(2016) Social and Solidarity Economy and International Cooperation in Haiti: Development without the State?
Summary — A Master in Development Studies dissertation asking whether the social and solidarity economy, as supported by international cooperation in Haiti, amounts to development conducted around the state rather than through it. The author draws on applied research on early recovery and an internship at the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development.
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IF YOU HAVE TO DO SOMETHING…
Social and Solidarity Economy and International Cooperation in Haiti:
Development without the State?
DISSERTATION
Submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for the
Master in Development Studies (MDEV)
by
Yu Zhiming
Geneva
2016
此水极多
俱不可尽
是故不饮
君可饮尽
我当饮之
Acknowledgement
This essay is result of a combination of my interests: Social and Solidarity Economy, International
Cooperation for Development, and Post-Crisis Recovery. These topics summarise well my master
study at Graduate Institute Geneva, applied research on early recovery, and internship at United
Nations Research Institute in Social Development. It keeps into some extent my previous research
work – on International Cooperation and National Identity in Timor-Leste, however changing a bit
in terms of the application – from a cultural concept to a grassroots development policy.
Countless thoughts and reflections come to my mind when studying the topic. I am grateful to my
professors, colleagues and friends who supported me during the last two years in Geneva: professors
Jean-Michel Servet, Jean-Daniel Rainhorn, Pascal van Griethuysen; to all my UNRISD colleagues; to
friends in Haiti who shared with me without reservation their knowledge and views: my world changes
after every interview, turning mirages back to the sands.
Grateful to the delusions: in seeing the world in the details, my anthropological prof. Kelly da Silva of
Universidade de Brasília; in practicing the ideals at that very moment, my partners André dos Reis and
Vanessa Sampaio; in flickering toward justice and fairness, my comrade Teresa Bosco Ferreira; and to
all friends who helped me.
to my path
the fog
and the next stop
Abstract
The massive international humanitarian and development aid following the earthquake and the
cholera outbreak of 2010 have quickly become rooted in Haitian processes of development. Because
of the evaluated shortage of local government’s capacity – as in a typical post-crisis setting –
international development actors exercise great influence in the country, bringing resources and
personnel, along with development expertise and projects. Some resources have been directed to the
Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE), a recently popularised concept in reference to cooperatives,
associations, and other self-managed social economic organisations and enterprises, sometimes
including also microfinance and social enterprises. Whilst most SSE look-a-like interventions are
unplanned or coincidental, the lack of the State justifies the rest of SSE projects by both Haitian and
international actors. This study looks into the reasons of the international cooperation for SSE in Haiti,
as well as the potential of SSE for post-crisis settings.
Keywords: Social and Solidarity Economy, International Cooperation, Haiti;
Abbreviations
ABCP
Association de base de cotisation et de prêt
AIM
International Association of Mutual Benefit Societies
ANACAPH
Association Nationale des Caisses Populaires Haïtiennes
ASEC
Asian Solidarity Economy Council
AVEC
Association villageoise d’épargne et crédit
BC
Banques communautaires ou villageoise
BRH
Banque de la République d’Haïti
BSR
Bureau de Service et de Renforcement des organisations paysannes
BTC
Belgian Development Agency
CARICOM
Caribbean Community and Common Market
CNLAMCA
Comité nationald e liaison des activités mutialistes coopératives et
associatives
COE-EHM
Coordination des Programmes de Développement de l'Église Méthodiste
d'Haïti
COHE
Coordination Haiti-Europe
CROSE
Coordination régionale des organisations du Sud-Est
CUT
Central Única dos Trabalhadores
DP
Dévelopment et Paix Haïti
EESC
European Economic and Social Committee
EMES
EMergence des EntreprisesSociales en Europe
EU
European Union
FIDA
Foundation for International Development Assistance
FOROLACFR
Foro Latinoamericano y del Caribe de Finanzas Rurales
GESQ
Groupe d'économie solidaire du Québec
GRAMIR
Groupe de recherche et d'Appui au Milieu Rural
HAMPCO
Haitian-American Meat and Products Company
HTG
Haiti-Gourde
ICA
International Co-operative Alliance
IMOFOR
Institut Mobile de Formation du KNFP
INAISE
International Association of Investors in the Social Economy
ITECA
Institut de Technologie et d’Animation
IHRC
Interim Haitian Reconstruction Commission
ILO
International Labour Organisation
KNFP
Konsey Nasyonal Finansman Popilè
KOFIP
Collectif de financement populaire
MFI
Microfinance Institution
MINUSTAH
United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti
MPCE
Ministère de la Planification et de la Coopération Externe
MPNKP
Mouvement paysan national du Congrès de Papaye
MPP
Mouvman Peyizan Papay/Movement Paysan Papaye
MuSo
Mutuelles de Solidarité
NGO
Non-governmental organizations
PAPDA
Plaidoyer pour un Développement Alternatif
pcH
productive cooperatives HAITI
RAESS
Réseau africain d’économie sociale et solidaire
RIPESS
Réseau intercontinental de promotion de l'économie sociale solidaire
SSE
Social and Solidarity Economy
SENAES
Secretaria Nacional de Economia Solidária
SOFA
Solidarite Fanm Ayisyèn
UCAONG
Unité de Coordination des Activités des ONG
UN
United Nations
UNDP
United Nations Development Programme
UNMIH
United Nations Mission in Haiti
UNRISD
United Nations Research Institute for Social Development
UNSC
United Nations Security Council
USAID
United States Agency for International Development
USDA
US Department of Agriculture
Table of Contents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ....................................................................................................................... 5
ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................................. 7
ABBREVIATIONS .................................................................................................................................. 9
TABLE OF CONTENTS ....................................................................................................................... 13
