`
Piti, piti, zwazo fe nich li (Little by little the bird builds its nest)
index 4 8 Private Sector Development Education Energy Transport Water and Sanitation Agriculture Health Housing
18 22 26 34
12
30
40 44
46
Progress Report
4
Two years after the 2010 earthquake, the mood in Haiti is significantly different, even though the scars of the catastrophe are still visible. The new government is determined to speed up reconstruction, proclaiming job creation its top priority. Foreign and local investors announce projects to build new factories and hotels. Haiti is showing signs that it is truly ”open for business.”
development, education, energy, transport, water and sanitation, and agriculture. In order to boost the impact of its resources, the IDB is coordinating its activities closely with other international donors in every sector where it is present. It has also established innovative partnerships with non-traditional donors, involving them in projects of sufficient scale and duration to make a lasting difference, rather than offering short-lived palliatives.
There are other reasons for being optimistic. The IDB’s member countries have pledged massive financial support for Haiti’s reconstruction. Over the course of this decade it will total more than $2.3 billion in grant financing. With such resources allied to a prolonged timeframe, the IDB will be able to assist Haiti in the longterm effort required to build a better future for its people. Most of those grants will be invested in six priority sectors agreed with the Haitian government: private sector
Haiti has a unique chance to make lasting reforms to address deep-rooted challenges. The Haitian government and its development partners are keenly aware of their shared responsibility for the missed opportunities of the past. But its new authorities have proved willing to take decisions that could start a virtuous cycle of growth and investment, and to finally begin raising its people’s living standards.
5
Record
Disbursements
2010 - 2011 Disbursements to Haiti
The IDB has worked hard to help Haiti get to the point in which a change in expectations could lead to concrete realizations. Over these past two years it has become the country’s leading source of multilateral assistance. According to data compiled by the Office of the UN Special Envoy to Haiti, no other donor has delivered more funds for earthquake reconstruction.
Donor Total
A key development is significantly improved disbursements. Disbursement of IDB and co-financing resources reached $194 million ($177 million and $17 million respectively) in 2010 and further increased to a record $225 million ($175 million and $50 million) in 2011. The 2011 figure represents a 46% increase on the amount disbursed in 2009, the year immediately prior the earthquake.
2,380.4
IDB
328.2
USA
278.1
Spain
261.4
Canada
232.8
Venezuela
222.6
World Bank
196.3
European Commision
178.7
France
143.2
IMF
139.5
Brazil
113.5
Japan
102.7
Norway Other donors Source: UN Office of the Special Envoy for Haiti New York Conference Recovery Pledge Status Data updated as of 1 November 2011
6
2010-2011 Disbursements (US$ million)
52.5 130.9
The disbursement performance reflects the work of a 55-person team (including 4 staff and 2 consultants in procurement and financial management) assembled in Port-au-Prince to work with Haitian executing agencies to help projects move forward. In addition, the emergency prompted the adoption of special procurement procedures to facilitate expeditious and efficient procurement while respecting the IDB’s fiduciary standards and requirements. Also important is a program of training focused on procurement and financial management with counterparts as well as financial resources to increase their procurement capacity.
Total IDB & co-financing IDB projects disbursements in Haiti 250
200
150
100
50
0
2000
2001
IDB
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
co-financing IDB projects
2008
2009
2010
In turn, the IDB is gaining from this strong procurement experience. Lessons learned in Haiti from the adaptation of procurement policy could be
2011
Disbursements (US$M)
7
applied to operations in other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. In a similar vein, an e-government platform designed to provide the Haitian government a tool to improve public sector efficiency and boost transparency has led the IDB to develop its own data visualization system to display information about projects it is financing across the region. Investment projects have natural cycles, picking up in pace as they mature. Several major operations are also getting underway, including the much awaited renovation of the Peligre hydro-electric power (HEP) facility. In 2012 the IDB is therefore working to set another disbursement record with a target of $230 million in IDB, and $60 million in co-financing, resources.
Major milestones
PRIVATE SECTOR DEVELOPMENT Caracol Industrial Park under construction
10
after two years
Haiti Social Investment Fund established and ready to provide loans to SMEs
$
Million in guarantees ready to be issued by the Partial Credit Guarantee Fund
826100,000
EDUCATION provisional classrooms built in quake region
7,000
ENERGY Port-au-Prince Resource Management System operational
100
Envinormental Management Center completed solar-powered street lamps installed in 2 displaced-persons camps
school kits acquired students covered by tuition waiver program young people trained training centers in high demand trades upgraded and equipped
34,907
6 200
trainers retrained
TRANSPORT Jacmel Airport rehabilitated
505
km of drainage systems rehabilitated bridges built km of roads rebuilt or repaired
8
240
WATER
3 out of
500 5
& SANITATION
million liters of water distributed in camps rural water systems cities finished network upgrades completed in Grand’ Anse wells rehabilitated in La Gonave
15
20
AGRICULTURE
5,000 26
hectares added to area under irrigation during dry season micro dams built on the Ennery-Quinte River mango trees improved through top-grafting trees planted in key watersheds
50,000 880,000 32
HEALTH oral rehydration posts,
1,172
2,78510
1,652,539
municipalities covered by early flood warning system
animals vaccinated
120 treatment units and20 treatment centers
270 814,918
community health agents trained tons of chlorine acquired
million doses of aquatabs purchased
children received vitamin A supplements
HOUSING
400 60
Houses in Les Orangers model home expo
9
10
Private Sector Development
Education
Energy
Transport
Water and Sanitation
Agriculture
Health
Housing
11
Moving Forward
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Over the past five decades the IDB has worked with Haiti, the country has seen promising starts as well as disappointing denouements. Undoubtedly the country still faces formidable obstacles to its recovery and development, but this report argues there are good reasons to be optimistic about Haiti’s future.
