The U.S. Agency for International Development is providing additional food aid to Haiti, and is making sure it gets to those in greatest need by donating an additional $1 million to the U.N. World Food Program to support its ongoing humanitarian operations.
"We feel that's our moral obligation and that's what we need to do in the short term," said USAID Administrator Mark Green, who also announced $10 million to improve the Caribbean's ability to prepare for, and recover from, natural disasters.
The extra 2,200 metric tons of emergency food aid for Haiti will reach approximately 100,000 people and arrive in the country in the coming weeks, USAID said. Last month, the agency tapped 2,000 metric tons of pre-positioned hurricane stocks of rice, green peas and cooking oil in Haiti for WFP to distribute after early-warning systems showed that a growing number of Haitians, 3.47 million, were facing either a food crisis or emergency due to the wave of sustained anti-government protests, sporadic violence and political gridlock.
The additional U.S. support to Haiti comes on the heels of a three-day visit to the Caribbean nation by Green. During his stay, Green toured U.S.-government supported projects in the north, met with business and religious leaders as well as President Jovenel Moise. He also saw for himself the fallout created from the ongoing political and economic crisis. In office since Feb. 7, 2017, Moise has been wracked by allegations of corruption and mismanagement of the Haitian economy.
Speaking with the Miami Herald before heading back to Washington on Monday, Green, who also visited Barbados, said it was clear from his Haiti visit that the current "man-made disaster driven by politicians on all sides" and hitting Haiti in the form of corruption and violent unrest is creating "extraordinarily challenging situations." Transportation routes have been disrupted. Schools have been shuttered and businesses have been unable to get parts out of customs, much less to markets.
"We are looking for ways to repair some of the damage that is a growing problem with this last unrest and the political stalemate," Green said. The fact that "young Haitian youths hungry to try and make their way in the world" have been denied access to the classroom for months "is a terrible loss, a terrible setback."
Once Haiti's largest donor, USAID is not immune from criticism. During a recent congressional hearing on Haiti by the House Foreign Affairs Committee, activists criticized the effectiveness of some of its programs while calling for a re-examination, and questioning the impact of giving food aid in a country that should be growing agriculture.
Green said the strategy for Haiti must look at the short, medium and long term. And in the short term, he said, Haitians are hungry and they need food. In the long term, they are looking at how to spur job growth and encourage investment in Haiti, where the economy has been suffering. But for both, political stability is critical.
"I tried to explain to some people that I met that there's this American myth that says 'American businesses are big risk takers,' " Green said. "No. They want to see stability. If they see instability, if they see roads blocked on a lingering basis, that's a problem. If they see port operations such that their goods, going in or out, are mired at the port for weeks on end, that's a problem.
"We can't prevent natural disasters, we can build their resilience to respond. And that's obviously a high priority. But man-made disasters are avoidable," he added. "And that's, I think, is the key work that we're focusing on and will need to keep focusing on so it's talking to President Moise and urging him, and it sounds as though he is acting, that he needs to meet with political opponents."
Green saw firsthand the impact of the disruptions while at a banana grove outside Cap-Haitien. The modest operation uses automation and as an operator was demonstrating the line carrying the banana bunches from the grove, Green noticed there was only one line and asked where were the others.
"He apologized and said that it had taken more than 40 days for the parts on that line to get through customs," Green recalled. "That's a problem, that doesn't work. That's the fallout of disrupted transportation and the instability created by unrest."
Green also toured the port in Cap-Haitien and the $300 million Caracol Industrial Park, which was financed by the U.S. government and Inter-American Development Bank after Haiti's Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake.
Last year, the agency quietly abandoned a plan to construct a new port in Cap-Haitien. Acting spokeswoman Pooja Jhunjhunwala said the decision was made after a comprehensive analysis and in collaboration with the government and its national port authority. Instead they "decided to prioritize investing in a set of infrastructure upgrades on the land side of the port."
"USAID continues to work with the (government of Haiti) to modernize infrastructure and operations at the Cap-Haitien Port," Jhunjhunwala said.
Green is the third Trump administration official to travel to Port-au-Prince in recent weeks. Kelly Craft, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, visited late last month and two weeks later, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale arrived in the country. Both Craft and Hale met with Moise and members of the opposition demanding his ouster. In their talks they stressed the need for dialogue and the formation of a legal government.
Green said he addressed the ongoing crisis with Moise during their meeting.
"He's reaching out to opposition to have discussions toward some kind of political reconciliation," Green said. "We believe that's vital because continued disruption and unrest that blocks kids from going to school, people from getting to their jobs, goods from getting to the market, is a disaster for a country that's fragile."
But while Green views it as good news, it remains to be seen if Moise will be able to form a "government of national unity," as he has described it and restore confidence. While protests have waned in recent weeks, the political opposition remains adamant that it will not negotiate with him. They are calling for protests to renew after Christmas ahead of Jan. 1 when Haiti celebrates its independence from France, and Jan. 13 when Moise is expected to be ruling by decree.
Haiti's failure to hold local and parliamentary elections in October means Parliament will be nonfunctional with the terms of the entire Lower House of Deputies expired, all locally elected officials and one-third or two-thirds of the 30-member Senate, depending on who you ask.
The prospect of Moise ruling by decree as of next year is already creating uncertainty and concerns in some sectors given his recent actions regarding independent power providers and the cancellation of a contract without arbitration and due process.
"I think there are a number of things that need to be worked on in the medium term. I think, enhanced rule of law so that you have predictability. Again, businesses like predictability," Green said. "They like to know that when they enter into a contract, it will be enforced. I also think that we need to find ways to help the government more effectively capture the revenue that it's due. We call it domestic resources mobilization. So you need grater transparency and you need grater regulatory capacity."
Green said he plans to discuss his trip with staff and Haiti watchers on Capitol Hill. "One of the things about work on Haiti, it's not partisan. Everybody cares, everybody is looking for answers."
But Green stressed, he's very cleared-eye on things and "it is not how much we spend, it is how we spend it and where we choose to support."
"In my view, there is great bipartisan support for good projects. People are ready to provide assistance and to invest in projects that are sound," he said. "We all worry, given the many challenges that Haiti's faced over the years that at some point people fall victim to donor fatigue as we've all called it. But I still see in all the conversations that I have had that people are ready to invest in what works."
During the visit Green said he was impressed by the heroic work that's being done by people like Father Richard Frechette, founder of St. Luke Foundation in Haiti, and Dr. Bill Pape, of who runs St. Damien and Dr. Jean William Pape, founder of GHESKIO, Haiti's leading HIV/AIDS clinic and research center.
"These are heroes that we need to build around," he said. Still, he worries, like he did on his previous trip in December of last year, that "Haitians can slip into a sense of national self-doubt."
"I mean, obviously it had the terrible misfortune of several natural disasters. And then you have on top of that these recent man-made disasters of instability, violent unrest, which keeps kids from going to school," Green said. "My fear would be if Haitians begin to think, 'You know what? She's never going to get better. This is always going to happen.' "
Green said he didn't sense that with the Haitians he met felt that way _ yet.
