Campaign urges support for Haitian companies in earthquake response

In the days following the massive earthquake in Haiti last month, a group representing both the private sector and civil society in the national emergency response launched a communications campaign to avoid a key problem from past disasters.

Haitian businesses have typically struggled in the wake of crises, as foreign products have flooded into the country as part of humanitarian relief efforts and left them unable to compete. The Alliance for Disaster Management and Business Continuity, known by its French abbreviation AGERCA, is trying to prevent that this time around.

Following a major earthquake in 2010, some 70% of local micro and small businesses in Haiti closed, according to AGERCA.

Individual donors and diaspora organizations should purchase goods through local companies — rather than sending donated items from abroad — to support Haitian businesses, said AGERCA Executive Director Fania Joseph. For example, humanitarian organizations can buy from some of the many local water producers first before purchasing water overseas, she said.

In an Aug. 16 tweet, AGERCA called for humanitarian actors to prioritize local products made by Haitian companies. To help facilitate such purchases, especially by donor organizations and those in the diaspora, AGERCA plans to soon launch a platform that lists the goods available from these companies. It is in the process of surveying businesses to determine what products they have on hand.

This is AGERCA’s first campaign promoting the local private sector. Speaking about the change her group hopes to spark, Joseph said she “is pretty sure it’s not going to be something that happens by tomorrow.” She doesn’t expect large international humanitarian aid organizations, such as United Nations agencies, to start buying everything they need locally overnight. But she’s hopeful that her group can influence how the diaspora responds, she said.

The Aug. 14 earthquake killed more than 2,200 people and destroyed more than 50,000 homes. About 800,000 people have been affected by the disaster, with about 40% of the people living in impacted areas in need of emergency humanitarian assistance.

AGERCA plays a unique role in Haiti, where it represents the private sector and civil society at the emergency center of operations following disasters such as this latest earthquake. It’s a small organization, with three full-time employees. But it works with a number of local and international partners, so it is able to tap those resources in its response to the disaster.

In past crises, the business response has sometimes been uncoordinated, and local Haitian companies have often been left out. After years of training and efforts to better organize, AGERCA and the private sector were better positioned to coordinate when this earthquake struck, Joseph said.

AGERCA helped with communications by providing information to partners, including some of the U.N. agencies it works with through the Connecting Business Initiative, which has supported the organization in improving disaster response and resilience among Haitian companies.

AGERCA set up donation centers to receive goods from the private sector and civil society, centralizing operations to ensure that items could get where they are needed, Joseph said. Local staffers helped the country’s Civil Protection General Directorate coordinate in the hardest-hit areas.

“I’m very glad to see how things are going how they were supposed to be always,” Joseph said, adding that this was the first time that chambers of commerce, private sector organizations, and civil society were largely working together with AGERCA to coordinate efforts.