The first stage of Caracol Industrial Park will be completed, the Korean company Sae-A will open its gates to thousands of workers. Power utility EdH will start to refurbish the Péligre HEP facility and to upgrade Port-au-Prince’s electricity distribution network. As many as 75 public schools will be built or rehabilitated in all parts of the country, welcoming tens of thousands of students.
Haiti is making every effort to turn the tragedy of the 2010 earthquake into an opportunity. The government has set job creation as its top priority and is changing the country from an aid recipient to an investment target. Implementing education reform is also at the top of the government’s agenda. The pace of reconstruction is picking up, at least as measured by increasing IDB disbursements. With opinion polls suggesting that Haitians are more confident about the future than they were a year ago something is changing.
This would be good news in any country but it is especially significant for Haiti. These projects, like other efforts to rebuild transport infrastructure or develop sustainable water and sanitation services across the entire nation, will demonstrate the IDB’s sustained commitment to the long-term development of the country. Thanks to the generosity of its member countries, the IDB is in a unique position to help all Haitians build a better future. Progress will not become evident overnight, but 2012 should deliver some concrete results with more people with jobs and more children in school.
Haiti is poised to build on the momentum started in 2011. After a year of planning and preparation in 2011, 2012 will see several transformative projects accelerate, reaching important milestones.
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www.iadb.org
IDB Haiti Country Department Manager AgustĂn Aguerre
Reforming Haiti's education system.
Boosting farm productivity in Artibonite.
Bringing potable water to Saint Marc.
IDB Country Strategy with Haiti
Scan these QR codes with your mobile device to access more information on the IDB's work in Haiti.
Private Sector Development
A key focus of IDB Group activities is the financing of programs designed to change radically Haiti’s exclusionary credit culture. For the first time ever, all the private sector windows of the IDB and its affiliates, the Inter-American Investment Corporation (IIC) and the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), are developing lending activities in support of Haitian businesses of all sizes. After the earthquake the IDB supported the Haitian Central Bank in establishing a partial credit guarantee program to bolster the local financial system while the MIF set up an emergency liquidity facility for microfinance institutions.
”Growth and jobs go hand in hand with private sector development. In Haiti, we support a long-term strategy to nurture small businesses and foreign investment as engines for reconstruction and modernization.”
A paramount goal of the IDB’s private sector development activities is to help Haiti rebuild its manufacturing sector, which once employed more than 100,000 people. Given the need to generate jobs around the country, the IDB is working with the U.S. government and other donors to promote development in its northern region. The linchpin of that plan is the Caracol Industrial Park, a facility that will allow its tenants to take advantage of the favorable opportunities Haiti offers to manufacturers, including unique trade preferences granted by the United States.
Kurt Focke, IDB Capital Markets and Financial Institutions Division Chief
Haiti has a large, young and resourceful population but one of the highest unemployment rates in the Americas. To promote job creation and attract more investment from both local entrepreneurs and international companies, the Haitian government is carrying out ambitious plans to upgrade its basic infrastructure and public services, as well as to improve its business climate. With its vision of Haiti 2020 as a country able to create jobs that improve incomes and the quality of life, the IDB is not only supporting public sector infrastructure investment but also promoting a more dynamic private sector, particularly the development of small and medium-sized enterprises.
In addition to unlocking credit and promoting job creation, the IDB’s private sector development strategy focuses on helping Haiti establish better conditions to attract local and foreign investment. The IDB is advising the Haitian government on reforms to streamline the approval of construction permits and the registration of new companies, so that the country can climb in the influential international business climate rankings.
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The IDB will support the development of such homegrown businesses through various programs designed to expand access to credit for micro, small and medium-size enterprises as well as to business development services. ”A business accelerator” program will focus primarily on the northern region, providing assistance to start-ups involved in activities such as providing transportation or food services to the industrial park’s workers.
An
Private Sector Development
The Caracol Industrial Park, set to become one of the largest manufacturing facilities in the Caribbean, is intended to become an engine for economic activity in Haiti’s northern region. The IDB and USAID have committed nearly $175 million to develop the park and related infrastructure. The initial stage of construction should be completed early in 2012. Its first tenant, Korean apparel company Sae-A, expects to gradually hire as many as 20,000 people. Once the whole 246-hectare (615-acre) park is developed, Caracol could host up to 50,000 workers. A $55 million IDB grant is financing the construction of factory shells and the basic infrastructure inside the industrial park, including a wastewater treatment plant. USAID has committed $124 million for a variety of related investments, ranging from a power plant that will supply electricity to the park and to nearby communities to the construction of hundreds of homes for workers and other local residents, in partnership with the IDB and the Floridabased NGO Food for the Poor. Sae-A, which has plans to build Haiti’s first textile mill at this facility, will be followed soon by other companies, including a furniture maker, an electric cable manufacturer, a paint producer and call center operators. By attracting tenants involved in different industries, Haiti will have more opportunities to grow a diversified base of local enterprises as suppliers of goods and services to the companies located inside Caracol.
