For a new approach to takle root causes

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The Haiti Support Group backs calls by Haiti's progressive civil society organisations for a new approach that tackles the root causes of the country's problems - 7 October 2008

In a statement* released following August and September's catastrophic floods caused by a series of hurricanes, sixteen organisations, including the country's human rights platform and the main peasant movements, demand an end to cosmetic solutions.

In place of the "inappropriate policies imposed by the international finance institutions" and the "bad policies applied by the Haitian State", the civil society organisations make a series of proposals to address the most pressing problems affecting the majority population.

Representatives of eight progressive organisations have also recently published an open letter** to Haiti's president René Préval in which they insist on the need for an alternative development strategy to be drafted with the participation of all sections of society.

The British solidarity organisation, the Haiti Support Group, which has been working in support of grassroots solutions to Haiti's problems for over 15 years, believes that progressive civil society organisations must be involved in the creation=2 0of a new development strategy.

Haiti Support Group director, Charles Arthur, said, "The surge in international food and fuel prices earlier this year caused immense hardship in Haiti, and the recent flooding catastrophe underlines the seriousness of the country's environmental problems.

Haiti is dangerously over-reliant on food imports.

It is crystal clear that the neo-liberal policies applied over the last two decades have brought Haiti to the brink of total ruin."

He continued, "Both the international finance institutions and the Haitian authorities must now recognise that rolling back the State, and promoting the private sector - and garment-assembly in particular - while completely neglecting the agricultural sector, constitute a recipe for the disaster that Haitians are now living through.

Haiti needs to make a complete break with the failed policies of the last two decades."

Progressive civil society organisations, having consistently been left out of the process of designing national development strategies, are demanding that they be allowed to contribute in the forging a new direction for the country.

The HSG's Arthur continues, "In the context of the current crisis, the effects of which are likely to worsen in the months ahead, the new government must respond favourably to this demand."

On taking office in early September, the new prime minister, Michele Pierre-Louis, told the Haitian Parliament that in terms of economic growth and poverty reduction her government's approac h would be based on the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) drafted by the previous government at the behest of the World Bank. However the preparation of this medium-term development strategy during 2007, once again, failed to include a genuine participator y process involving a broad range of civil society organisations working on development issues at the grassroots.***

Although Pierre-Louis admitted that the PRSP would require some adjustments, the extent of the destruction caused by the series of hurricanes, and the prospect of serious food shortages and famine in the coming months, suggest that a completely new development strategy is required.

Indeed, when the HSG compares the strategy detailed in the PRSP with the proposals recently put forward by progressive civil society organisations in the context of the recent hurricanes disaster and the continuing food crisis, the contradictions are glaring:

- The Haitian organisations call for a comprehensive agrarian reform, but while the PRSP includes programmes to improve irrigation and water conservation, it lacks any serious commitment to land tenure issues, and various other aspects of agrarian reform are badly under-resourced;

- There are no coherent plans to clearly define zones for agriculture, for construction, for exploitation of the country's tree cover, and for forest conservation, as called for by Haiti's civil society organisations, and the total allocation for the environment is just 4% of the total PRSP budget;

- In terms of reducing economic pressure on the environment, the PRSP's programmes are again woefully under-resourced;

- There is no serious commitment made to develop alternative sources of energy;

- The amounts allocat ed for re-forestation are derisory;

- The absence of plans for a comprehensive agrarian reform fatally undermine the PRSP's stated aim to achieve food security.

As it stands, the PRSP fails to enact the measures that progressive civil society organisations believe are necessary to tackle the roots of Haiti's problems.

The Haiti Support Group is convinced that a completely new development strategy is needed, and that progressive civil society organisations must fully participate in the creation of this strategy.

Charles Arthur asserts, "For a poverty-reduction strategy to have any chance of success, it must be created by those who are living in poverty and those working to end poverty."

More information about the above issues can be found on the Haiti Support Group web site: www.haitisupport.gn.apc.org

* Progressive civil society organisations say tackle the root problems now - 15 September 2008 haitisupport.gn.apc.org/PostHurricanesPosition.html

** Position of Haitian social and popular organisations on the EPA - 22 September 2008 haitisupport.gn.apc.org/PrevalEPAletter.html

*** Haiti's Poverty Redu ction Strategy Paper (PRSP) process and the limited participation of civil society, 13 November 2007 haitisupport.gn.apc.org/PRSP.html

Comparison of the PRSP with the proposals recently put forward by progressive civil society organisations, 23 September 2008 haitisupport.gn.apc.org/PRSPCSOcomparison.html

Charles Arthur, October 9 2008, 1:36 AM

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