Oxfam America http://www.oxfamamerica.org These are the search results for the query, showing results 1 to 9. The Rice Value Chain in Haiti http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/haiti-rice-value-chain-policy Policy Proposal Trade liberalization in 1995 led to a surge in rice imports in Haiti, and today, foreign rice accounts for 83 percent of the supply of this main staple of the Haitian diet. This costs Haiti some $200 million annually, and leaves Haitian consumers vulnerable to spikes in volatile global prices. A substantial increase in local production is needed to reduce import dependence. But Haitian rice yields have stagnated for over two decades due to limited irrigation and poor maintenance of existing networks, poor soil and water conservation, lack of drying and milling facilities, limited government support for research and extension, and other problems.

This paper proposes a comprehensive new national rice policy, aimed at boosting farmers’ productivity and incomes. To bolster these investments, the paper proposes a price stabilization system that ensures that imported rice sells at a minimum entry price, with a variable tariff that rises when the price of imports falls below the minimum level. This system would not have a high impact on either producer or consumer prices.

]]> No publisher jedwards Caribbean Haiti agriculture food security hunger 2013-05-01T14:55:28Z Research Report In the wake of Sandy, Oxfam distributes cholera kits and steps up prevention http://www.oxfamamerica.org/articles/in-the-wake-of-sandy-oxfam-distributes-cholera-kits-and-steps-up-prevention The potential for cholera outbreaks is just one of the concerns Haitians have following the heavy rains. When Hurricane Sandy hit Haiti, the strong winds and torrential rains that accompanied it brought new waves of hardship and worry for many families still trying to recover from the earthquake that destroyed their homes nearly three years ago. And not the least of their concerns is cholera—the deadly waterborne disease that broke out on the heels of the quake and continues to spike during periods of heavy rain.

Around the capital city of Port-au-Prince and in the Region des Palmes, Oxfam has been distributing hygiene and cholera kits to people in need, while continuing to provide information on how to prevent the spread of the disease. In Artibonite, a rural region to the north that was hit hard by cholera when the first outbreak occurred, Oxfam is stepping up its prevention activities. It’s providing equipment to cholera treatment centers, distributing cholera kits to hundreds of families, and collaborating closely with the local authorities.

“Unfortunately, cholera will likely, at a minimum, be endemic in Haiti for years to come,” said Thomas Mahin, a water quality adviser to Oxfam America. “The history of cholera cycles in other countries is that when the outbreak goes from an epidemic to an endemic situation, the number of cases decreases significantly but the percent of cases that are children less than 5 years old goes up. So, while the number of cases will decline eventually, the most vulnerable populations—infants, pregnant women, etc.—will still be at significant risk. So, the total number of cases only tells part of the story.”

The rain Sandy dumped isn’t only affecting the potential for a cholera outbreak. In some areas of the country, rainfall was equivalent to about 50 percent of the yearly precipitation and destroyed houses, bridges, schools, and roads.

In the South-East region, Oxfam is working with local partners to evaluate damage to agricultural areas: Sandy was the third recent weather event to hit the region following, first, a drought and then tropical storm Isaac. The cumulative effects of these crises are devastating to small farmers. Oxfam has launched cash-for-work initiatives for more than 1,000 families. The income from that work can help people meet their basic needs.

]]> No publisher cmccabe Caribbean Haiti cholera humanitarian relief natural disaster public health sanitation 2012-12-13T19:27:48Z Feature Story Haiti Rice Value Chain Assessment http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/haiti-rice-value-chain-research Rapid diagnosis and implications for program design The paper provides an assessment of the Haitian rice value chain, including an exploration of areas for improvement. Total rice production has not grown significantly over the past 35 years, despite significant financial and technical assistance provided in some geographical areas. The market share of nationally produced rice has shrunk dramatically in the face of competition from inexpensive, subsidized commercial and food aid rice imports from the United States, which have become dominant in national diets, increasing the risk of long-term food insecurity in an era of global food price volatility.

]]> No publisher nhailu Caribbean Haiti agriculture 2012-11-01T17:20:23Z Research Report OXFAMExchange, Winter 2012 http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/oxfamexchange-winter-2012 What if development took the kind of time and commitment it takes to raise a child? (It does.) Oxfam's work is about structural change—a long, slow process. How slow? Well, we generally think about our field programs as approximately 15-year investments. In other words, a development program requires almost as much time and commitment as it takes to raise a child.

A shorter commitment won't get the job done. It takes time to help people build skills and infrastructure, to get policies changed, and to ensure that governments spend their money more effectively.

Smart development demands monitoring and evaluation. Organizations should be accountable to report not only what they do, but also how they measure it. Don't believe stories that guarantee long-term impact after one or two years' investment; that's barely time to lay some groundwork.

We all crave the easy answer, the quick solution, but if eradicating poverty were simple, people living in poverty would have sorted it out long ago. They may lack resources like land, but they certainly don't lack intelligence or insight. Poverty is a global challenge—one that we can overcome together, but listening and learning from people living in poverty, and developing solutions with them, takes time and sustained effort.