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Cassandra and Wilhem Reimers of Carifresh S.A.
Haiti’s financial sector has traditionally served the two ends of the spectrum of potential credit clients: large corporations that can afford to borrow at market rates and microenterprises used to work with high-cost, short-term loans. The “missing middle” of small and medium-size companies and start-ups has traditionally been underserved. The IDB and its IIC are helping Haiti tackle this problem in several ways, explains financial markets specialist Felipe Gomez-Acebo. Haitian SMEs typically cannot afford to borrow at prevailing rates, while local financial institutions are reluctant to shoulder all the risk of lending to such borrowers. To overcome such obstacles, the IIC has established a ”social investment fund” with a €50 million contribution from Spain. The fund will co-finance loans to SMEs with local banks and microfinance institutions interested in expanding that line of business. It will also be open to co-financing other transactions, such as the sale of trucks, tractors, electricity generators and other capital goods, operating directly with dealers. The IIC expected to close the fund’s first deals early in 2012.
Large corporations and SMEs, however, represent a relatively small number of potential credit clients. There are many more businesses, typically operating in the informal economy, that are not quite ready to apply for a formal loan. For such cases, the IDB is financing an $11 million business development services program with the Industrial Development Fund, an affiliate of the Haitian Central Bank. The program will provide such companies technical assistance to strengthen their management and organize their finances and administration in order to become more “bankable.” SMEs may have already gained access to credit but cannot take on more loans because their balance sheets are not strong enough. For such cases the IDB plans to establish a quasi equity fund that will provide businesses with temporary capital with an innovative repayment system tied to their performance. ”Changing a country’s lending culture is not something that happens from one day to the next,” cautions Gomez-Acebo. ”This will be a long and gradual process. That is why the social investment fund has a 12-year life.”
Private Sector Development
More than 1,000 business people and government officials crowded into a convention center in Port-au-Prince last November to attend one of the largest investment conferences ever held in the Caribbean. Hosted by the Haitian government, the IDB and the Clinton Foundation, the Invest in Haiti Forum underscored the strong private sector interest in the Caribbean country’s prospects.
During the two-day conference, participants attended presentations on opportunities in apparel manufacturing, tourism, agribusiness and infrastructure projects related to the reconstruction effort. Haitian cabinet ministers outlined plans for their respective sectors, pledging to push reforms to improve their country’s business climate. Coinciding with the Invest in Haiti Forum, several projects involving the construction of hotels in Port-au-Prince and plans to establish furniture, paint and electric cable manufacturing plants were announced. The IDB also organized hundreds of matchmaking sessions between foreign and local participants as part of a process to identify potential investment opportunities.
”What we need is a country full of construction sites, construction sites that will generate jobs,” President Michel Martelly told the forum’s audience, which included visitors from 29 different countries. A day earlier, he had been joined by former U.S. President Bill Clinton and IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno in the groundbreaking ceremony for the Caracol Industrial Park in northern Haiti.
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Presidents Moreno, Martelly and Clinton at the Invest in Haiti Forum.
Education
”Broken schools. Untrained teachers. Excluded kids. Education is Haiti’s greatest development challenge. That’s why it’s a priority for the IDB.” Marcelo Cabrol, IDB Education Division Chief Supported by many international donors, Haiti has embarked on an ambitious education reform with the goal of achieving ”free education for all.” With the country strategy recognizing that improving education is central to post-earthquake development, the IDB has played a key role in this effort from the start, working closely with the Haitian government to shape the reform agenda. The reform seeks to gradually expand access to free, quality education, from pre-school through university. The IDB has pledged to provide $250 million in grants over five years and to mobilize $250 million more from other donors.
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Immediately after the quake, the IDB provided the Haitian government emergency resources to build hundreds of temporary classrooms at school sites across the quake region, allowing tens of thousands of students to return to classes. It also financed the purchase of school kits and the allocation of school subsidies. Over the past two years the IDB has approved $100 million in grants for Haiti’s education reform, which are being bolstered by $50 million in financing from other donors. A significant portion of these resources are financing the construction of dozens of public schools in all parts of the country. Together with other donors including the World Bank, Canada and the Caribbean Development Bank, the IDB also supports the Haitian government’s tuition waiver program, which distributes subsidies to non-public schools. The IDB’s initial contribution covers 35,000 students in the primarily rural Artibonite department. The reform also calls for raising the quality of education by improving teacher training, modernizing the national curriculum and establishing more demanding accreditation standards. To that end, the IDB is providing resources to strengthen the Ministry of Education’s capacity for planning and oversight.
”I am the first in my family to graduate. I want to do my best to help my country.” Yusef Buje, a senior at College Canape Vert, a Port-au-Prince school that was destroyed by the earthquake.
