SPOTLIGHT: The Haitian Situation from a Non-Profit's Point of View - Global Food Initiative

As a way of keeping a toe or two in the realm of international work, and continuing to learn of the struggles of communities in another part of the world, I began traveling to Haiti in 2013 to understand the situation there, with organizations that were involved with health care and subsistence issues.  First, I spent several 2 week trips on the Central Plateau in Haiti, near the municipality of Hinche, depicted below.  

Hinche, Haiti

After several experiences working with orphanages in that area, which had been populated with children whose parents died during the 2010 earthquake , I began communicating with the manager of Global Food Initiative, a Church of the Brethren-affiliated organization that works around the world on issues of food security in vulnerable areas.  Global Food Initiative(GFI) was founded in 1983, and works in many areas around the world, including Rwanda, Nigeria, Ecuador, Honduras, Democratic Republic of Congo, and others.  In Haiti, GFI works with around 25 community groups around the country who are working to grow new crops, install fish ponds in areas where lack of protein is a severe issue, install fruit tree farms, and ensure 

water for others.  

GFI is only 1 of thousands of similar organizations that work tirelessly to fill the voids around the world for dependable natural resources and self-sufficient farming.  During the past 10 years, life in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, has only gotten harder.  The 2016 Hurricane Matthew devastated large sections of the small country as has many subsequent storms, and just this year, a 7.2-magnitude earthquake further devastated areas in the south.  This is all with a backdrop of a nation inundated with political discord that coalesced in the assasination of Jovenel Moise, the nation's president, in July, 2021.  At this point, the nation is struggling to maintain order, with kidnappings at a flashpoint, marauding gangs jockeying for control of the power vacuum, and a significant lack of resources for the nation's 11.5 million persons.  

The compounded anguish that haunts a nation familiar with extreme paucity led me to reach out to Jeff Boshart, Manager of GFI, to understand more about the current situation in Haiti, and the status of projects and international aid that have not been visited or supported (in many cases,) for over 2 years now during the global pandemic.  What happens to the philanthropic support than many rely upon when travel is severely limited, and transfer of resources impeded by this new dearth of law and order?  Is money getting into the right hands?  What is the future of places like those supported by GFI and others when the global attention span is diverted to an unprecedented health crisis?  To get some perspective, I had the following conversation with Jeff:

1. Could you tell me about your experience, time you’ve spent with GFI, within Haiti, and where some of the other projects are on which you’re currently working?

Regions of Haiti

I lived and worked in Haiti for a few years in the late 90's when I was working for ECHO (Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization) and some years later, starting in 2009, served as the Haiti disaster coordinator for Brethren Disaster Ministries before beginning my current job as the manager of the Global Food Initiative for the Church of the Brethren. Over the past decade, the GFI has partnered with Eglise des Freres d'Haiti (COB in Haiti) on various agriculture projects such as soil conservation, small animal raising (mainly fish and goat projects), value-added product development (e.g. enriched peanut butter, jams, corn wine, soap, household cleaning products), clean water initiatives, and a tree nursery. These projects are spread out across the country, but mostly in the Nord, Nord-Oest, Nord-Est, Oest, Artibonite, and Centre provinces. 

 2. What about stories or anecdotes from how COVID has impacted projects that GFI is doing in Haiti?

 

Compared to many other countries in the Americas, Haiti has had fewer deaths per capita due to COVID. This may be due to lack of reporting, or some other factors yet to be determined, but the impact has been felt in other ways. Early in the pandemic, the border between the Dominican Republic and Haiti was closed. Many goods that are consumed in Haiti come from the DR, which caused a spike in prices. In Haiti there were no government stimulus checks or PPP and people with small businesses saw their income drop. Thankfully, government shutdowns didn't last long because staying home meant going hungry. Remittances from the Haitian diaspora in the U.S. actually increased in 2021, making up 1/3 of the GDP for the country. 

 

September 2021 from IPC reported 
that 4.3 million in Haiti are facing severe food insecurity.

A greater threat to the Haitian economy over the past few years has been political instability, which has led to kidnapping for ransom and violence. This has crippled transportation and commerce due to gangs controlling roads and portions of major cities. The earthquake in 2021 in the southern part of Haiti also heaped more misery on the population as the prices of building supplies surged after the event.

 

3. What are some bright spots, if any, during this time for Haiti or some of the other developing regions where GFI is involved?

