Where we work

CECI has had a constant presence in Haiti since 1971, even through the numerous periods of political instability that the country has undergone in the last three decades. For five years now, our portfolio of projects has been growing significantly. CECI works in 45 communes, representing 32% of the land area. We are one of the largest development organizations in Haiti in terms of our geographical coverage, budget, range of donors, and spheres of involvement, and as such our level of credibility is exceptional. In 2009, our six regional offices were staffed by 160 employees.

In the last three years, CECI has contributed through many projects to improving the quality of life for a large segment of the Haitian population. Currently, more than 200,000 people are directly benefiting from our work, which is also fostering the emergence of new models of partnership among Haitian stakeholders (central government, decentralized and deconcentrated government structures, and civil society).

Context

Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, the economic situation in Haiti grew steadily worse. Poverty became endemic and inequalities gaped. Haiti, the poorest country of the Americas, is in the group of least-developed countries (LDC) and ranks 146^th out of 177 countries in the 2007/2008 Human Development Report of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). According to UNDP estimates for 2005, 78% of the population lives under the poverty line on less than US $2 per day, including 53.9% in a state of extreme poverty on less than US $1 per day.

Poverty is even more marked in the rural areas, where the majority of poor households are found:

• education and economic opportunity are limited and basic social services are sorely lacking;
• basic infrastructure (water, irrigation, access roads, electricity, sanitation) is absent or not functional, thus reinforcing their exclusion and isolation.

Agriculture provides a livelihood for over half the population. Despite the diverse range of crops made possible by the country’s different microclimates, agricultural production has stagnated since the 1980s and is no longer able to provide for the food needs of the population, which doubled between 1950 and 2003, heightening the pressure on highly degraded mountain lands. The difficulties in which the sector is mired, coupled with the lack of alternatives in rural areas, are pushing many farmers to abandon their land and migrate to the cities in the hopes of finding better employment. Yet the unemployment rate is high and job opportunities scarce.

Despite this somber portrait, recent improvements in public security and a drop in the national crime rate offer hope for the future.

Challenges

Four sectors in particular pose major challenges for Haiti, its government, and its people. These are:

• food security;
• governance and local socioeconomic development;
• violence (including violence against women) and crime;
• environmental degradation.

Food security

At year-end 2009, the number of Haitian men, women, and children suffering from food insecurity was estimated at 2.2 million. UNICEF described the fate of Haitian children as being among the world’s worst, with one child in 12 dying before the age of five due to malnutrition and poor sanitary conditions.

Exacerbating the problem of food insecurity are a number of factors:

• a decline in support for agricultural development;
• a loss of food sovereignty;
• land problems combined with obsolescent farm equipment;
• the unavailability of farm credit;
• the weak buying power of most people due to the constantly rising price of food;
• the absence of a food security policy and a legal framework to facilitate access to food;
• a significant decline in the availability of basic social services, particularly in rural areas and disadvantaged urban neighbourhoods.

For these reasons, CECI is committed not only to improving and increasing agricultural productivity, but also to working on downstream activities including food processing, product distribution, market analysis, and improvement of basic social services.

Governance and local socioeconomic development

The Constitution of 1987 clearly establishes that Haiti is a decentralized state that favours participatory democracy. However, a great many obstacles, both political and otherwise, continue to impede the adoption of the country’s constitution. Still, significant progress has been made in the following areas:

• the presence of local elected officials, as prescribed by the Constitution;
• the gradual implementation of the deconcentration-decentralization of the public administration.

The principle of subsidiarity holds that local governments are more effective at delivering appropriate services at a lower cost. The participatory approach to local development allows for the implementation of this principle and gives impetus to a great many local initiatives more closely tailored to the needs and concerns of the people. Given the weak institutional capacity of the central government, its relative inability to carry out the process of decentralization, the donors have opted to support decentralization and have funded a large number of local development projects since 2004. CECI’s approach, which revolves around consensus building and coordination among local stakeholder groups, is an ideal response to the needs of decentralization.

CECI has, since 2000, been a pioneer in the area of governance support and local development projects. Given our expertise and credibility, the network of partners we have managed to sustain through crises and difficulties of all kinds, but most importantly, the obligation to deliver results in the face of rampant and growing poverty, we are committed to carrying on our efforts in Haiti.

Violence against women and crime

In the last few decades, crime has taken on worrisome proportions and the number of cases of violence against women has grown alarmingly. The measures taken by the Haitian authorities indicate their awareness of the extent of the problem. For example, the Status of Women and Women’s Rights Department, created in 1994, has been a key player in large-scale initiatives designed to sensitize the public to gender-based violence. In 2005, a national plan on violence against women was adopted for the period from 2006 to 2011. On-the-ground improvements in terms of prevention and punishment of violence against women and girls have been noted.

Often, gender-based discrimination goes along with discrimination on grounds of age, social status, or other characteristics. Such double or triple discrimination further marginalizes women and girls and makes them more vulnerable to unfair treatment. Areas in which the interaction between discrimination and poverty is clearly perceptible include income distribution, living conditions, and access to education and health services.

In the last decade, CECI has been working in partnership with Haitian women’s rights advocacy organizations and women’s networks. Our technical assistance and capacity building programs in Haiti have helped improve the organizational capacities of women’s associations in several areas, such as women’s rights promotion and campaigns against violence and impunity.

Environmental degradation and humanitarian assistance

In 2004 and 2008, Haiti, a mountainous country with only 3% remaining forest cover, was hit by devastating hurricanes that left hundreds of people dead and caused much destruction of property.

These natural disasters were exacerbated by:

• the extreme fragility of ecosystems and watersheds throughout Haiti;
• the vulnerability of a population ill-prepared and ill-equipped to deal with such disasters;
• the inability of Haiti’s national and local public institutions to implement fast and effective response strategies (bad condition of roads, limited financial and technical capacity).

Watershed protection, humanitarian assistance, and post-disaster reconstruction are of crucial importance, but more important than all of these is disaster preparedness. This is why the Haitian government and several donors have recently undertaken to prepare and equip the population to cope with large-scale weather-related events. CECI is taking part in these efforts.