”Now that I am studying to be a professional, people are treating me with respect.” Stevno Volmir, 18, third-year auto mechanics student at École Professionel Fondation Vincent in Cap Haitien.
Education
Like other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, Haiti faces the challenge of helping its youth succeed in the transition from school to work. For many young Haitians this path will involve learning a trade to become skilled workers, who command higher salaries than most laborers. The IDB has been providing the Haitian government’s National Institute of Professional Training (INFP) resources to upgrade its technical education and vocational training services. Since 2007 it has rehabilitated, expanded and equipped six public training centers, updated the skills of 200 trainers and 60 INFP officials and training center directors, and graduated more than 7,000 young people in trades in strong demand such as construction, carpentry, masonry, electricity, plumbing, welding, mechanics, refrigeration, information technology and agriculture. By the end of the project Haiti will have public technical education and vocational training centers in seven out of its 10 departments. The private sector also plays a major role in providing job training services in Haiti. The IDB’s Multilateral Investment Fund supports different non-profit organizations that work closely with businesses and local governments to find internship opportunities for young people. One of the most innovative programs is run by a sports club, L’Athlétique d’Haïti, which uses soccer as a tool to teach young people life skills and instill values prized by employers.
20
As Haiti strives to build a better education system and fleshes out its plans to erect thousands of public schools, its government requires updated and reliable information to base its decisions on where to make these investments and which projects to prioritize. After the earthquake, that need became even more acute. The most recent school census had been done in 2003, and experts disagreed on the robustness of its data. During 2011, supported by the IDB, UNESCO, Canada’s CIDA, France’s AFD and Spain’s AECID, Haiti’s Ministry of Education launched a project to build a better statistics database, conducting the first school census since 2003. Despite some technical shortcomings that could be expected in a country still reeling from the effects of a catastrophe, the effort yielded a more accurate picture of the education system. The total number of schools turned out to be close to 16,000, including those that continued functioning in alternative locations after the quake, which damaged or destroyed more than 4,000 educational establishments. It also offered interesting data on the predominance of private education, a relatively low pupils-per-teacher ratio, and an absence of significant gender discrepancies in terms of access to education. The IDB, in coordination with other donors, will support additional assistance this year to strengthen the ministry’s planning department’s capacity to conduct these surveys and obtain more accurate and detailed information, including the GPS coordinates of every primary and secondary school in the country, said IDB education consultant Antine Legrand. The ultimate goal is that by 2013 the ministry will be able to begin collecting relevant data annually and to create a national student registry – the first one in Haiti’s history.
Energy
form its energy sector, its institutions, its markets and the state-owned utility, Électricité d’Haïti (EdH). The program seeks to reduce the power company’s massive technical and financial losses, which cost the Haitian government more than $100 million a year. Besides strengthening EdH’s management, steps have been taken to improve billing and collection.
"All Haitians – men and women, rich and poor, urban and rural – need energy.The IDB is helping them develop the infrastructure, institutions and regulations to meet that need.”
Simultaneously, the IDB has been working with EdH on the implementation of two key projects: upgrading Port-au-Prince’s electricity distribution network and revamping the Péligre hydroelectric plant, Haiti’s largest renewable energy producer.
Leandro Alves, IDB Energy Division Chief
By installing anti-theft cable and tamper-proof meters in key circuits of the capital city, EdH will be able to reduce illegal power connections that degrade service. Other investments, such a new substation in the industrial district of Tabarre and dozens of new transformers, will help reduce the frequency of service interruptions.
The IDB’s Country Strategy identifies the challenges facing the energy sector, particularly electricity generation, transmission and distribution and the associated institutional framework as a major impediment to Haiti’s development. Since the 2010 earthquake the IDB has provided the Haitian government $69 million in grants for sector reform budget support and investment operations that address key problems hampering its electricity services.
The project to recover Péligre’s original 54 megawatt installed generation capacity involves rehabilitating its three turbines and modernizing other electromechanical equipment. This investment is also supported by the German development agency KfW and OFID, the international development fund of the Organization of Oil Exporting Countries.
In collaboration with the World Bank and the U.S. government, the IDB is backing Haiti’s efforts to trans-
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PĂŠligre Hydroelectric Power Plant.
Energy
After the earthquake, due to the large number of people living in tents in displaced persons camps in Port-auPrince, security became a concern for the inhabitants. Assaults proliferated at night, particularly against women and girls. Some camp managers resorted to curfews to try to prevent such attacks. A $1.5 million green energy project funded by the IDB and the Global Environment Facility brought a measure of relief by installing 100 solar-powered street lamps in two of the largest camps, Carradeux and Petionville Club. Reported incidents of violent crimes dropped sharply as lighting conditions improved, according to the project’s executing agency, the NGO Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF). This year, during a second phase of the project, solar photovoltaic power systems will be installed in 12 hospitals and health clinics in southwestern Haiti and local technicians will be trained to service the equipment. This project has also shown how solar-powered public lighting and electricity generation could be used on a larger scale in Haiti. ”As an engineer, I am enthusiastic about this project because Haiti has a huge potential to harness solar power,” said Kenol Pierre Thys, the IDB’s project manager. ”As a Haitian, I am glad this technology can help improve the living conditions of those suffering the most.”
