EMERGENCY/LONG TERM FOOD SECURITY & RESILIENCE IN HAITI

Project Details

Project Locations: Sud and Nord-Est Departments

Timeframe: 2021-2026

Donor: USAID Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance

Partners: Caritas Haiti, Action contre la Faim, Washington University in St. Louis, AFASDA

Project Overview

Ayiti Pi Djanm (“A Stronger Haiti” in Haitian Creole) is a five-year project that is reaching nearly 90,000 participants and more than 17,000 households across 12 communes in the Sud and Nord-Est departments of Haiti, with the goal of improving food security and resilience to shocks. Recognizing that families exist in a larger social environment and do not build resilience alone, the consortium led by CRS is partnering with communities to build capacities at the household and community levels. The project features an innovative market system approach using Title II commodities to create economic opportunities and catalyze private sector investments.

Ayiti pi Djanm builds on nearly 70 years of learning and implementation in Haiti, pulling successful approaches and operational best practices from CRS projects such as the BHA-funded Nou se Wozo 2 that partnered with Etoile du Nord to support 2000 sorghum farmers, the EU-funded PAP pip Pwop project that trained young entrepreneurs in Port au Prince to establish businesses that support municipality priorities, and the USDA KABOS project where CRS used online and tablet-based training to cascade skills to more than 6000 farmers.

Key Areas of Intervention

  • Organize Farmer Learning Communities focused on demo plots for local leadership on NRM and climate-smart innovation and adoption efforts
  • Create mixed gender care groups, linked to the MSPP health facilities, to build knowledge and support for critical nutrition behaviors
  • Mobilize and support the creation of Savings and Internal Lending Communities to support savings and financial education
  • Engage youth leaders through entrepreneurship training, youth network and service programs to strengthen household and community resiliency

Provide vouchers and multipurpose cash assistance to support the basic needs of households, local farmers, and youth entrepreneurs

Expected Key Outcomes

  • Enhanced sustainable management of natural resources
  • Improved consumption and utilization of safe and nutritious foods, especially by women and children
  • Boost profitability of household livelihoods

Expected Additional Outcomes

  • Farmer households restore, improve and protect natural resources for resilient livelihoods
  • Multi-sector landscape stakeholders restore, improve and protect natural resources
  • Pregnant and lactating women, children under 2, and adolescent girls in vulnerable, food insecure households increase their practice of key behaviors for optimal utilization of nutritious foods
  • Vulnerable households reduce exposure to environmental contamination
  • Extremely poor and chronically vulnerable agricultural households have improved quantity and diversity of agricultural production
  • Extremely poor and chronically vulnerable agricultural households have reliable and increased net income from agriculture
  • Increased income from resilient off-/non-farm livelihoods in rural communities, especially for women and youth

CRS in Haiti

Catholic Relief Services began working in Haiti in 1954 after Hurricane Hazel devastated the country and killed about 1,000 people. High population density, severe deforestation and decaying infrastructure make Haiti particularly vulnerable to the effects of natural disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes and floods.

CRS Haiti continues its long-standing commitment to helping the Haitian people in many aspects of their lives, including sustainable development efforts after the 2010 earthquake. In Haiti, CRS responds to emergencies, provides agriculture assistance, supports education and works to enhance the health care system throughout the country.