Last week Yve-Car Momperousse gathered her team to reflect on the fifth anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti — they remembered some of the failed development initiatives, but it was also a moment to celebrate the role the growing field of social enterprise is playing in improving lives and livelihoods in Haiti. A moment that fueled them to work harder.
“Social enterprise is really the future of Haiti and how we’re going to start to get the country back on track,” said Momperousse, CEO of Kreyol Essence, a social enterprise that hires farmers and producers, many of them women, to grow and make castor oil, which is then turned into beauty products sold in Haiti and exported to other markets.
Momperousse, and a cadre of Haitians, Haitians in the diaspora and others, are working to build social enterprises in Haiti and play their part in transforming what some referred to as a country run by nongovernmental organizations and aid to one whose future is dictated by market-based solutions, investment and business.
About the author
Adva Saldinger@AdvaSal
Adva Saldinger is a Senior Reporter at Devex where she covers development finance, as well as U.S. foreign aid policy. Adva explores the role the private sector and private capital play in development and authors the weekly Devex Invested newsletter bringing the latest news on the role of business and finance in addressing global challenges. A journalist with more than 10 years of experience, she has worked at several newspapers in the U.S. and lived in both Ghana and South Africa.