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Solar-powered street lamps in Camp Carradeux, Port-au-Prince.
Transport
”An interconnected and competitive Haiti requires expanding and upgrading the country’s transport infrastructure.” Nestor Roa, IDB Transport Division Chief
Though the IDB has long been a key partner in developing Haiti’s transport infrastructure, historic low levels of investment combined with chronic weaknesses in sector institutions constitute a major constraint to Haiti’s development. This is particularly the case with road transport, the predominant transportation mode. Investment in roads is an IDB priority. At present, the portfolio has some $440 million in projects under execution, including financing from the IDB’s own resources and from other donors, such as Canada.
These investments primarily seek to upgrade Haiti’s road network, improving connections between the country’s main cities and productive regions. IDB grants are currently financing projects involving several highways, including RN1, which connects Port-auPrince with the northern city of Cape Haitian; RN2 and RN7, which links the capital with the southern peninsula; and RN8, which links Port-au-Prince with the Dominican Republic. Another project will pave 20 kilometers of city streets using labor-intensive methods to provide thousands of temporary jobs in urban areas. IDB-financed projects also include resources for road maintenance once construction and rehabilitation work is completed. Local communities and microenterprises are involved in some of these tasks, such as cleaning drainage ditches and reporting on damages to the road surface or the signage. Since the earthquake, IDB-financed projects have completed the construction or rehabilitation of 240 kilometers of primary and secondary roads, the construction of five bridges and the rehabilitation of the Jacmel airport. The IDB has also helped the Ministry of Public Works to rebuild and equip the offices of its project executing unit. In addition, the IDB continues to support the ministry in its institutional reform, as well as in its planning to improve the country’s ports and airports.
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Bulldozing a new stretch of RN7 in southwestern Haiti.
�As soon as they started to improve the road, traffic picked up, and so did sales.� Cynthie Lubaints, roadside vendor at Carrefour Zavocat, a crossroads on RN7, a trunk road upgraded under a project financed by the IDB and Canada.
Transport
By some estimates, road accidents are a leading cause of premature deaths in Haiti. Medical NGOs report that around one-third of the patients admitted to hospitals are victims of incidents involving motor vehicles. A crucial step towards preventing such fatalities and injuries is raising awareness of the problem.
The program has a free call-in service that offers listeners small prizes if they answer questions on road safety correctly – a test that also gauges the effectiveness of the campaign’s messaging. As an incentive to play the CDs, drivers who generate the most calls over a given period are given a $50 reward.
To that end, the IDB and other donors such as USAID and IOM are supporting the Haitian government in a pilot campaign to improve road safety along an 80-km (50-mile) corridor of RN1, the country’s principal highway. One of its key audiences is the drivers and passengers of tap taps, the colorful pickup trucks and mini vans that provide mass transportation for most Haitians. To spread the word among the thousands of people who travel on that busy stretch, the campaign relies on Tap Tap Radio, a program originally developed by IOM to convey information to people living in tent camps about issues such as cholera, domestic violence or civility among neighbors. Tap tap drivers receive a CD with skits produced by Ayiti Living Lab, a group of citizen journalists based in Cité Soleil, one of the largest slums in Port-au-Prince. In one skit, characters talk about a crash victim, prompting a discussion about what can be done to avoid accidents. Writers use a light touch, as Haitians tend to prefer public service announcements delivered with a dose of humor.
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Before the rehabilitation project, RN7, the road linking the cities of Les Cayes and Jeremie in southwestern Haiti, could easily be mistaken for a dry riverbed. In the mountains, it was like driving up a flight of steps. The 88-km (55-mile) trip took about eight hours. Two-day delays were not uncommon when vehicles broke down on a narrow stretch.
transport costs and shorter travel times. ”This road is a good investment,” he said. ”Companies that didn’t deliver here are now doing business in Beaumont.”
The rehabilitation of RN7 was carried out by the Brazilian company Construtora OAS and financed with $142 million grants from the IDB and the Canadian International Development Agency After two years of complex work, the (CIDA). At times the project employed as project is having an impact. The rutted many as 800 people, with two crews track has been smoothed and widened. working from both ends of the road. Drainage ditches prevent water from washing away the road. Even before After RN7, its first contract in Haiti, OAS asphalt was poured, people assured decided to open an office in Port-authey could now cover the distance Prince. The company, which has brought between the two cities in under four tens of millions of dollars in vehicles and hours. There are now at least 15 daily equipment, established a compound bus services, up from a single one before close to the international airport. the project started. Through a partnership with the Brazilian NGO Viva Rio, which has worked for Business is also picking up along the many years in local slums, it is now route. Weppslen Exama, manager of training workers in construction skills. microlender Fonkoze in Beaumont, a ”RN7 was our letter of presentation,” market town about halfway between said OAS contract manager Rodolfo Les Cayes and Jeremie, said his clients Bressi. were already benefitting from lower
Water and Sanitation
”Nothing improves public health and brings dignity to communities as quickly as access to potable water and sanitation services.” Federico Basañes, IDB Water and Sanitation Division Chief The alarming state of water and sanitation services that constituted a major public health risk prior to 2010 was only exacerbated post-earthquake. Improving access to, and the quality of, water and sanitation services while strengthening the sector’s institutional framework continue to be priority activities. The IDB, in partnership with the Spanish development agency AECID, is Haiti’s leading donor in the water and sanitation sector. Over the past two years both agencies have provided the Haitian government $85 million in grants to finance infrastructure investments and technical assistance to build sector institutional capacity.