 

Amid the political turmoil, donations for food and farming aid 
have begun flying in from regional partners in the west, with 
the U.S. and Canada recently pledging $39 million in food aid.

Bright spots are sometimes hard to find, but there are dedicated Haitians who have more than adequately kept many projects going when their international partners stopped sending staff and volunteers. The animal projects continue to provide good news as more people are building fishponds and the number of families owning goats has increased in the communities where we have worked. As an aside, goats act as savings accounts for poor families. The clean water projects - spring caps, cisterns with sand-gravel filters, and some are more complicated reverse osmosis systems - are still up and running after 6 or 7 years. In other countries a similar pattern of local people and organizations pulling together to carry on the work and give hope to those who are struggling through the pandemic, has been remarkable.

 

4. Tell me about your vision for how reforestation might work in a place like Haiti, where tree canopy has long been devastated?

 

Successful reforestation work includes numerous pieces that would have to come together. Lots of organizations have worked at reforestation over the years in Haiti and many trees have been produced in nurseries and distributed. You can walk through most villages and people there will point out trees that were planted due to past projects in their community. But I'd say there must be a distinction between tree planting and truly reforestation efforts. An organization that I worked for in Haiti's Central Plateau has a chain-link fence around it's 40-acre property. Their mission is to operate a secondary school; however they planted a wide variety of fruit and lumber trees on some of the property and left other parts untouched for natural regeneration. I like to go back there whenever I can to see what has happened in the 25 years since I first visited. I go just to watch the trees grow. It is a beautiful thing. I also lived in the Dominican Republic for a number of years and the differences are striking with much more forest cover in the DR. The lessons I take from these two examples are that there need to be both micro and macro level interventions. 

 

The organization in Haiti has given the trees a chance to regenerate by not permitting goats to enter or anyone to cut the trees for charcoal. They do utilize fallen twigs and dead branches for cooking in the school lunch program so their is some consumption of wood from the property. Even on rocky land, trees will regenerate rapidly if given protection from machetes and goats. The tough part is that most farmers can't afford to fence off and then not cut down the trees when they are young to make charcoal. I believe that if farmers can get some outside support from government or private-public partnerships, the possibility of a successful reforestation effort increase exponentially. Over the years in the DR several major government interventions have protected and increased tree planting efforts: charcoal is not permitted to be transported to cities, the establishment of nature preserves, subsidizing the costs of propane for cooking, and government support for farmer cooperatives to plant coffee, cacao and other high value fruit trees. Coffee and cacao require shade which leads to a form of agro-forestry where farmers are able to get money from their land that is more than what they would get if they cut down the trees for charcoal.

Agroforestry and covercrops may 
be the future of sustainable farming in 
nations like Haiti.

 

The buzz here in the U.S. and around the world now for how tree planting and farming practices such as using cover crops or establishing permanent pasture instead of crop land can sequester carbon. I can imagine, and this would take lots of organization, the world's biggest producers of greenhouse gasses joining in agreements where farmers in less developed countries are paid to adopt tree planting and other farming practices to help offset pollution on a global scale. Some experts believe that adopting these practices on a global scale can not only mitigate pollution in other parts of the globe, but even become net sinks for carbon for example. Other experts say this is too rosy, but this to me seems like it could be a win for small-scale land holders across the developing world.

 

5. How has the nonprofit world, from your perspective, fared during the Pandemic, and how do you think this time will change the way in which nonprofits function in the field?

It's estimated that only about 1% of 
Haiti's original forests remain today.

If other nonprofits are seeing what we have, that talented agronomists and other development professionals in Haiti and other places are more than capable of doing great work without frequent visits from U.S. staff, this could lead to much greater empowerment of local leadership and local NGOs who work in close partnership with private or public partners in the U.S.

 

6. Any other thoughts that have been rolling around recently?

 

I'm excited about the creativity that is being brought to the table from many sectors, public and private, faith-based and secular, north and south, east and west, to take action on environmental problems that are facing us. I hope these efforts can be sustained.

Global Food Initiative and other dedicated organization provide a critical lifeline for struggling communities around the world.  If you're interested in the work of GFI, or would like to support the work they continue to do despite mounting challenges, please consider learning more or giving of your resources here.  Be sure to select Global Food Initiative from the list of funds on the site.