• Women trained in business management – FED trained 675 Women Micro Entrepreneurs on better business management and product value-add processes. These members principally produce fruit jams from locally available fruits such as mangoes, oranges and lemons.
• Women entrepreneurs provided opportunity to exhibit products – FED organised an annual exhibition where WMEPs and other small traders displayed their products and services to potential buyers from Canada, the US and Europe.
• Market study on business climate completed – This study revealed that the region’s artistic knowledge and indigenous fruits and vegetables can be exported to Canadian and US markets where Haitians are living. These studies enabled FED and the WMEPs to better understand market opportunities and the challenges they need to address to engage in profitable product promotion.

Remittances are the primary source of Haiti’s foreign exchange, equalling nearly a quarter of GDP and more than twice the earnings from exports. Haiti suffers from high inflation, a lack of investment because of insecurity and limited infrastructure, and a severe trade deficit. About three hours by road from Haiti’s capital city of Port–au–Prince lies Jacmel, a southeastern city that was once a thriving tourist destination. The 1980s saw the departure of tourists after a scare that the HIV virus had originated from Jacmel. The lack of tourists, followed by trade embargoes against Haiti and political instability, led to the economic downfall of the city. Jacmel remains a rural town where the majority of people depend on agriculture and micro-entrepreneurial activities for their survival.

Through an investment of US $300,000 over a three year period, this Initiative was expected to support WMEPs through the production of organic foods and products for export to the US, Europe and Canada. It sought to establish market links based on market research and to train entrepreneurs in packaging and acceptable safety standards that meet international market requirements.

Through an international trade fair held annually in Jacmel, Canadian and European merchants were expected to order products, giving the producers a ready market. This Initiative engaged in a funding partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and an implementation partnership with the Haitian organisation Femmes en Démocratie (FED). The programme’s objective was to enable WMEP groups to receive training in business development; access capital to increase their productivity, processing and packaging capacities; and extend loans as capital to expand their businesses. Through FED, the Initiative aimed to train Haitian private and public sector leaders and local government officials to support the identification of markets for WMEPs and promote business best practices through an improved business climate free of corruption and inefficiencies.

This Initiative’s goal was to promote small business development using WMEPs. Co-funding obtained from IDB also represented a significant investment into the organisation and the sector in Jacmel. The total amount of funding, when combined with US $765,000 from IDB, would have amounted to US $1,065,000 over a three-year period. While the availability of this amount of funds was an opportunity for FED and the WMEPs, it seemed to overwhelm FED’s capacity.

FED continued to operate behind schedule and activities were postponed every month. FED seemed to lack clarity with respect to the complexities of the industries in which it sought to promote WMEPs’ products. In addition, the organisation was unable to report in a timely manner, further complicating our review and reporting schedule. The lack of communication and poor road infrastructure continued to create problems throughout the duration of the project. Thus, at the close of the first year, it was not evident that it would attain its objectives as detailed in the programme logical framework.

Based on performance at the end of year 1, the designated funding commitment for year 2 and year 3 (US $200,000 in total) was allocated to the more effective North Haiti SI and FED was allowed to continue implementing Year 2 activities with the remaining funds until the end of 2009. This reallocation allowed the North Haiti Environment and Economic Empowerment Initiative to expand its economic, health, and environmental activities and still impact the lives of Haitians, in a more effective manner.