The IDB and AECID have supported DINEPA, Haiti’s water and sanitation regulation agency, since its creation in 2009. Since then, not only has the fledgling regulator had to contend with emergencies caused by the earthquake and the cholera outbreak but has continued to lead a broad sector reform while overseeing a portfolio of investment projects in urban and rural areas. The IDB and AECID provided DINEPA resources to supply 500 million liters of potable water to people in tent camps for six months after the earthquake. In response to the cholera outbreak, they provided the Haitian water agency critical resources to acquire 10 tons of chlorine and 270 million water purifying tablets. Investment projects are underway in Portau-Prince, five intermediate cities and in dozens of rural communities in four departments. In every case, the goal is not only to upgrade and expand the existing infrastructure but also to assist DINEPA in its efforts to establish institutional mechanisms to sustain drinking water and sanitation services. DINEPA has hired a team of international experts from Suez Environnement and Aguas de Barcelona to turn around the capital city’s ailing water utility. During the
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first year the team addressed urgent issues such as protecting water sources, monitoring for cholera, stockpiling spare parts and launching an action plan to boost revenues. Before the end of 2011 collections had increased by 25 percent – a measure that clients were noticing improvements. Infrastructure investments have either been completed or are close to completion in Saint Marc, Port de Paix and Les Cayes. In the first city, the water service is run by a private sector operator under a delegated management contract awarded by DINEPA. In the other two cities the services will be operated by local utilities, which will receive technical assistance to strengthen their management. Investment projects are in different stages in Ouanaminthe and Jacmel. In rural areas DINEPA is developing a community-management model. In the southwestern department of Grand Anse it has already built 15 systems. In the neighboring department of Nippes there are three systems under development, while in the adjacent island of La Gonave 20 wells have been rehabilitated and five small distribution systems are being built. In the department of Artibonite DINEPA is planning to develop 30 communal systems as well as to rehabilitate 33 existing systems that use water from the Artibonite River.
”I’m happy. My children aren’t getting sick.” Danette François, user of a community water system built in the village of Gomier under an IDB-financed rural water and sanitation project.
”Water is life for us. Without water we cannot do anything.” Camoens Fetedenouveau, local committee coordinator in Saint Marc, where an IDB-financed project has improved and expanded water services.
Water and Sanitation
Haiti is one of the few countries in the Americas that will fall short of the UN Millennium Development Goal for water and sanitation. It is particularly behind in improving access to adequate sanitation. There are no sewer systems and only a couple of facilities to properly dispose of human waste. Changing this situation will demand major investments, but one of the first steps is boosting the government’s ability to deliver basic sanitation services.
DINEPA is also offering training to masons who build sceptic tanks and latrines and to waste truck operators who pump out and dispose of the waste, seeking to establish basic standards. The agency is also reaching out to bayakous, tradesmen who traditionally clean latrines by digging a new hole to deposit the accumulated waste. The goal is to get them to cart the waste out to a collection point out on the street, where a truck can load and transport it to a proper disposal facility.
As part of their effort to strengthen DINEPA’s institutional capacity, the IDB and Spain’s AECID supported the establishment of a sanitation department within the agency. They also financed a training trip to Brasilia, where a group of DINEPA officials learnt about different lower-cost solutions. One system that will be tested in an area of Port-au-Prince and in the northern city of Ouanaminthe is known as ”condominial” sewerage, which can cost half as much to build as conventional systems.
While providing sewerage services is far more expensive than supplying potable water (connecting a household to a conventional sewer network can cost four times as much as installing metered water) Haitians are keenly aware of the risks of the status quo. ”Cholera has changed people’s views on the issue,” says IDB water and sanitation specialist Sarah Matthieussent-Romain.
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Collective latrines in the village of Mafranc in Grand’Anse.
Agriculture
”For agriculture, the goal is to catalyze investments that will generate jobs, restore the environment and sustainably manage Haiti’s natural resources.”
regions. They include investments in infrastructure for irrigation and flood protection, subsidies to promote technology transfers and sustainable farming practices, the improvement of agricultural services such as animal and plant health controls, the development of rural value chains, and supporting measures to regularize land tenure.
Hector Malarin, IDB Rural Development Division Chief
Since the earthquake the IDB’s MIF has also sought innovative ways to enhance agricultural production and incomes. It has established significant partnerships to support projects in two major rural value chains: mangoes and coffee. In the first case it partnered with The Coca Cola Company, USAID and the NGO TechnoServe to train some 25,000 farmers with the goal of doubling their incomes from mangoes. In the case of coffee, the MIF is backing a project with French development agency AFD, Nestle, Agronomists and Veterinarians without Borders and the Colombian coffee growers’ federation to restore Haiti as a premium producer and exporter.
