Board for International Food and Agriculture

Development October 16, 2012

Hon. Marty McVey and Elsa A. Murano

Haiti Task Force

Follow-Up Report

Beautiful Haiti

• People

• 9.7 million

• Descendants of Central Africa also

mixed with Europeans

• Language

• Haitian Creole and French

• Landmass

• 10.7K sq. mil (Massachusetts)

Why Can’t Haiti Catch a Break?

• Location

• Strategic, desirable for large nations

to control, on a fault line and in direct

path of hurricanes

• Leadership

• Past leaders who would not leave

office and who would use the

country and its assets for personal

gain

• Legacy

• Only nation of slaves to free itself

but which had to become indebted

for generations to gain recognition

• Land

• Fertile and desirable for large

plantations, which took away ability

of individual farms to thrive

The Earthquake of 2010…

• January 12, 2010

• ~250,000 killed

• Almost a million

homeless

• Cholera outbreak a few

months later

• Foreign aid pledged in

the US$billions

Prior to The Earthquake of 2010…

Decades of mismanagement, natural

disasters, and indebtedness…

Prior to The Earthquake of 2010…

USAID funded food and agriculture

projects from 1980s to 2010:

• Lacked continuity

• Lacked coordination between

programs

• Lacked integration of research and

extension

• Lacked support for and inclusion of

Haitian universities

• Lacked inclusion of Haitian

government

Immediately After the Earthquake…

• BIFAD established Haiti Task

Force

• Task Force conducted workshop

in April, 2010 with retired ex-

pats and those working in U.S.

land-grant universities

• Task Force members visited

Haiti in May, 2010

• Drafted recommendations to

USAID

BIFAD Recommendations Jan 2011

•Develop a long-term integrated

research and extension plan

• Include Haitian government in

all phases of the plan

• Enhance coordination of

activities among all projects

• Leverage activities to include

partnerships with other

stakeholders

• Improve accountability through

M&E of projects

• Implement through third-party

independent consortium led by

U.S. agriculture universities

BIFAD Follow-up Visit September 2012

• Some visible progress, but…

BIFAD Follow-up Visit September 2012

• Visit with National University of

Haiti

• Some new construction

• Faculty with necessary

background and eager to

engage industry

• BUT:

• Students still learning

under a tent

• Still very little support from

government

• Still no presence outside of

Port-Au-Prince

BIFAD Follow-up Visit September 2012

• Crop production project

• Greenhouse & irrigation

demonstrations

• Farmer training onsite

• Plant diagnostic lab services

• Planting of trees on hillsides

• BUT:

• Greenhouses cost

$3,500

• Farmers have little

access to credit

• Limited access to

irrigation water

• Farmers will become the

trainers?

BIFAD Follow-up Visit September 2012

• Watershed

rehabilitation project

• Town has water

• Water is not potable

BIFAD Follow-up Visit September 2012

• Rice production project

• Federation of farmers

• Instruction on production

practices

• Rice mills

• BUT:

• 40% of rice broken

• “market” is relief feeding

programs, no exports

• High tariffs on equipment

and other inputs

• Federation not like a

cooperative

World Bank 2012 Report

Five Key Elements for Success

• Farmers must have access to credit

• Policy that gives them legal status

• Farmers must be independent

• Policy that facilitates forming

cooperatives

• First-movers must be incentivized

• Policy that freezes tariffs on inputs for

a time

• Export markets must be sought

• Opportunities for value addition on

competitive products

• Plan must be long-term and integrated

• Research and education that

engages Haitian universities, training

that engages the MOA,

• Must include entrepreneurship,

environmental stewardship

Hope for the Future…

• New president of Haiti, Michel

Martelly elected in April, 2011

• Populist

• Slow start with Parliament

• New U.S. Ambassador, Pam White,

took over post in August, 2012

• Sense of urgency

• Intolerance of failure

• BIFAD sent report to Administrator

this month