Haiti: Haitian Farmers to IDB: Invest in Us, Not Foreign Contractors
Smallholder farmers in North and Northeast Haiti are pressing the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to change how it invests in Haitian agriculture.
Eighty-five peasant and civic organizations have sent the IDB a platform titled We Plant Today So We Can Feed Ourselves Tomorrow, calling on the bank to invest in irrigation, seed banks, and access to credit and crop insurance — and to channel its work through local Haitian organizations rather than foreign contractors.
The IDB, working with the UN International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and Haiti’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, is currently designing a $44 million sustainable agriculture project for the North and Northeast. But past IDB projects have fallen short of their goals, according to the bank’s own assessments — in part because they were designed and implemented without meaningful participation from Haitian farmers, and relied heavily on large outside suppliers and contractors.
The Smallholder Farmer Platform grew out of direct consultation with grassroots organizations across Haiti and a survey of more than 1,100 smallholder farmers in 74 communities, conducted in November and December 2025 [please confirm year] by the People’s Organization for the Development of Haiti (OPODHA).
OPODHA — which has 5,500 members and 74 chapters across Haiti’s Nord and Nord-Est departments — is leading this campaign in partnership with Centre d’Agriculture Saint Barnabas (CASB), Partenariat pour le Développement Local (PDL), Fon Lambi d Ayiti (Lambi Fund), Organisation pour le Développement de Femmes Émancipées d’Haïti (ODFEH), and Faith in Action International.