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................. 15
CHAPTER I: CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK .................................................................................... 19
1.1. WHAT IS OR SHOULD BE SOCIAL AND SOLIDARITY ECONOMY? ..................................................... 19
1.1.1. CONCEPT AND PRACTICES OF SSE .................................................................................................... 19
1.2. INTERNATIONAL POPULARISATION OF SSE ................................................................................... 23
1.2.1. COUNTRY LEVEL: BRAZIL, FRANCE; LATIN AMERICA AND EUROPE. .............................................. 24
1.2.2. INTERNATIONAL LEVEL: .................................................................................................................... 26
1.3. SSE AND FRAGILE STATE .............................................................................................................. 30
1.3.1. STATE AS WELFARE PROVIDER ........................................................................................................... 30
1.3.2. TURNING STATE AND DEVELOPMENT UPSIDE-DOWN ..................................................................... 32
CHAPTER II: CONTEXT AND BACKGROUND .............................................................................. 35
2.1. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF HAITI ........................................................................................... 35
2.1.1. FROM INDEPENDENCE TO TODAY ..................................................................................................... 35
2.1.2. DICTATORS, INTERVENTIONS, AND INSTABILITIES ........................................................................... 37
2.2. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION IN HAITI ..................................................................................... 39
2.2.1. UNTIL THE 1990S............................................................................................................................... 39
2.2.2. FROM 1990S TO 2000S....................................................................................................................... 41
2.3. FROM 2000S TO NOWADAYS.......................................................................................................... 42
2.3.1. MINUSTAH ..................................................................................................................................... 43
2.3.2. MORE NGOS SINCE 2010 .................................................................................................................. 45
CHAPTER III: SOCIAL AND SOLIDARITY ECONOMY ................................................................. 49
3.1. DEVELOPMENT OF SSE IN HAITI ................................................................................................... 49
3.1.1. ROOTS IN THE COLONIAL MAWONAJ ................................................................................................. 50
3.1.2. COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT SINCE THE 1930S ................................................................................... 53
3.1.3. COMMUNITY-DEVELOPMENT NGOS FROM THE 1950S ................................................................... 55
3.2. SSE NOWADAYS: PRACTICE, ACTORS, AND ADVOCACIES .............................................................. 56
3.2.1. POPULAR SSE PRACTICES .................................................................................................................. 57
3.2.2. INTERVIEWED CASES: FINCA, PCH, KNFP, AND PAPDA ............................................................. 58
CHAPTER IV: INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION FOR SSE ........................................................ 75
4.1. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION VS SSE ....................................................................................... 75
4.1.1. UNWELCOMED INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION.............................................................................. 76
4.1.2. NO PORTFOLIO ON SSE ..................................................................................................................... 78
4.2. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION FOR SSE: WHY? .......................................................................... 79
4.2.1. DP: AID-INDEPENDENCE ................................................................................................................... 81
4.2.2. PCH: UNDERSTAND THE MISSION ...................................................................................................... 84
4.3. IF YOU HAVE TO DO SOMETHING… WITHOUT THE STATE ............................................................. 85
CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................................... 89
BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................................. 93
ANNEX I – INTERVIEWEES ............................................................................................................ 101
ANNEX II – HAITI AID MAP IN 2011. ............................................................................................ 102
ANNEX III – HAITI AID MAP IN 2016. .......................................................................................... 103
ANNEX III – DISTRIBUTION OF MFIS IN HAITI IN 2008 (COOPERATIVE AND NONCOOPERATIVE MFIS) ...................................................................................................................... 104
ANNEX IV – FINANCAL COOPERATIVE LOCATIONS IN HAITI IN 2008 ............................... 105
INDEX ................................................................................................................................................. 106
Introduction
The recent massive international humanitarian and development aid following the earthquake and the
cholera outbreak of 2010 have quickly become rooted in Haitian processes of development. Because
of the evaluated shortage of local government’s capacity – as in a typical post-conflict setting –
international development actors exercise great influence in the country, bringing expertise and
development projects, leading in many sectors ranging from security to education, from humanitarian
relief to economic activities.
