ARTICLE - IFAD - RURAL COMMUNITIES

IFAD-FUNDED PROGRAMME INJECTS US$1 MILLION INTO HAITIAN RURAL COMMUNITIES, GENERATING 210,000 DAYS OF WORK
(Barnacle) -

IFAD leaders meet with Haitian Minister of Agriculture to review successes of quick response post-earthquake initiative

Rome – High-level leaders from the international development community and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) met today with the Haitian Minister of Agriculture, Hébert Docteur, to discuss the successes of an IFAD-funded US$3.2 million programme that created jobs while repairing irrigation systems and other productive infrastructure damaged in Haiti’s 2010 earthquake.

To date, the 18-month Haiti Post-Earthquake Support Programme for Food Security and Employment Generation in Affected Areas (PASAC) has injected more than $1 million into Haitian rural communities most affected by the earthquake through the creation of approximately 210,000 days of work for poor rural people living in the West and Nippes Departments of Southern Haiti.

“The project results are very encouraging,” said Minister Docteur during the event. “And it is an interesting model because the smallholder farmers participated in the decision-making.”

The programme also addressed food security issues in the Haitian countryside – more than one-third of Haitians do not have enough to eat – working with the Ministry of Agriculture and other partners to provide seeds to farmers and to help them plant productive family gardens and community nurseries.

“It is impressive that with a modest amount of money, we were able to help thousands of families rebuild their agriculture infrastructure that was destroyed by the earthquake,” said Josefina Stubbs, IFAD’s Director for Latin America and the Caribbean.

In order to foster market access and improve the productive infrastructure damaged during the quake, the programme also employed Haitians to rehabilitate 14 community-managed irrigation systems, to repair 12.5 kilometers of rural roads and modernize aging agricultural systems including irrigation pumps, mills and processing centers.

The programme, which was coordinated by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and implemented on the ground by two local partners under the general supervision of the Haitian Ministry of Agriculture, will come to a close this March. It was made possible with a $2 million grant from the Swedish government and a $500,000 grant from IFAD.

IFAD is the second-largest funder for agricultural development in Haiti with the PASAC programme comprising just one part of the agency’s short-term earthquake response. In April 2010, the IFAD Executive Board set up a $50 million debt relief programme.

Since 1978, IFAD has funded seven projects in Haiti at a total cost of $160 million with $90 million in IFAD funding, directly benefiting more than 150,000 households.