January 12th marks the second anniversary of Haiti’s devastating earthquake. “This is an important moment for us to work with others to build a new rural Haiti,” says Cantave Jean-Baptiste, Director of Partenariat pour le Développement Local (PDL) and co-founder and partner of Groundswell International. “We have to think bigger. We don’t just want to help poor farmers to manage their poverty. We want to support substantial improvements in their lives. We should invite the government and international organizations to better understand that the future of the country lies in investing in rural areas.” After the earthquake, Groundswell and PDL shared our 10-year vision of a prosperous and sustainable Haitian countryside as the foundation for national renewal. We continue to work to make that vision a reality.
As one of the most fertile and productive places in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti was once called “the pearl of the Antilles” by the French – who generated wealth by importing African slaves to work plantation agriculture. Yet when those slaves rebelled to create an independent republic in 1804, France, and eventually the United States and Haitian governments themselves perpetrated a 200-year campaign of exploitation and marginalization of rural family farmers and communities until there were virtually no resources left – except of course the incredibly resilient Haitian peasant farmers.
The January 12, 2010 earthquake again focused the world’s attention on Haiti – including the need to re-think sustainable pathways to development. A few months after the earthquake, former US President Bill Clinton acknowledged the error of the West’s agricultural policies toward Haiti:
“Since 1981, the United States has followed a policy, until the last year or so when we started rethinking it, that we rich countries that produce a lot of food should sell it to poor countries and relieve them of the burden of producing their own food, so, thank goodness, they can leap directly into the industrial era. It has not worked. It may have been good for some of my farmers in Arkansas, but it has not worked. It was a mistake … And it’s [the old agricultural policy] failed everywhere it’s been tried. And you just can’t take the food chain out of production. And it also undermines a lot of the culture, the fabric of life, the sense of self-determination.”
Haitian farmers selecting seed at a community-run seed bank PDL helped to start.
As Laurent Dubois and Deborah Jenson wrote in an op-ed in The New York Times on January 8th, “to lay the foundation for a better future … Haiti should look to the past, and the system of small farms and the decentralized economy that once provided Haitians with dignity, autonomy and wealth.” PDL and Groundswell have long focused on revitalizing family farming and rural communities as the solution in Haiti. But the challenge is: how do you effectively support that?
“PDL supports small farmer families to improve agriculture and food production and promote sustainable development by starting where they are – meeting and engaging with them on their own fields and farms,” says Jean-Baptiste. “We work with them to assess and analyze the constraints they are facing … Then, step by step, PDL and the local peasant organizations take action to overcome some of these constraints, building local strength and capacity.… We help to organize the farmers around common interests they identify, or strengthen existing farmers organizations to improve their work…. We help them link to other peasant organizations to work together and advocate for more access to basic productive services and infrastructure.”
Below are some highlights of what we have accomplished in rural Haiti since the earthquake:
- 9 peasant organizations, representing over 150,000 people, have been strengthened to lead local development processes and support displaced people from urban areas.
- This includes training 2,423 village leaders and supporting communities to organize 108 democratically-elected village committees to manage community-led programs to improve agriculture, health and rural economies.
- 2,532 farmers have been engaged in practical learning of critical soil and water conservation practices, as well as other techniques to improve their agricultural production.
- 6 community-run seed banks have been established, allowing 2,054 farmers to gain access to high quality local seed. Through seed selection and managing rotating seed loans, the quality and volume of seed bank stocks are growing under community-management.
- 214,785 tree seedlings have been produced in community-run tree nurseries, and 169,241 tree seedlings have been planted by farmers. Trees diversify production, provide for other family needs, and conserve soil.
- 6 community-run savings and credit coops have been formed. 1,093 farm families have received microloans totaling $55,261. Local savings are growing.
Miscaden Ronel, washes her hands at a simple hand washing station set up at her home. The design was introduced by PDL in her community.
In response to the cholera outbreak that came on the heels of the earthquake in October 2010, Cantave says that “PDL was the first organization to bring assistance to remote areas in the Artibonite Department affected by the cholera outbreak. The hospitals and other health centers were overwhelmed and could not respond to rural communities. PDL staff mobilized to bring antibiotics, oral re-hydration fluids and chlorine (to purify water) to save lives.” To prevent the spread of cholera since then, PDL and Groundswell have supported local peasant organizations to:
- Build 542 new large family water filters and 868 latrines.
- Train 3,096 families in water treatment measures and 5,202 in sanitation measures (including hand washing, latrine use, etc.) to avoid cholera and other waterborne diseases.
- Form 54 village health committees to coordinate the activities, including trainings and workshops on cholera prevention as well HIV/STD prevention, which were attended by thousands of adolescents and adults.
“We will continue to diversify our support for the community organizations in response to their evolving needs and priorities,” says Cantave. “We are working to build the social and economic infrastructure, and the communities’ confidence in their own abilities, in order to promote social changes Haiti needs.”
PDL’s and Groundswell’s work in Haiti is made possible thanks to the generous support of Lutheran World Relief, the Vista Hermosa Foundation, American Jewish World Service, the Haiti Fund of the Boston Foundation, and hundreds of individual donors.
