Haiti – USAID PL 480 Title II Multi-Year Assistance Program

Promoting Sustainable Livelihoods

On January 12, 2010, Haiti was struck by a major earthquake. ACDI/VOCA's efforts in the country have expanded to include relief and recovery efforts. There is more information about our work in this role here.

In February 2008, ACDI/VOCA began implementing a five-year PL 480 Title II Multi-Year Assistance Program for Haiti funded by the USAID Office of Food for Peace. The program aims to reduce vulnerability to food insecurity in the Southeast Department of Haiti, which is one of the country's least food-secure regions and suffers from high stunting rates, low levels of pre-natal care and high poverty levels. The Southeast Department is relatively isolated from the rest of the country and had limited access to resources, even before the 2010 earthquake. It is also particularly fragile due to deforestation, poor soil conservation and exposure to flooding during the hurricane season. The earthquake hit the region hard and further deteriorated conditions there; ACDI/VOCA’s program plans to address the new needs that have arisen as a consequence of the earthquake and to adjust its program accordingly.

To carry out the project, ACDI/VOCA has partnered with Bureau de Nutrition et Développement (BND), a Haitian organization that has worked for over 20 years to improve food security throughout Haiti. ACDI/VOCA and BND apply an integrated approach to food security that includes the promotion of sustainable livelihood strategies, a focus on health and nutrition and the development of an early warning system (EWS).

Over the life of the project, a total of approximately 16,740 households will receive health and nutrition training and 14,550 households will receive food aid for a limited period; approximately 24,000 direct beneficiaries from these households will receive agricultural support. The project anticipates reaching 72,750 individual beneficiaries in all.

The project works to reduce vulnerability to food insecurity via three main program components:

• agricultural and off-farm livelihood improvements
• mother-child health and nutrition enhancement
• development of an EWS for food security-related crises and increased emergency preparedness

Livelihoods component

For the livelihoods component, priority interventions will include improved agricultural production and post-harvest handling that integrate natural resource management, empowerment of producer associations, increased access to financial resources and to markets, and diversification of nonagricultural livelihood activities.

Agricultural activities have taken place in La Vallée, Côtes de Fer, Anse á Pitre and Thiotte, where ACDI/VOCA has worked with farmers to enhance their agricultural productivity. In conjunction with the Ministry of Agriculture, the program has introduced to southeast farmers a number of improved seeds such as the Arifi Wurifi, a new high-yield black bean variety, a short-cycle sorghum variety called RCV and a safety net short-cycle sweet potato. ACDI/VOCA has also partnered with the Ministry of Agriculture’s leading yam specialist to conduct training on the miniset technique, a yam-seed preparation technique that allows the production of more yams from a single tuber. The improved seeds and techniques are expected to facilitate the rapid multiplication of beans, sorghum, sweet potatoes and yams throughout the Southeast and bolster food security and long-term sustainability.

ACDI/VOCA has also supported a fishermen’s association called Association des Pêcheurs de Brésilienne in the implementation of a pilot intervention to increase the association’s fish catching capacity by using a value chain approach. The pilot project has focused on each aspect of the fishery value chain (fish catching, cold storage, processing and marketing) to improve the revenues of the association as well as build its capacity.

To date, the livelihoods intervention has reached a total of 5,705 households.

Health and Nutrition Component

The program’s health and nutrition interventions link the most vulnerable and underserved communities to health and nutrition services and provide training on health and hygiene practices, especially for mothers and children. ACDI/VOCA and BND also carry out a food distribution program aimed at vulnerable mothers and children. The food distribution is mainly preventive and follows the preventing-malnutrition-for-children-under-two approach (PM2A), which is aimed at distributing food to all pregnant and lactating mothers and children aged 6-23 months in vulnerable areas. The food distribution program also provides recuperative rations for malnourished children aged 6-59 months.

In coordination with the Ministry of Health, ACDI/VOCA and BND have extended their outreach throughout the Southeast delivering health services and distributing food through health centers and rally points in Côtes de Fer, Belle Anse, Anse á Pitre, Grand Gosier and Thiotte. Program staff also provides family planning supplies and family planning-related behavior change materials and training, as well as antenatal care and postpartum care visits.

Each month, pregnant and lactating women and children receive supplemental rations of nutritional and high-calorie wheat soy blend, corn soy blend and vegetable oil. ACDI/VOCA monitors the health of beneficiaries, weighs and vaccinates children, and provides nutrition services. To date, a total of 3,306 children and 521 pregnant and lactating women have benefited from the nutrition program, and a total of 3,827 families have received monthly food rations.

To ensure sustainability after food distribution ends, the project aims to integrate beneficiaries into the project’s agricultural activities so they can learn new farming techniques and feed themselves.

Early Warning System

The EWS is a monitoring tool for slow onset emergencies (e.g., droughts) and rapid onset emergencies (e.g., hurricanes). It assists communities in successfully identifying and responding to shocks.

ACDI/VOCA has become the leader in developing a sustainable Southeast EWS designed to create linkages between the local authorities, community leaders and the Comité National de Sécurité Alimentaire (CNSA). ACDI/VOCA has spearheaded the creation of a joint food security observatory in the Southeast, which publishes Southeast early warning bulletins periodically. The Southeast early warning bulletins provide rainfall data, prices for selected markets, and relevant agricultural information as well as information from the Ministry of Health. They are published in collaboration with the Observatoire de la Sécurité Alimentaire du Sud-est (OSASE). The bulletins are available on CNSA’s website: http://www.cnsahaiti.org/Nos_Observatoires/osase/osase.html.

In addition, the project has worked closely with Haiti’s Département de Protection Civile (DPC) to review and prepare emergency contingency plans with local authorities, key leaders and other NGOs from different localities and communes. As a result of ACDI/VOCA’s efforts and activities, a total of 85 localities are currently covered by an EWS that is linked to a response system.

For more information, contact Ally Gillespie at agillespie@acdivoca.org.

Updated: 2/10