On Monday, March 11, under the Food Assistance Project (KR 2018) a grant agreement of approximately US $3.6 million (400 million Japanese yen) was signed between Bocchit Edmond, Foreign Affairs of Haiti and Mitsuaki Mizumo, Ambassador of Japan accredited to Haiti.

This donation will be used to buy rice, which will be sold at preferential prices by the Office for Monetization of Development Assistance Programs (BMPAD) in order to stabilize the local market and contribute to the food security of the Haitian people. The fund accumulated by the Haitian Government through the sale of rice as a counterpart fund will enable it to carry out social projects, such as the construction of roads and schools, or the purchase of medical equipment.

The Japanese Government, through this donation, decided to support the strengthening of food security in Haiti while at the same time accompanying the Haitian Government in its efforts to increase agricultural products through the training of agricultural technicians and the granting of fertilizer.

Recall that in the context of food security, Japanese cooperation in Haiti is upstream and downstream.

Upstream, with the food assistance project which, in the short term, will temporarily but necessarily mitigate the dangerous effects of the food insecurity of the most vulnerable.

Downstream and with longer-term results, agricultural equipment such as agricultural tractors will arrive at the earliest, in December 2019 under the "Program for Economic and Social Development", signed between the two governments in October 2018, and also through the technical assistance provided through the planter capacity building project set up since 2010 and still ongoing.

HL/ HaitiLibre