market
the finished product in developed countries as gourmet ‗Haitian Blue.‘ The project was
profitable to all parties involved, exporting some 180,000 pounds of coffee in three years
while paying small farmers 30% more than they could earn domestically. NGOs that conduct
such projects could recoup their investments and then spin the projects off as private
enterprises.
Particularly promising is organic produce. Haiti might be the most organic country on
earth. Upwards of 95% of all Haitian produce is organic as Haitian farmers cannot afford