Meanwhile, international interventions have also been challenged by public opinions and local forces,
facing a variety of accusations from the illegitimate deployment of a peacekeeping army to the
introduction of the cholera epidemic. The United Nations and other main international actors such as
Brazil and United States faced a great loss of credibility, whilst the international community is still
responsible for continuing their duty in the country.
Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE), a recently popularised concept in the international development
environment in reference to cooperatives, credit associations, and other self-managed social economic
organisations and enterprises, is very relevant to the Hatian context. With the focus on localised and
collective forms of economy, Social and Solidarity Economy is considered by many as an alternative
development method, if compared to both private enterprises and public services. In the case of Haiti,
our preliminary research found narratives that justify the promotion of SSE based on the benefits of
the economic model.
Prior to the field research, the author was first under the impression that international actors may have
played a significant role in promoting and supporting activities using the concept of SSE by
introducing an “alternative” development model to the post-crisis Haitian context, due to the
advocacy of the potential benefits of SSE (e.g. economic, social and environmental objectives, in
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association with donors’ own preferences and interests). Since international support is visible in all
SSE projects found online, the research objective was, therefore, to investigate the reasons why
international donors support SSE projects and policies as an exogenous phenomenon.
After an exploratory field research, visits and interviews, the following observations came to light: first,
most SSE actors and organisations are Haitian and operating in Haiti before the post-2010 massive aid
influx; second, the development of SSE and its network find their particularities in Haiti’s social,
political and economic history, with its unique and diverse dynamics; third, SSE projects are actually
rather absent in donors' agenda in Haiti as a category of intervention. These observations obtained
from the field challenge the previous assumptions, at same time revealing major questions: why is SSE
not widely supported and what can explain the support when it does happen?
The Haiti case study aims to exemplify the relationship between SSE and the international cooperation,
which could potentially reveal the advantages and limits of SSE in a post-crisis scenario, as well to
illustrate how “alternative” development policies are securing their space – if they are – in the domain
of international cooperation for development today. Through this research, more will be known about,
first, the development and evolution of SSE in Haiti; second, the evolution of alternative development
models; third, the processes of economic and social reconstruction in a post-conflict and crisis
scenario; fourth, the dynamics of international cooperation for development through a very
contemporary case. Furthermore, this research may also contribute to explaining the relationships
between international cooperation and local development actors and how processes of development
may be influenced by international dynamics and vice-versa, addressing a broader concern: how to
have the international assistance suitable for the local needs.
In order to answer the previous and these new questions, both field research and desk research were
employed in this study. The primary resources was the first-hand information collected from the
actors with whom the author met in Haiti, including discourses and narratives through interviews,
official documents, and promotional materials. To initiate and complement the primary resources,
Page 16 of 107
additional data were results of general and specific desk research, including analysis and descriptions
of other cases, theories and practices of SSE, of international cooperation, and of post-conflict
scenarios. In term of methodology, the research was conducted using qualitative methods with an
inclination to anthropological "thick description". The analytical focus would be the narratives of the
actors: first identifying their views and then analysing the interaction between actors and the
justifications and implications of their statements.
This method is most appropriate in understanding SSE in Haiti because other methods, whilst
performing better at theorising by applying political or sociological concepts and positivism, may fall
short in coping with actors’ perceived interests and justifications. Nevertheless, the reach and accuracy
of this research is limited by the availability of information (interviews with actors, reachable data),
communications capacities (social and linguistic restraints) and time of observation in the field. With
an interdisciplinary and pragmatic approach, this study will refrain from digging in-depth into the
concepts and theories; however, hopefully its investigation and findings may be insightful in reviewing
and reflecting upon existing theories and literatures.
Thus, this study will first present the country’s contexts and particularities, including the international
cooperation for development; then it will map SSE actors and networks in Haiti and its connection
with the international cooperation; and last it will identify the reasons behind the international support
for SSE projects in Haiti through a collection of actors’ discourses. As result, this study is structured
in six parts: the Introduction, proposing the research and its elements; Chapter I as a literature review
on SSE concept and its political economy; Chapter II on context and background, providing an
overview of Haiti’s history and the role of international cooperation with the earthquake of 2010 as a
watershed moment; Chapter III on Social and Solidarity Economy, examining its concepts, narratives,
history and networking in Haiti; Chapter IV on the international cooperation for SSE, focusing on the
SSE projects, resources and reasons; and the Conclusion, summarising the study and suggesting
further research possibilities.