This issue of OXFAMExchange includes inspiring stories, but they are just snapshots from a family album: moments in a long journey together. Each story is ultimately about perseverance and the need for long-term commitment.

]]> No publisher Oxfam America Caribbean Central America East Africa El Salvador Ethiopia Haiti Horn of Africa agriculture aid reform drought farmers food security global food crisis humanitarian relief hunger livelihood water 2012-09-20T14:59:45Z Oxfam Exchange Haiti: a grain milling operation offers an economic lifeline for women http://www.oxfamamerica.org/articles/a-grain-milling-operation-offers-an-economic-lifeline-for-women-in-rural-haiti To help tackle unemployment and ensure families have access to food, Oxfam is working with a women's group to modernize and expand a service center. “Unemployment is the only thing we have here,” declared Dumel Deralus, smiling grimly as he sat in the shell of a concrete building that will soon be a new and expanded home for the Organization for Community Development in Thomazeau, or ODECT. He is the coordinator of the organization, which is an Oxfam partner working to improve economic and social conditions in the town, about a two-hour drive northeast of the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince.

Thomazeau—home to about 52,000 inhabitants—is a rural community in western Haiti, surrounded by mountains and little-touched by the earthquake two years ago. In fact, it was an area that saw a large influx of arrivals from the capital immediately after the quake. But it is also economically deprived.

Most people here are “planteurs”—small-scale farmers living off their land and selling what crops they can.  But poor roads are a major problem in getting goods to markets. And, as Dumel pointed out, there are few economic opportunities available in the community.

That’s also true across Haiti, where an estimated 75 percent of the population is not in salaried employment, and jobs are scarce.

Finding work is especially challenging in rural areas, where even the most casual of jobs are hard to come by. This was a major issue in Haiti, as much before the earthquake as now, and it is hampering people’s ability to rebuild their lives.

According to an Oxfam survey last year, finding work is the top priority for most Haitians. And that’s why a project which Oxfam supports in Thomazeau is raising the hopes of many women.

The women have their own section within ODECT known as RAFARE. That stands for Rassemblement des Femmes pour l’Accès aux Ressources Économiques, or Rallying Women to Access Economic Resources. Its goal is to try to improve the economic status of women. The group owned one milling machine and earned money processing grain brought to the center by farmers and merchants.  Oxfam hired RAFARE after the earthquake to help provide milled cereals which formed part of food kits that were distributed in the outdoor camps where people had sought shelter.

Oxfam is now helping the women again—with funds and training, including enlisting the help of expatriate Haitian experts with specific skills. The group is modernizing its service center and expanding its operation.

The small building where they’re currently located will double in size, allowing the women to have storage facilities where they can stock processed and unprocessed grains and market milled cereals. Oxfam has helped them to purchase two new grinding machines and is providing training and other equipment. The goal is to enable the women to run their operation as a full-fledged business. They will buy and sell locally produced grain throughout the year, rather than just seasonally; and during lean times, in between the harvests, they can sell surplus stocks in the local market.

“It will bring more economic opportunities here. There will be more jobs and more money coming in,” said Marie-Claude Estenfile, general secretary of RAFARE. “There was always a shortage of grains being sold in the local markets from April to June, but we will be able to provide processed grains during that period.

It means people won’t have to travel an hour or more to some of the markets, like in Croix des Bouquets, 24 kilometers away, to buy what they need. It will be easier to purchase food locally and we will help to strengthen the supply chain. The markets will be busier; the money will benefit the local economy.”

Having proper storage facilities and being able market their own cereals will enable the women to work all year round, and not just stay open for business during the busy harvest period.

“It will guarantee people’s food security here,” said Dumel, adding that it will also create new jobs. “During the lean periods, people would have to buy imported rice and grain from other places.  But we will have stocks to sell and supply to the local markets.”

RAFARE’s members are excited about the project.

“It gives me hope for the future,” said Hermircie Alfred, 40. “I hope we can buy and sell the grains locally all year round; and we can make more profits.”

“There are very few job opportunities here,” Alexina Augustin, 45, a mother of eight. “The only jobs we can really find are selling cereals and this project will help us.  I lost my home and land a few months ago during flooding and now I can’t send my children to school. This will be a lifeline for me,” she said.

]]> No publisher Caroline Gluck Caribbean Haiti earthquake humanitarian relief livelihood 2012-02-13T19:01:16Z Feature Story Earthquake in Haiti Fact Sheet http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/earthquake-in-haiti-fact-sheet In the months following the devastating earthquake in Haiti, Oxfam's urgent mission has been to help the people of Port-au-Prince, and beyond, meet their basic needs—not only to ensure their survival but to uphold their dignity. Since January 12, 2010, Haitians have confronted challenges of staggering proportion: loved ones lost, homes ruined, jobs gone. Their endurance has been extraordinary. Yet the Herculean task of recovery lies ahead—an undertaking that will require a degree of political will and sustained global support perhaps never seen before. Read our fact sheet to find out more about the current situation in Haiti, get an update on Oxfam's recovery efforts, and learn what lies ahead for the country's reconstruction.

