HISTORY OF HAITIAN GOURDE (HTG) TO THE US DOLLAR (USD), 1912 TO 2020

Beginning in 1912, the Haitian Gourde (HTG) was legally fixed to the US Dollar: 1 USD = 5 HTG. The standard was abrogated in 1989 and the HTG was allowed to float freely in value. And it has done a lot of floating. The number of Haitian Gourde (HTG) to the US Dollar (USD) wentRead More

Market Assessment for Skills in the Agribusiness and Construction Sectors in the Saint Marc Region

The research presented in this report was commissioned by the RTI project, Local Enterprise and Value Chain Enhancement Project (LEVE), part of a USAID–USDA program working with the Haitian Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Rural Development (MARNDR) to rehabilitate three vocational schools. The goal was to assess the technical skills in demand in St.Read More

Unpublished EMMA Field Report for Post-Earthquake Emergency Response (Jacmel, Haiti)

The objective of this study of Haiti’s Southwest Department was, 1) expand techniques for value chain development in conflict- and disaster-affected environments with the goal of helping design early responses for ensuring survival (market systems could supply food and essential items or services related to priority survival needs), 2) provide useful information for current humanitarianRead More

Anthropological Brief: Occupational Multiplicity in Haiti

In addition to engaging in a vibrant internal rotating marketing system and integrated household livelihood systems that include a wide variety of crops, livestock, and harvesting of fruit, lumber and charcoal from trees, rural Haitians everywhere also exhibit what anthropologists refer to as ‘occupational multiplicity’, meaning a surfeit of specialties, such as housebuilding tasks likeRead More

Fair Wage in Haiti (Academic Version)

First published as a report commissioned by the ITC (International Trade Center/Ethical Fashion Initiative, November 2012) INTRODUCTION This white paper examines the concept of a “fair wage” in the context of the cost of living and the prevailing wage scale within in Haiti. It concludes with a recommended wage scale for the artisan sector. FAIRRead More

Fair Wages in Haiti (Short Version)

Fallacies In understanding a “fair wage” a couple fallacies should be recognized. First, official unemployment rates for Haiti vary between 70 to 80 percent. Similarly, organizations such as the World Bank have estimated that over 50% of the Haitian population lives on less than $1 per day and as much as 80% lives on lessRead More

Irony of the Exports: Superiority of the Local Market for Haitian Mangoes

A closer look at evidence and trends in the market suggests that the local market for mangos is better than that of the export market. It offers producers more money. Indeed, to get mangos from producers, the exporters, their voltije and fourniseur agents have to resort to trickery and financial advances on trees 9 monthsRead More

Post Earthquake Jacmel (Haiti) Report and EMMA (Red Cross 2010)

The objective of the Department du Southeast study (per Scope of Work 1-2) was, expand AMAP learning about value chains in conflict- and disaster-affected environments with the goal of helping design early responses for ensuring survival (market systems could supply food and essential items or services related to priority survival needs), provide useful information forRead More

Microlending in Haiti

Microlending can be understood as the favorite and most promising current NGO activity in Haiti. It fits into the new investment-production-return ideology that donors most appreciate and in which, we are often told, Haitian farmers are eager participants. But there are aspects of the industry that are disturbing and ring of past failure.

Gender in Haiti Report (CARE International 2012)

The quantitative Gender Survey described in this document was conducted under the auspices of Socio-Dig, a Haiti-based research firm. The survey was part of larger evaluation and exploration of gender in Leogane and Carrefour, two communes (counties) near to Port-au-Prince that were among those most heavily impacted by the January 12th 2010 earthquake. Following theRead More

Income and Wages