Agriculture remains a key sector for Haiti, as half of its population lives in rural areas. Together with other donors, the IDB supports the Haitian government’s national agricultural plan, which seeks to address the sector’s structural problems. At present, the IDB’s agricultural portfolio in Haiti consists of projects totaling $150 million, substantially focused on some of the country’s principal growing areas in the Artibonite and Northern
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�The agronomists taught us when to plant the rice, when to apply fertilizer and when to harvest.� Marie Berta Alexis, farmer in the Artibonite Valley, where an IDB-financed agriculture intensification program helped expand the irrigated area and boost rice yields.
Agriculture
In the Artibonite river valley, Haiti’s principal agricultural region, the IDB has long supported a program to boost the output of staples such as rice, as well as high-value vegetables. Most investments have been aimed at protecting, rehabilitating and expanding the region’s irrigation network, the largest in the country. As a result, over the past two years the irrigated area has increased by 5,000 hectares (12,500 acres) during the dry season and by 7,000 hectares (17,500 acres) during rainy season, allowing 10,000 more farmers to plant two crops a year.
The program also supported the rehabilitation of a rice processing plant, expanding its capacity fourfold. The plant provides selected seed to help local farmers improve yields. Applied research and technical assistance provided by the program, coupled with support from a technical mission from Taiwan, China to introduce more productive agricultural techniques, have shown that output can more than triple on experimental plots, depending on the rice variety grown and the inputs available.
”In addition, repairs done to the riverbanks have ensured the protection of about 10,000 hectares (25,000 acres), or about one third of the Artibonite’s irrigated area,” said IDB rural development specialist Marion Le Pommellec, the program’s team leader. ”Work currently underway to strengthen the Canneau dam will ensure the protection of the entire system.” Before the 2010 earthquake, the program financed the construction of an 86-meter (280-foot) bridge over the Salée floodway, which typically overflows every rainy season, cutting off some 40,000 people from the rest of the valley.
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Decades of deforestation and soil degradation have ravaged the Ennery-Quinte watershed, but an IDB-financed agriculture intensification project is using several approaches to boost rural productivity in this river basin. One of the most promising techniques is the construction of micro dams, says Port-auPrince based rural development specialist Bruno Jacquet. Using large boulders and cement, the project builds small dams along the course of the ravines. During the rainy season, water accumulates behind the retention wall and sediment settles in to the riverbed. In less than a year, small patches of richer soil build up, allowing farmers to plant higher value cash crops such as beans, taro or plantains. As seasons pass, fertile areas continue to grow. Farmers can now use some of their additional income to plant live hedges and trees higher up the ravine sides, protecting their land. This technique, first tested in Haiti by French foreign aid experts, is being expanded under the IDB-backed project, which has already financed the construction of 26 micro dams along the Ennery-Quinte, out of a total of 150 planned. Given the quick returns and the positive environmental impacts of these investments (micro dams cost about US$5,000 a piece) the IDB expects to replicate this experience in three other river basins where it is financing watershed management programs, Jacquet said. Other milestones of the Ennery-Quinte project are: the improvement of 50,000 mango trees by top-grafting; the construction of 400 cisterns to harvest rainwater; a successful pilot program to test vouchers for seeds, and the planting of more than 1 million fruit and lumber trees across the watershed. This reforestation effort must be reinforced with other measures concerning local governance, such as persuading farmers to tether their cows and goats to prevent them from eating the saplings, or to refrain from burning fields to clear land for planting. Jacquet notes this will require alternative methods, such as growing fodder to feed cattle or adopting mulch-based agriculture, which helps conserve the soil. Building a small irrigation canal in the Ennery-Quinte region.
Agriculture
As a mountainous country exposed to hurricanes and tropical storms, Haiti frequently suffers flash floods and mudslides. Guarding against such threats, which can take thousands of lives, the Haitian government finished installing in 2011 an early alert system covering 32 municipalities on 13 high-risk watersheds. The semi-automated network was part of a disaster preparedness project financed by the IDB. A network of 52 remote monitoring stations picks up data such as rainfall and river levels. When a flood stage is reached, electronic sensors transmit the information to a command center, which in turn relays the alert to different agencies involved in civil protection. Members of an inter-agency team can then sound alarms by activating any of the 47 sirens placed in high-risk populated areas. Sirens have three different sounds: one for practice drills, one for approaching storms, and one for floods.
As part of the project, risk maps and evacuation plans were prepared for the 32 municipalities covered by the system, identifying the areas likely to be flooded and places where people can seek refuge. Local authorities and civil protection committees received training on how to respond to emergencies. While no floods triggered alarms during the 2011 hurricane season, the early alert system was used to warn people of two approaching tropical storms that eventually sideswiped Haiti, said IDB rural development specialist Gilles Damais. Sensors will be calibrated over time, based on the information generated by the monitoring equipment, eventually offering the option of automating the alarm system. At present, Damais added, international best practices recommend retaining an element of human decision in the process to ensure that other emergency response mechanisms are activated when the worst happens.
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A flood risk map for Carrefour, in Port-au-Prince’s outskirts.
”Now when we hear the flood warning siren, my family stays awake and very attentive, and we prepare for a possible emergency.” Mirlene Rhuyma, 18, Pont Manjoli, a town in the department of the South, one of the rainiest regions in Haiti.