]]> No publisher akramer Caribbean Haiti cholera earthquake humanitarian relief natural disaster 2011-01-10T19:20:54Z Fact Sheet Avoiding a food crisis in rural Haiti http://www.oxfamamerica.org/articles/avoiding-a-food-crisis-in-rural-haiti Oxfam’s Yves Gattereau talks about how the January 2010 earthquake poses a threat to the country’s already shaky food supply. Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere, with 80% of the population living under the poverty line. Food is a particular shortfall: Two-thirds of all Haitians depend on the agricultural sector—mainly small-scale subsistence farming—but they remain vulnerable to damage from frequent natural disasters like droughts and flooding, exacerbated by the country's widespread deforestation. While the economy has recovered in recent years, four tropical storms in 2008 severely damaged the transportation infrastructure and agricultural sector.

In this short interview from January 19, Oxfam Quebec’s Yves Gattereau talks with Coco McCabe about the threat of food shortages in Haiti’s rural areas. Reports indicate that thousands of urban earthquake survivors from Port-au-Prince have fled to already poor rural communities. "We’re going to see how much food … we can provide to them ahead of time," says Gattereau, “so we won’t have to intervene in another crisis in the countryside."

Listen to the interview

Source:  CIA – the World Factbook

]]> No publisher Coco McCabe Haiti food security humanitarian relief 2010-01-22T02:49:44Z Feature Story Avoiding a food crisis in rural Haiti http://www.oxfamamerica.org/multimedia/audio/avoiding-a-food-crisis-in-rural-haiti Oxfam’s Yves Gattereau talks about how the January 2010 earthquake poses a threat to the country’s already shaky food supply. No publisher cengstrom Haiti food security humanitarian relief 2012-05-03T17:57:43Z Audio Link Haiti no longer grows much of its own rice http://www.oxfamamerica.org/articles/haiti-no-longer-grows-much-of-its-own-rice Once almost self-sufficient, Haiti now imports 80 percent of the rice it consumes. A dramatic cut in import tariffs led to a drop in national rice production. Judith Alexandre, a single mother, lives with her two children in Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere, and like a lot of other families there they have only one choice when it comes to managing the dramatic increase in food prices: They skip meals.

Breakfast is no longer part of her children's morning routine. Alexandre can't afford it. Most of what she earns as a street vendor in the Carrefour-Feuilles district of Port-au-Prince she was already spending on food for her family. But the steep rise in the cost of rice, a Haitian staple, is pricing Alexandre and her family out of regular meals.

Less than 20 years ago, the country was nearly self-sufficient when it came to rice production. But in 1995, when the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund pressured Haiti to cut import tariffs on rice from 50 percent to 3 percent, cheap subsidized rice from the US began to flood into the country. Urban consumers benefited for a while from the low-cost imports, but they caused national rice production to plummet. Today, Haiti is now importing 80 percent of the rice it consumes—just as world prices have doubled.

More than half the country's population is malnourished, and more than 80 percent of the rural population lives below the poverty line. Rising prices provoked riots in several Haitian cities earlier this spring and forced the resignation of the country's prime minister.

"If people are hungry, they have no stake in stability," said Hedi Annabi, the UN special representative in Haiti. "They will be ready for anything--for anarchy--because they have nothing to safeguard or to fight for."

While the entire country is affected, cities--where 40 percent of the populations lives--are especially hard hit.

Agriculture, which employs more than 60 percent of the Haitian workforce, is one of the areas most affected by trade liberalization policies. An estimated 830,000 jobs in Haiti have been lost in recent years, primarily in agriculture.

What is Oxfam doing?

In the capital, Port-au-Prince and the town of Jacmel in the southeast, Oxfam is helping families hardest hit by the rising food prices. Working through local partners, Oxfam is supporting subsidized community restaurants, school canteens, and helping parents pay off debts to schools. Cash-for-work community clean up activities are also planned for several neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince.

In rural areas in the north of the country, Oxfam is organizing a cash-for-work canal cleaning project, improving and diversifying crops and vegetables, and improving market links for small farmers.

It is through the community restaurant that Alexandre has found some relief from her hardship.

"I am the sole provider for my children," she said. "Their father dies a year ago and now I am alone. If he was here, it would be much easier to manage."

For just 13 cents, Alexandre and her children can now buy a daily subsidized hot meal at one of eight community restaurants supported by Oxfam.

"It's unthinkable that I would be able to buy a meal for my kids for 5 gourdes (13 cents)," says Alexandre, smiling. "It means that every day I have been able to save a little bit of money for other things. Now not all of my money must go on buying food."

Run by a local organization, the restaurants provide immediate relief to those families hit hardest by rising food prices. They are open from 10 a.m. to noon four days a week, and serve up to 200 meals a day, ranging from cornmeal and fish to bouillion, a hearty Haitian vegetable stew.

]]> No publisher Oxfam America Caribbean Haiti food security global food crisis hunger 2010-02-01T14:43:35Z Feature Story