Devex Dish: How an IDB land deal for Haiti’s farmers went wrong

Three years ago, a community in northeast Haiti was jubilant: They had reached a deal with the Haitian government and the Inter-American Development Bank to compensate for harms they suffered as a result of an IDB-financed industrial park that had seized their land for construction.

As part of the agreement, 100 of the most vulnerable families in the primarily agricultural community were supposed to receive the opportunity to buy public or private land to resume farming activities. While most multilateral development banks have accountability mechanisms, it’s rare for complaints to actually result in meaningful reparations, and nearly unheard of for those reparations to include the ability to obtain land.

But more than three years later, many families who were supposed to be compensated are still waiting.

“The frustration has been more and more visible because people now are buying crops that they used to produce themselves before, at a very expensive price,” Wilson Menard, one of the farmers displaced by the park, tells me through an interpreter. “There’s too much delay in the process, which people were not expecting after the signing of the agreement.”

The executive director of Haiti’s Technical Implementation Unit in the Ministry of Economy and Finance tells me that the delays stem from the need to verify title deeds to ensure farmers can purchase the land free and clear. But others allege the government is stalling on purpose, resisting the verification of title deeds for private land in an area where the government frequently contests property as public land.

The IDB also has a responsibility to ensure the agreement is carried out — even as the bank announced in November it approved an additional $65 million to finance the expansion of the industrial park, which was built to create jobs after the 2010 earthquake. The IDB didn’t agree to an interview and a bank spokesperson didn’t answer questions I asked via email about what the bank is doing to ensure the terms of the agreement are met, and whether disbursement of the new money would be conditional on the completion of the land transactions.

With all of the struggles Haiti has faced since the earthquake, it’s disheartening to see development projects meant to bolster livelihoods only causing further harm to farmers who already have the odds stacked against them.

Agriculture and development: 3 years on, Haitians displaced by IDB project await land compensation

Money talks

At last week’s annual meeting of the governing council of the U.N. International Fund for Agricultural Development, world leaders yet again called for “urgent and innovative investments to help rural communities in the world’s poorest countries adapt to climate change.” But as Queen Máxima of the Netherlands — the U.N. secretary-general's special advocate for inclusive finance for development — pointed out, many of these solutions require access to finance that rural, small-scale producers do not have.

“There is an opportunity here for responsible private sector innovators to step in and help fill the global financing gap of $170 billion that will help these producers gain access to credit and markets,” she said.

ICYMI: This is echoed by Gustavo Hernandez Polanco, senior director at Heifer Guatemala, in an op-ed where he explains that keeping credit lines open for producers is key to helping them grow their businesses.

Mayo live in interesting times

A Hellmann’s commercial caught my attention last week when I was watching the Olympics. The company has apparently campaigned against food waste for years, but this is the first time I’m noticing it.

While my lack of NFL fandom meant the star — former Patriots player and current coach Jerod Mayo — was unknown to me, the ad plays on his last name as he urges people who are about to throw away a dry loaf of bread or wilting spinach to “make taste, not waste.”

Halving food waste is enshrined in an SDG — Goal 12.3, to be exact. The current metrics are not good: An estimated one-third of all food produced for humans globally is never actually eaten. This means that not only is the food lost or wasted, but so is all the energy that went into planting, harvesting, transporting, and selling it.

From the archives: A World Bank report says that markets play a role in food waste and loss reduction.

What do you think? Does such a consumer campaign have any chance at encouraging people to make a frittata with that spinach instead of trashing it? And do you have a favorite recipe to use up the sad odds and ends from the veggie drawer? Write me at dish@devex.com.

+ Pro subscribers can catch up on my conversation with the Waste and Resources Action Programme’s former CEO on efforts to halve food waste. Haven’t gone Pro yet? Try it free for 15 days.

Root causes

In a survey conducted by the Consumer Grassroots Association — a Kenyan NGO — 87% of respondents identified pesticide use and misuse as major food safety concerns. David Njagi reports that food advocates in the country are lobbying the government to ensure that national food safety standards and policies are implemented and that the harmful pesticides currently on sale are banned.

Kenya: Pressure groups demand an end to toxic food

Number munching

That’s the amount the United States has pledged to Haiti through a new five-year program that aims to increase food security in the country, among other goals. Known as Ayiti Pi Djanm — meaning “a stronger Haiti” in Creole — it targets nearly 90,000 of the nation’s most vulnerable people.

Catch up: In October, I looked into why despite billions in international aid after natural disasters, insecurity and lack of basic services leave Haiti dependent on imported food.

The bigger the bug …

The insect farming industry is looking for ways to boost efficiency by making bugs grow faster and fatter. According to a story in WIRED, “European farms only produced a few thousand tons of insect protein in 2020,” and “small production numbers keep the price of farmed insects high.” One approach to solving the problem can be found within the livestock industry, which has lowered prices by breeding fatter and faster-growing animals.

Looking back: In a previous Dish edition, I asked you what unconventional foods you’ve tried — and whether you’d be willing to switch to an insect-rich diet to save the planet.

Chew on this

The Global Agriculture and Food Security Program is celebrating a decade of its private sector window, which uses blended finance to support smallholder farmers in the world’s lowest-income countries. [GAFSP]

Researchers suggest that reforming the leadership, governance, and coordination of FAO, WFP, and IFAD could facilitate progress on SDG 2, which aims for “zero hunger.” [Chatham House]

A recent report finds that food marketing “predominantly promotes foods that contribute to unhealthy diets” and “uses a wide range of creative strategies likely to appeal to young audiences.” [WHO]

Rumbi Chakamba contributed to this edition.