In Haiti’s mountainous north, about 300 kilometers from Port-au-Prince, new pastel-colored, concrete-block structures are popping up near the infamous Caracol Industrial Park.
Construction began in May — the latest effort to build homes for Haitians working at the plant, which opened with much fanfare in October 2012 but has not attracted nearly as much business as investors hoped.
The housing project, too, is facing a major roadblock: In late October, the U.S. Agency for International Development — a major donor — decided to abandon it midstream after a similar project, Caracol EKAM, was criticized for wasteful spending in 2013. The site’s lead — Food for the Poor, a Florida-based ecomenical Christian nonprofit that provides food, medicine and shelter to poor people in Latin America and the Caribbean — was only told about USAID’s pullout this week.
About the author
Claire Luke
Claire is a journalist passionate about all things development, with a particular interest in labor, having worked previously for the Indonesia-based International Labor Organization. She has experience reporting in Cambodia, Nicaragua and Burma, and is happy to be immersed in the action of D.C. Claire is a master's candidate in development economics at the George Washington Elliott School of International Affairs and received her bachelor's degree in political philosophy from the College of the Holy Cross.