Geographic Homogeneity of Poverty in Haiti

It is always very difficult to quantify malnutrition in Haiti. …the data available from actors appears to show that, strictly speaking, there are no pockets of malnutrition. ECHO 2011:24 Although humanitarian aid organizations working in Haiti almost universally target specific departments and communes based on CNSA vulnerability assessments (see CARE 2013a), a longitudinal lookRead More

Failure of the HDVI : Beneficiary Criteria, Indicators, and PMT (Proxy Means Test) in Haiti (Human Deprivation and Vulnerability Index)

To identify most vulnerable beneficiaries, humanitarian organizations in Haiti have often used criteria based on expectations from elsewhere in the world, criteria that are often not based on data, and that, more often than not, fail in Haiti. The best and most controversial flood of examples comes from the World Bank/WFP/USAID supported HDVI (Humanitarian DeprivationRead More

History of Beneficiary Selection and Targeting in Haiti

Here I review the history of humanitarian aid beneficiary targeting in Haiti. I begin in the 1950s and 1960s with the Community councils, move through the 1970s and 1980s looking at gwoupman and the liberation theology movement. Very importantly I show how the revolutionary Liberation Theology movement of the 1970s to 1990s that were intendedRead More

Street Food in Haiti

This article describes and attempts to explain the recent growth in Haiti’s street food cottage industries. Underlying the growth in street foods is urbanization and challenges that come with it. The challenges can be summed up as, “The Food Preparation Conundrum,” which can be further broken down into problems that the the street food industryRead More

Prepackaged Industrial Snack Food Industry in Haiti

Imported snack foods are another solution to what I have defined elsewhere as the Food Preparation Conundrum (The Storage problem, The Water Problem, The Fuel Problem, The Labor Problem) that has come about with rapid urbanization of the past 50 years. They are inexpensive, ready to eat, available everywhere, have a long shelf-life and areRead 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

Cheaper by the Dozen Mango Travesty II

Puzzling regarding change in prices, size of dozens and reject rates is that HAP made claims in 2005 almost identical to those of Haiti Hope project claims in 2014 and 2015. Quoting directly from the HAP 2005 evaluation, Field interviews indicated that ten years ago producers were paid four gourdes for a dozen mangos, andRead More

Cheaper by the Dozen Mango Travesty I

It is not at all what NGOs or Haitians mean–any of them—when they say “dozen.” Not those in the mango business anyway. First off, for the poor Haitian producers, they do not measure in weight and they seldom measure in number. They measure in volume. Hence when trading locally in mangos they do not useRead More

Lying Sack of Mango: Travesty of Export Prices

This article summarizes how USG funded aid agencies and contractors have manipulated price data to make it appear that they have improved the export market chain price for mangoes. As seen below, they’ve rather boldly misrepresented their own data to make their case.

Surveys in Haiti