Greetings and Happy Thanksgiving!
Since you last heard from me work has been progressing trying to resuscitate the public-private partnership that the Haitian ministries of Agriculture and Environment had been moving forward with our help and that of the French, the World Bank and the IDB and other actors. However we hit a roadblock with other parts of the administration here and we went to the mattresses working more with regional and local government than national for the time being, and launching a five year agroforesty project in the department of Nippes that we are providing parallel financing for along side the World Bank. It is s-l-o-o-o-o-o-w going.
I never was a patient person, and this work definitely tries my patience, but I am perseverant and we shall persevere. You can follow what we are doing on the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/HaitiTakesRoot/?ref=bookmarks and on twitter @HaitiTakesRoot
Also doing preliminary work that may lead to the launch of incubator for agribusinesses and an accelerator for social enterprises with solutions to environmental problems in 2020. Have been on the road for convenings including Jamaica for the Caribbean Climate Smart Accelerator and Guatemala the Forum for Impact Investing for Central America and the Caribbean.
Had a good dive holiday over Toussaint (All Saint’s Day) in Curacao.
But of note recently has been civil unrest that has us on our 5th day of sheltering in place and our 3rd day of “Haitian snow days” – most businesses are closed due to strikes of transport drivers and impediments to getting to work, like burning tires, oil on the road, throwing rocks and gunshots.
Protests this past weekend were planned months in advance by a grassroots effort that is anti-corruption and trying to create more accountability. It’s an excellent movement and I hope a tipping point for transparency going forward. However, the opposition party has co-opted the movement to call for the President to step down, and they’re holding the rest of the country hostage this week (or at least under house arrest). You would have heard about it on facebook except that the algorithms seem to have kept it off my feed, visible only to me…I’d blame the Russians, except that I don’t think they’re very interested in Haitian politics. Well you know what, in the words of Glenn Close “I won’t be ignored” see below.
Thankful for you all and wishing you a great holiday!
Well just want you to know that this works and we are listening – reading actually. Going local rather than National is great. Finding Local governments, communities and business and or producer groups that are actually interested seems most sustainable. Stay safe and have fun.
Great post TK. Hoping the grassroots group some progress towards their cause..i wonder how fb decides what ‘party’ can post on their platform.