Friday at Plaza Hotel, the International Organization Oxfama presented his report on the important Feed the Future West/Winner food security program of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

This report evaluates the program in terms of participation of the target community, empowerment of small producers and enhancements of capacity at the institutional level and puts not only, on highlight the contribution of USAID program to farmers : training, introduction of new technologies, livelihoods, access to better agricultural inputs and improved market access but also highlights some aspects of the program that must be changed.

Jean Robert Estimé, the Director of Winner project in Haiti said that the project had helped support nearly 300 farmers' associations and to plant among other 5 million fruit trees on 3,000 hectares, which helped to reduce post-harvest losses. In addition, more than 3,000 farmers were trained as popularizer thanks to the Feed the Future West/Winner project.

Oxfam notes that there is a need to improve the program at its design and its implementation and stresses that this program should take into account the different perspectives of the primary agents of change [farmers] and create mechanisms for participants give their opinions and feedback. Women in particular should play a greater role in this initiative. The use of selection criteria based on vulnerability as key factors for poverty reduction "Ensuring that women and men benefit equally, should be one of the basic principles of the Feed the Future. Such a policy must be integrated throughout the program to promote gender equality as an engine for the fight against poverty and to achieve improved food security in Haiti," indicated Damien Berrendorf, the Director of Oxfam .

The final recommendation of the report concerns the sustainability of the Feed the Future initiative and stressed "It is not obvious that the government has the capacity or financial resources to continue investments such as irrigation canals or combat the negative environmental impacts such as deforestation."

Oxfam hopes that this report will contribute to the improvement in the North of the Programme "Support to the Development of the Agricultural Potential of the North, to the Economic and Environmental Security" (AVANSE) that is part of the revaluation of the agricultural sector of the U.S. Government. .

Oxfam points out that these kinds of initiatives that fits over the long term, "could help to facilitate agricultural development. But to get there, it will be necessary to have an active support from the Haitian government, donor and civil society."

See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-9242-haiti-agriculture-transplanting-of-1-5-million-coffee-seedlings.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-9156-haiti-social-84-haitian-abandoned-on-a-desert-island.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-8960-haiti-agriculture-the-greenhouses-revolution.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-8907-haiti-agriculture-usaid-invests-in-agriculture-of-north.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-8855-haiti-politic-tour-of-pamela-white-in-north-and-north-east-of-haiti.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-8838-haiti-agriculture-$87-5mm-for-agricultural-development-in-the-north.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-8711-haiti-agriculture-second-assize-on-food-and-nutrition-security.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-3808-haiti-agriculture-usaid-administrator-visits-bas-boen.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-2853-haiti-education-training-of-thousands-of-haitian-farmers.html

HL/ TB/ HaitiLibre