Report to Congress: Assessment of the U.S. Government Haiti Rebuilding and Development Strategy

The Post-Earthquake U.S. Government Haiti Strategy sets forth goals for the U.S. to pursue in helping Haiti build back better after the January 2010 earthquake. The U.S. government Haiti Post-earthquake strategy focuses on three geographic areas and targets assistance to infrastructure and energy, food and economic security, health and other basic services, and governance and rule of law.

Food and Economic Security:

U.S. government funds are supporting food security through the Feed the Future (FtF) West Initiative, which recently supported the winter bean campaign, and procured tractors for selected farmer associations. FtF West is rehabilitating the 900kw Bas Boen power plant to run pumps for regular irrigation water for 2,000 hectares. In addition to supporting corn, rice and plantain production in the Cul de Sac and Saint-Marc corridors a mango processing center is under construction in the Mirebalais area. Through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, five Ministry of Agriculture employees were pre-selected for interviews for a master’s degree scholarship program.

Funding support from the U.S. government for economic security enabled the February 2012 launch of a Pan American Development Foundation program to attract foreign investment in Haitian small- and micro-enterprises. The program has launched a Business Plan Competition through which it will begin providing funds to winning entrepreneurs in July 2012. Through its support to the Batey Relief Alliance, the U.S. government is also promoting women’s economic empowerment by directing technical assistance and resources to vulnerable women in underserved border regions in Haiti.