Health
Nearly nine months after the earthquake, Haiti suffered another devastating setback when cholera appeared for the first time in more than 100 years. While the disease affected nearly 530,000 people and killed some 6,700 people in a little more than a year, the Haitian government, donors and local and international NGOs mounted an impressive effort to contain it. As a result, the fatality rate dropped from about 4 percent at the start of the outbreak to less than 1 percent by the end of 2011.
have been able to hand over gradually their operations to Haitian authorities and their local partners, said IDB health specialist Meri Helleranta. DINEPA, Haiti’s water and sanitation agency, also plays a key role in the fight against cholera. The IDB and AECID grant resources included $5 million to acquire supplies such as 10 tons of chlorine and 270 million water purification tablets, which DINEPA is distributing throughout the country. The resources financed other activities, such as the training of municipal technicians to monitor water quality at sources and wells in rural areas. Spare parts to repair water networks and emergency distribution equipment have now been stockpiled around the country to ensure a rapid response in the event of a recurrent outbreak.
In partnership with Spain’s AECID, the IDB quickly financed a $20 million grant to fund key activities of the Haitian government’s plan to combat cholera. The bulk of the resources helped to establish a network of nearly 1,200 oral rehydration posts, 120 treatment units and 20 centers for more acute cases, focusing on the country’s northern region. Kits were acquired and distributed to treat 150,000 patients. A total of 2,785 public health agents were hired and trained to go out into the communities to educate the population on cholera prevention and treatment.
During the summer months, when several cities and towns host patron saint festivities, DINEPA established mobile latrines and handwashing posts to prevent the spread of cholera in crowded public areas.
By focusing resources on the northern region, the IDB and its partners were able to build up at the departmental level the Ministry of Public Health’s response and management capacity. As a result of this strategy, external organizations such as Doctors Without Borders, which set up and ran the first treatment centers during the outbreak’s acute phase,
The resources have also financed an evaluation of the water and sanitation needs of 80 priority hospitals and healthcare centers around the country. Based on that diagnosis, plans are being drafted to improve their infrastructure and to purchase incinerators to properly dispose of medical and other types of waste.
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Community health agents inform about cholera prevention.
Health
Neither cholera nor political unrest have stopped Haiti’s Ministry of Public Health from carrying out two successive Child Health Week campaigns since the 2010 earthquake. During these massive efforts, hundreds of thousands of infants across the country received vaccines, de-worming capsules and vitamin A supplements. The IDB is one of the leading donors to this effort, providing a $5.5 million grant.
vitamin A deficiency, placing them at risk of death even from a common cold. In Haiti, where a third of children are infected with intestinal parasites, regular de-worming is also fundamental, as parasites are known to cause anorexia, anemia, stunted growth and intellectual development problems. As part of the campaigns, lactating mothers are encouraged to extend breastfeeding until the second year, in order to provide their babies safe and nutritious food.
These campaigns, which will take place every six months for the next two years, seek to boost children’s immune system during their crucial formative period. In Haiti, some 20,000 infants die every year from treatable diseases such as diarrhea or respiratory infections. Too often their own defense system against disease has been weakened by various forms of malnutrition such as
Child Health Weeks are also noteworthy because, rather than being executed by an external agency, these efforts are led and implemented by the Ministry of Public Health, using its own planning, monitoring and procurement systems and service delivery network across the country.
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An infant is immunized during a Child Health Week campaign.
Housing
The IDB responded to the urgent demand for postearthquake housing with a $30 million shelter program. The now completed 400 pastel houses in Les Orangers, on the northern outskirts of Port-auPrince, should herald better things to come. Though each house is a compact 35 square meters (about 380 square feet), they have two rooms, a bathroom and a cooking area as well as connections to a septic tank, water and electricity – a rarity for low-income housing in Haiti. The neighborhood also boasts paved roads, playgrounds, areas for shops, a community center and even some modest landscaping.
The project will also fund social accompaniment services during 18 months to help families as they settle in, offering job training and other opportunities to increase their incomes and improve their living conditions.
Counting other homes built under previous governments and funded by donors including Venezuela, Les Orangers will host about 1,000 families. President Michel Martelly’s administration hopes to foster a mixed income community here, in order to avoid creating a slum, says IDB urban development specialist Arcindo Santos.
Early in 2011, a small amount of resources from the project were used to assist the Ministry of Tourism in organizing a housing expo, during which some 60 manufacturers and NGOs exhibited different models proposed as potential solutions to address Haiti’s housing needs.
Les Orangers fell outside the scope of the strategy agreed with the Haitian government, which set other sectors as priorities for the IDB. But this emergency operation has helped mobilize financing from other donors, not only in the quake region but also in other parts of the country.
At present the IDB is planning to finance the construction of 300 houses in the north, where it is financing the construction of the Caracol Industrial Park.
Of the 400 houses in Les Orangers, 140 were built by Food for the Poor, a Florida-based philanthropic organization that donated resources. The rest were built by Haitian construction companies selected by FAES, the government’s social and economic assistance fund.
In addition, Santos said, the project will finance the preparation of a master plan for the northern expansion of Port-au-Prince.
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A crew finishes work in a street of Les Orangers.