Ethical brands are taking the lead in the long-term regeneration of Haiti
Jeff Swartz is clear. Timberland’s chief executive believes the private sector must build Haiti’s future. He says: “We have never encountered the need for more business-like thinking than now.”
Amie Patel, investment officer for billionaire philanthropist George Soros’s economic development fund agrees. “You need to invest $10 with a view to creating another $10,” she says, referring to the need to build the local economy.
Harvesting Haiti’s land can immediately address multiple issues, says corporate responsibility consultant Patrick Neyts of Vectra International, particularly poverty, jobs and environmental degradation. As only 2% of Haiti’s forest cover remains – the rest has been deforested for firewood – the country could immediately be used as a carbon sink while re-educating farmers about how to use their land.
Timberland was already teaching farmers about the benefits of “sustainable agriculture, not monoculture”, Swartz says. The company was working with Yele Haiti, an NGO, and Haiti-born musician Wyclef Jean. Yele Haiti was days away from starting a major replanting when the earthquake struck.
The Soros fund will invest in mango farming to export top-quality fruit to North America, Patel says.
Governance deficit
The CIA estimates that only 53% of Haiti’s almost nine million people are literate. So a lack of education presents structural impediments to business investment and training. As crucial is the country’s absence of governance. There is no effective justice department, commerce department or land department to enforce property rights.
John Holmes, UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said at January’s Haiti conference in Montreal: “Haiti needs to be better than it was before January 12. Everyone has been touched by this [earthquake] and the whole society is pulling together.”
Before the earthquake, the average Haitian garment worker earned $4 to $5 daily, while 80% of Haitians lived on under $2 a day – demonstrating the garment industry’s important role. The Soros economic development fund had committed $25m to generate domestic revenue by creating jobs for the poor through developing an industrial park to lease to clothing manufacturers and take advantage of preferential tariffs under the 2008 US-Haiti Hope II trade agreement.
While this project will not go ahead in March as intended, Neyts says Haiti’s government could take the lead over its clothing industry by developing national labour codes. At present, clothing factories produce to different codes for different clients, preventing harmonised standards. An enforceable national code could prevent further worker exploitation.
While long-term measures are vital, immediate aid and reconstruction remains a priority. Timberland distributed 8,000 cooked meals one Sunday in the slums of Cité Soleil, while Dominican Republic power company Basic Energy has been deploying 40 technicians to repair electricity substations, transformers and generators reconnecting 300 Haitians a day.
As Swartz says: “It will take years to build Haiti, but we must not be victims to a limited imagination.”
Readers should note that an earlier version of this story incorrectly stated Haiti's literacy rate, as per the comment below.