The $100,000 Question

Deciding what to do with a million dollars in Haiti would be easy. Still, countless millions have been lost on ill thought out, top-down, programs that disenfranchised communities rather than empowering them. Countless millions have been stolen by large development programs with a lack of accountability - such programs are counter-productive to development. One hundred thousand is closer to home.....not enough to buy a house in Washington DC, but enough to make a major difference in Haiti if used appropriately.

We all have our areas of interest. What would you do? Pilot a radically innovative program? Help an already established program expand? Put your money into feeding programs and schools? Or try to address the underlying reasons why children are hungry and educated? I don't think there is one sector more important than the others. I have a bias in that I work in public health. But health is connected to the economy, to the educational system, infrastructure, and especially the environment. There are no easy fixes, but there are best practices. The Board of Haiti Innovation has seen and worked with many small community based projects that grew with time....and in a sense, as these projects grew, the community grew as well. Regardless of the sector, ownership is key.

I would lean toward pilot programs myself. If you read the backgrounds provided by some of our partners in the educational system, you get a sense for how weak the school system is in Haiti. I would be interested in developing a "branded", private sector chain of schools throughout the nation that taught using participatory education and emphasized service learning. By branded, I mean it would be recognizable with a symbol....perhaps a conch shell, which was an important part of their revolution. For profit in that it would be independent of the Ministry of Health and all its tribulations. Opportunities for collaboration would come later. The schools would accept fees from students who could pay while providing scholarships to those who could not. Haitians value education highly, though there opportunities for a quality education are very limited. This approach might also inspire other school to adopt new methodologies.

We have consistently advocated for the creation of "H-SPAN", or a radio station that would broadcast cabinet meetings. Dialogue is essential to democracy. There is dialogue aplenty in the countryside, but it is sorely lacking in the political realm. This radio station could also feature conversations and debates between politicians and civil society representatives with different views. A strong facilitator would be required. How does one measure the impact of civil society programs? Measuring awareness would be easy, but the actual impact? One would help that more dialogue would eventually result in less journalist killed, less candidates who are threatened when campaigning, less activists who flee the country. Measuring the success of this program would be difficult.....but hey, it’s Haiti, and monitoring Radyo Trande (word of mouth) is not a bad place to start.

I'd also be very interest in urban alternate fuel sources. All of the reforestation programs are in the country side, and even then, there aren’t many. Ultimately, though, these programs accomplish little. Port au Prince has three million people and most are using wood charcoal. The demand is tremendous and the less charcoal there is, the more profitable it becomes to produce it. So the cargo trucks leave Port every day to go to the country side, drop off cargo, and come back with wood charcoal. The Artibonite is practically a desert now. Areas with poor infrastructure have ironically been protected from deforestation because the trucks cannot easily get through. Any sustainable solution for the country's environmental programs must begin in the eye of the storm, the capital. I've heard of industrial machines that make briquettes out of trash and agricultural byproducts. These briquettes burn hot and they burn fast. This would be an interesting diffusion study, but like Americans and our cars, it is economics that will win in the end. When charcoal becomes untenable, people will begin to be more interested in alternate fuel sources.

Also, a recycling plant may have potential. A friend of mine lived in bustling, overcrowded Dhaka. He said that the streets were spotless as people picked up trash off the streets and took it to a middleman who bought the trash, baled it, and then took it to a recycling plant. Everyone along the supply chain got paid for cleaning the city this way. A person could at least eat by collecting recyclables. Haiti's drainage ditches are filled with plastics.....a flood and health hazard as well as an eye sore. It would be worth establishing a pilot in this area.....Port is full of trash and when one Haitian is employed, he or she is caring for many others.

It could also be useful to pilot a civilian conversation corps program in a province. If it works well, it could be scaled up to a regional level, and perhaps a national level. It would have to be carried out with relevant ministries and with strong oversights. This seems like something that President Prèval would be interested in. In Haiti, I think that people would take great pride in being able to make a living and a difference at the same time. Opportunities for doing so are limited at present.
Those are some of my thoughts. I would like to hear from other members of the HII community what they would do if they had a $100,000 for Haiti.

Bryan