A Haitian economic recovery based on migration of urban earthquake victims to rural areas

Background and summary

Many victims of the recent earthquake in Haiti are migrating from Port au Prince and other earthquake-affected cities to their ancestral villages in the countryside. Such a migration provides victims with a supportive family environment as they rebuild their lives, as well as lessening the need for costly urban rebuilding projects and massive relocation camps. With this in mind, part of the institutional and NGO resources for the short- and long-term Haitian recovery effort should be dedicated to supporting this migration to the countryside. This support would consist in:

• Linking rural peasant groups and rural families with grassroots collectives and individuals in earthquake-affected urban areas and displaced persons camps

• Rewarding villages that receive earthquake refugees, through investment in village and household infrastructure

• Promoting economic self-sufficiency of relocated earthquake victims, through land, grants, and loans for housebuilding and agricultural activities

Such a project would entail a collaboration between local and national Haitian governments (for general coordination and certain infrastructure investments), Haitian microcredit and commercial banks, foreign NGOs and development agencies (for grants and other infrastructure investments), and Haitian individuals and communities, which would host displaced people and donate land for their new farms. Most important are the displaced earthquake victims themselves, who would play the principal role in the reestablishment of their own economic self-sufficiency.

This project would help to reverse a decades-long trend of mass exodus of people from rural zones to precarious shantytowns in the capital. The end result would be a great strengthening of Haiti's economic base, a revitalization of the countryside, and a less-crowded, better-planned Port au Prince.

Detailed description of the project

• Villages (represented by municipal government, peasant groups, churches, etc.) will accept displaced families from Port au Prince and other earthquake-stricken areas. The village will cede unused communal land to these families (half a hectare per family), and everyone in the village will collaborate in field days to rehabilitate the land on these parcels (digging erosion-control ditches, planting lines of soil-retaining plants and trees, etc.). Normally this unused land has been abandoned because it's been so badly degraded. Giving it to a family for them to tend and to earn their livelihood from the land is a way to ensure it will spring back to life, but it first must receive intensive, village-wide attention to make it usable. The land rehabilitation process can be overseen by Haitian agronomists, and if needed agronomists from other countries and NGOs can offer their services as well. For example, Cuba has a long experience of “loaning” agronomy experts to remote Haitian villages.

• In return for its collaboration in ceding and reconditioning land for earthquake victims, the village will receive a suite of infrastructure and collective-good interventions implemented by NGOs and the Haitian government. Such interventions might include drilling public wells for potable water, building or improving the village school, or putting in public latrines. It would also be desirable to enlist the help of Columbia University's Earth Institute and its Millenium Villages project. They can provide their proven suite of road improvement, a communal truck for village needs, agricultural inputs such as fertilizers, medical care, treated bednets, etc.

• If they have not participated in the suite of more or less standardized interventions listed above, Haitian national and local governments can implement a village-decided priority project such as a library or a soccer field. It is important to reinforce people's trust and interaction with their government.

• The eventual goal is for earthquake survivors to build their own houses on the land ceded them by the village. However, as this house goes up, various family house compounds in the village will each accept a family of earthquake survivors. The survivor family will be integrated into the household of the receiving family (preferably relatives of the survivors).

• In return for this contribution to the wellbeing of earthquake victims, compounds that host victims will receive an earthquake- and hurricane-proofing assessment and rehabilitation of their house, plus a latrine, and a $500US loan from a microcredit bank for an agricultural project. The earthquake-proofing assessment of host houses can be initially provided by teams of construction experts from Colombia. Due to a severe earthquake in 1999 in west-central Colombia, the country possesses many engineers with experience in post-earthquake scenarios and constructing seismo-resistant houses from cheap, local materials like bamboo. Latrines can be built by an NGO specializing in sanitation. Microcredit loans can come from Fonkoze, Haiti's most important microcredit bank. There would have to be some sort of government guarantee on loans. Fonkoze, like many other developing-country microcredit banks, traditionally focuses on short-term, small-amount loans for commercial enterprises like selling packaged food. It would need some extra support to be able to assume the risk inherent in larger, agricultural loans.

