HAITI PROGRAMME PLAN 2018

1.  Introduction

Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the Northern hemisphere, with more than half its 10.7 million population living on less than $US1 per day. A history of vested interests, political instability, and natural disasters has prevented Haiti from realizing its aspirations, making it one of the poorest and least equal countries in the world, trapping people in a permanent state of vulnerability. Inflation rate remains high and unemployment continues to exacerbate the social situation as well as fuel insecurity. Cut backs in aid and extremely low international oil prices are limiting the country’s fiscal space. Cholera remains an important issue with outbreaks periodically; furthermore, the Haitian population is often exposed to natural disasters (hurricanes, floods and earthquakes) – much more than other countries.

Port-au-Prince the capital consists of five communes in the Western department of Haiti, including Cité Soleil, which is Concern operational area is the largest slum in the Caribbean. The city has one peri-urban part and one urban area. Cité Soleil is known to be the poorest and most violent areas where violence, continues to be a major complex problem, with gangs’ stronghold hampering community development. Girls and women are consistently made victims of sexual violence and they have little or no recourse either though their family or the law. The livelihood is fragile, poverty and hunger are omni-present and the households have little to no perspective of escaping from their condition. The Concern Cité Soleil urban program focus is on working at the community level, addressing issues of behavioral change and investing in capacity building of community members, and strengthening systems that work for and with them.

In 2017, the Haiti program completed programming and exited from both Saut d’Eau and La Gonâve. The strategy going forward will continue to build upon the Urban programme experience with interventions such as the graduation & RTN model. 2018 will predominately focus on the urban City Soleil integrated programme and exploring further funding opportunities to integrate more programmes there. The strategy will also explore opportunities for expansion into the South of the country expanding a new urban program in Grand Anse. Due to the frequency of Natural Disasters a strong Preparing for Effective Emergency Response (PEER) plan is in place and the country program will continue to respond to large scale emergencies and has a commitment for an emergency response re-entry to La Gonâve and more broadly nationally depending on the scale of Emergencies etc throughout the year. . Reducing vulnerabilities will be an increasingly key strategy, as the country continues to face recurring shocks, better risk management strategies and better targeting of social protection type programmes will be a priority to protect households and individual livelihoods. Disaster risk management will also be strengthened, with risks identified and understood better, as well as reduced through greater awareness.

Concern is involved in a number of coordination platforms working closely with OCHA, Alliance 2015, HCT, Directorate of Civil Protection and Ministry of Plan and the CLIO (NGO Coordination Committee). In 2018 Concern will present at the urban platform and in other platforms to establish a clearer link between humanitarian and more development programming

Country Strategic Plan / Time line: 2017 – 2021

2.  Programmes

Building Hope & Opportunities in Haiti: An integrated Urban Community Resilience and Conflict mitigation program in Port au Prince, Haiti (2017 – 2021): Started in January 2017, this program address the complex problem of Cité Soleil. This program is built upon the former Peacebuilding programme of 2009-2012, wherein the project focused on working with gangs. It is also built on the experience of the Return to Neighborhood (RTN) Projects 2010-2016 and Grande Ravine (2013-2016).

The Integrated urban program is implemented in 8 districts in Cité Soleil (5 urban, 3 peri-urban): [Ti Ayiti, Cite Lumière, Duvivier, Truitier, Bois Neuf, Village Rapatrié, Cite Gérard, Drouillard.] which, according to the results of the contextual analysis carried out between June 2016 and March 2017, are the most vulnerable neighborhoods of the 32 districts of the commune. The program will directly and indirectly touch 36,100 people/7,220 households (18,411 females & 17,689 male) beneficiaries in the course of five years. 2,000 people supported in economic activities among whom 1,500 people trained in literacy and numeracy, 150 community leaders trained on conflict management, 2,000 children supported through protection activities, 300 community based organiation’s (CBO) leaders strengthened, 400 young leaders strengthened will be directly touched by the program.

The main areas of intervention of the program includes 1) strengthening social cohesion and Peace Building, for the promotion of intra and intercommunal dialogue and improving the protection of children and women 2) Livelihoods to increase skills and increase access to basic services 3) Waste Management and DRR to support the strengthening of waste management services, the development and implementation of an early warning system, 4) Local Governance, for the establishment of a formal partnership relationship with local government, civil society and the community. In term of livelihood the Graduation model will be used and the program will adopt a local development approach that is based on development value chain and create wealth and jobs. Activities for the peace building component started in the first year of the program in order to support the enhancing of the social cohesion and offer condition for investment in the poor households.

A substantial part of 2018 will be rolling out the new Country Strategic plan, and establishing a new funding strategy to scope up the country programme, with a particular emphasis on capitalizing on Concern experience in urban setting, and pre-positioning to respond to emergencies.

3.  Monitoring and Evaluation

Programme/project / Timeframe / Donors / Events planned in 2018
Context analysis / Baseline or end line / Midterm review / Final evaluation
Cite Soleil / 2017 - 2021 / Irish Aid / June 2016 – Apr 2017 / June 2017 / June 2019 / Nov 2021

HAI