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Haiti is a country of great social and economic potential. Many of Haiti’s hardworking and industrious citizens are eager to join the global economy.
The country has tremendous assets: beautiful beaches and majestic mountains, waterfalls, and historical monuments; its rich culture, especially its literature, is one of the best and most innovative in the francophone world. Its music, painting and crafts; its hospitality and tasty cuisine; its strong independent life-force and an entrepreneurial spirit bode well to Haiti’s potential for a dynamic development. .
These features coupled with a stronger, more effective and ethical governance, a vigorous and comprehensive program for improving the country’s security, infrastructure, agricultural production, and technological advances would spur high economic growth.
Today’s reality for most Haitians, however, is that only about a quarter of its 11 million inhabitants have access to formal education and a steady income. The other 75 percent are mired in poverty, struggling to survive.
These circumstances make the majority of Haitians vulnerable to poor health and malnutrition, social and economic exploitation, corruption and violence, failing infrastructure, deforestation, the effects of climate change, and other forms of environmental destruction which, in turn, make the country even more vulnerable to natural and manmade disasters.
Furthermore, instead of feeding itself and the world, from fertile Caribbean soils – which has been damaged but can be restored – Haiti imports 70 percent of its basic food staples, as it was forced to lift all import taxes, which opened its market to heavily subsidized products from abroad, particularly from the United States. This contributes to Haiti’s heavy dependence on foreign aid, perpetuating the unfortunate title of the “poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere.”
Haiti is so much more than that. Its people have always been proud, innovative, resourceful and fiercely independent. In fact, those attributes won them independence in 1804 when enslaved people of African origin won against their French slave owners and colonizers. That revolution made Haiti the world’s first independent Black republic.
But challenging the colonial world order came with dire consequences that still impact Haiti’s development today. In 1825, under the threat of invading Haiti again, the French colonial powers forced Haiti to pay a “restitution” to the former slave owners it had overthrown. Moreover, the implications that Haiti’s independence could have on other countries and colonies dependent on slave labor, such as the United States, sided with France and, together, declared an embargo on the newly independent Haiti that lasted 50 years. The “debt” to France cost Haiti the equivalent of 21 billion in today’s dollars. Paying this egregious “debt,” and facing the embargo, depleted Haiti’s economy and stunted its growth.
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At the turn of the 20th century, Haiti had become so unstable that its presidents changed nearly every year. Fearing that regional instability could lead to an advancement of German imperialism and, some believe, to protect American businesses in Haiti, the United States invaded Haiti in 1915 and occupied it until 1934. This further undermined its development and pressured the country into taking more international loans, indebting it further. As mentioned, the early eighties, the United States has forced Haiti to reduce its import tariffs on food to such a degree as to become almost nonexistent. This, enabled US rice companies, which benefit from substantial governmental subsidies, to take over the Haitian market. It resulted in killing Haiti’s entire rice production, and the living wage for smallholder farmers. These were irreparable income losses for the poorest Haitian farmers and contributed to hunger and malnutrition. Foreign interventions of this nature have persisted for decades, making it nearly impossible for Haiti to sustain itself without substantial foreign aid. One of the latest examples took place in the 1990s after the overthrow of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The U.S. government punished the nation with a four-year embargo, without thinking about the destructive consequences on the poorest of the poor and the nascent middle class. These nefarious international interventions, as well as domestic corruption, mediocre governance, and rural underdevelopment have led to todays’ disastrous situation. In addition to the Coronavirus, there are savage gang wars, kidnappings, assassinations, social unrest, and an ineffective governance. Following the immense devastation of the 2010 earthquake (nearly 300,000 dead, 1.5 million homeless), some big multilateral donors turned old loans into grants. This was a step in the right direction, but undoing the deeply entrenched problems requires an in-depth change of internal and external policies and actions, and drastically different development approaches. What is needed is a cohesive, nation-wide, long-term development plan that promotes autonomy, self-sufficiency and sustainability; free and democratic elections, and a leadership with a vision and the capability and means to realize it. That vision must be articulated based on input from all Haitians, the economic elite and the smallholder farmers who represent 95% of all agricultural producers and contribute to one quarter of the country’s GDP. Yet, they are almost never consulted. There are highly successful foreign and Haitian companies working in Haiti: MSC, a massive size hardware, tools, construction and renovation material business; Giant, a chain of high-end supermarkets and home supplies stores; Digicel, a national mobile telecommunications network, part of the pan-Caribbean Digicel Group; Telecom, a public / private partnership between the Haitian government and Viettel, a Vietnamese company; and the rum Barbencourt, one of the world’s best. Last but not least, Haiti is the world’s number one exporter of vetiver essential oil, prized by the high-end perfume industry. Ecoworks International is applying, on a regional level, the principles we promote. We partner with smallholder farming families and communities, develop programs based on the farmers’ expressed needs and aspirations, and aim at enabling them to reach their highest level of autonomy, self-sufficiency and sustainability. Our regional development program, Talia Farms, promotes agricultural cooperatives to support farmers’ autonomy, includes initiatives that strengthen their communities, such as women’s equity, youth integration, education and training, and environmental remediation and stewardship. We believe in smallholder farmers’ wisdom, capability and commitment to improving their lives and those of their families and communities. If you believe this is the right path, join us!