• Displaced families will receive a grant and in-kind help to construct their new houses. Natural, locally-available materials will be given priority, and of course houses will follow seismo- and hurricane-resistant designs. Large donor agencies and the Haitian government can provide housing grants, and Habitat for Humanity and Colombian seismo-resistant construction experts can provide direct aid in designing and building the house.

• Displaced families will also receive a $500US agricultural loan. Such loans will be issued to groups of six families, with each family receiving $500US. The group should consist of three displaced families, and three host families from the village. First the three displaced families of the group will receive their loans, with an interest-free grace period of six months. After six months of their dutiful reimbursement (that is, a year after the initial disbursement of the loan), the other three families will receive their loans, with the same 6-month interest-free grace period. This encourages all parties to collaborate, because everyone's credit is dependent on everyone else's repayment behavior. Loan recipients should be women, because they historically have better repayment rates than men, and focusing the loan on them improves their economic position in the family. Loans will be used to purchase inputs and equipment for a diversified agricultural plan drafted by the borrower, in collaboration with an agronomist (preferably Haitian) who will assess the proposal's ecological and economic viability. On top of this loan, each displaced family (but not host families) will receive donated livestock (possibly from Heifer International) such as pigs, goats, and chickens, which provide nutritious products the family can consume or sell, and which simultaneously improve soil fertility with their manure. Seeds for agricultural projects can come in grant form from the CGIAR centers, which are known for their crop varieties that perform well under difficult environmental conditions.

• Necessary contacts to implement this project are obviously wide-reaching. Initial rural Haitian partners can be peasant associations such as those in the villages of Papaye and Fondwa. The identification and selection of urban earthquake victims looking to relocate can be coordinated with neighborhood groups like that in Bel Air, Port au Prince, and with civic groups that arise in displaced persons camps. I have mentioned some possible international NGO collaborators, though if the project were expanded to many villages it would be preferable that these NGOs find or train local Haitians to do the work of well-digging, house assessment, agronomy advice, etc. There are already large numbers of urban earthquake victims now living in rural areas, which makes the project even easier to execute because it is already started. Ideally it would be possible to confirm that all people benefiting from such a project of supported relocation really are earthquake victims. This might be done through a centralized registry of victims (if such a registry is set up by the government or the UN in the future), or by checking Haitian ID cards or other documents to establish prior residence in Port au Prince or other affected cities.

• This project of supported migration of earthquake victims could be first tested in a small rural communal section of 8000 people or so. If such a zone received 500 families (about 2000 people) from Port au Prince, that would increase local population by about 25%, from 8000 to 10000. A generous cost estimate of such a project would be $5000US per displaced family, spread across NGOs, Haitian government, and international donors. It is important to remember that this cost would be to relocate a family, ensure its economic livelihood, and improve the housing, sanitation, and economic livelihood of those compounds temporarily hosting displaced families, as well as the hosting village in general. Hence it would cost $2.5M US to relocate about 2000 people and radically improve life for 8000 more rural people, many of them also recovering from some degree of earthquake damage. A basis for comparison is Habitat for Humanity's estimate that merely constructing temporary shelters would cost about $2500US per family. Considering all this, the cost of our proposal is modest.

• If the pilot project were successful in one village, it could be scaled up to others to become a nationwide program. Repeating this process of supported migration in 250 villages would relocate about a quarter of Port au Prince's pre-earthquake population, would cost $500M US, and would bring development and infrastructure to almost half of the rural communities in Haiti. This would effectively complement what is sure to be a massive reconstruction and aid effort for those people remaining in Port au Prince. Our project would alleviate some of the city's population pressure, and create an economically revitalized countryside that can serve as both supplier and buyer of goods and services in the capital. The net effect would be a harmonization of the relationship between the capital and the provinces, and a nationwide economic growth based on solid agrarian fundamentals. All for what will surely be a fraction of the price of the rest of the humanitarian response in Haiti.