Haiti: Increasing investment in local community development

Even as Haiti teeters on the edge of disaster, funders are beginning to recognize that their approach must shift from top down, externally designed programs to development designed and operated by local communities.

On June 12, Inter America Foundation invited Faith in Action Haiti Director, Francois Pierre Louis to join donors gathered to promote investment in community designed, community led local development initiatives. We want to recognize those funders, who along with you support this approach.

We are grateful for the $300,000 that IAF is investing in OPODH over the next three years for their agricultural campaign. In addition, we recognize Karen Keating Ansara, who has been instrumental in supporting and promoting this local investment strategy. The Ansara Family Fund has renewed their annual grant to OPODH and the Imago Dei Fund pledged a new, three-year grant to OPODH, joining Vista Hermosa Foundation as a core general support funder.

It is family foundations like these and many individual donors who are empowering grassroots leadership teams in seventy communities in the North and Northeast Departments to organize community improvement initiatives. These include OPODH’s “We Plant Today So We Can Feed Ourselves Tomorrow” agricultural campaign, mutual aid loan program, and civic engagement efforts. Click here to read a description of OPODH’s philosophy, approach and results authored by OPODH Board President, Marie Denise Neres Saint Fluer.

But, we have work to do. USAID, the world’s largest development funder, has met with OPODH leaders and stated that its priority is investing in local partners. But USAID has not delivered on those promises. In fact, a recently released report indicates a decline in funding for locally designed, locally led projects.