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Chapter I: Conceptual Framework
Despite recent popularity of SSE, there are very few works about the SSE in a post-crisis scenario, in
relation to the State, or a Fragile State. In this Chapter, we will review first the practices and the history
of the concept of Social and Solidarity Economy; then its recent popularisation globally, both at
international level and at country level; and last, discuss its relations in a context of a fragile state.
1.1.
What is or should be Social and Solidarity Economy?
1.1.1. Concept and practices of SSE
According to Laville, three stages of development started taking place before today’s Social and
Solidarity Economy – the “modern solidarity” exemplified by workers’ associations in the first half of
XIXth century, the “philanthropic solidarity” such as charities in the second half of XIXth century,
and the “redistributive solidarity” such as different social protection policies in the XXth century. (P.
Laville, 2015)
The “modern solidarity”, called by Laville, refers to societal solidarity links that go beyond the ties of
blood, “characterised by an open political community that overcomes differences and promotes
equality through the recognition of public spaces”, for example, all types of workers and producers’
associations that emerged in the XXth Century, gathering people if economic and political
membership-based organisations.
Later, accompanying dissatisfaction against liberalism and pauperism, a “philanthropic solidarity”
that fights against the poverty took over the previous fight for equality (idem), “encouraging charities
and patronising associations”. It was the expression of the industrial era’s progress with a private
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concern over poverty, yet, unsufficient to tackle the inner causes of social threats and conflicts (P.
Laville, 2015).
Last, in the XXth Century, solidarity became public again, however placed as market control measures
through the State (idem). For example, promoting workers’ rights or social protection policies in a
private-led market. It was then an interventionist model e.g. Keynesian state “to find stable ways to
accommodate the particular interests of enterprises alongside the general interest of society.” (Laville,
2015, p. 45)Therefore, at this stage it is emphasised the redistributive role of the state fulfilling
demands of solidarity.
In the 1970s, tells Laville, increasing contestation over the past models revealed the limitations of the
previous developments – as both subordination of economy that leads to totalitarianism to a political
and market society that justifies inequality as individual freedom are extremes. Representation or
charity were not sufficient if compared to the trend of workers’ self-management, with distribution of
value-added. More ingredients were added to the previous tension between the market and the state,
such as environmental and feminist concerns, questioning the “very basis of the development model”
– that is the idea of progress, productivity, and growth. Therefore, both basis of the market and the
state – and its synergy – were challenged.(P. Laville, 2015)
In this context, new ways or experiments of production model took place, rejecting both the state and
the market. The “social innovations” include
Local proximity services, fair trade, solidarity tourism, organic agriculture, ethical
consumption, short supply chains, renewable energies, recycling and waste valorisation,
heritage preservation, microfinance and social currencies, for example. (Laville, 2015,
p.46)
Classifying the XIXth century’s efforts – cooperatives, associations, mutual societies – as “social
economy”, and the XXth century’s innovations – because of their intrinsic political dimensions – as
“solidarity economy”, Laville stresses Defourny et al’definition of Social Economy as including
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[…] all economic activities conducted by enterprises, primarily cooperatives,
associations and mutual benefit societies, whose ethics convey the following principles:
placing service to members or the community ahead of profit; autonomous management;
a democratic decision-making process; the primacy of people and work over capital in
the distribution of revenues.
Laville affirms that the Solidarity Economy “gained prominence during the past two decades,
particularly in Europe and Latin America”. (P. Laville, 2015). And, as defined by (Polanyi, 1944), is
based on the following:
-
The market principle, which allows the supply of and demand for goods and services to
meet – exchange happens on the basis of the setting of prices;
-
Redistribution, which is the principle according to which production is delegated ot a
central authority responsible for allocating it; and
-
Reciprocity, which corresponds to the relationship established among groups or
individuals thanks to actions that make sense only insofar as they express a will to
demonstrate a social link among the stakeholders.
Commenting on popular trend of social enterprises or social business – including microfinance,
Laville sees it as the return of philanthropic solidarity. Preferred by international financial
organisations, it is still “prefers individual engagement and ethical awareness over norms emanating
from public authorities and political questions.” Therefore, social and solidarity economy should go
to the direction of a democratic solidarity, dealing with the three economic principles – market,
redistribution and reciprocity – even with different ways and approaches, in an effort of democratising
both the civil society (private sectors) and the public institutions.
In order to exemplify Europe and Latin America, we will resort to a study on SSE in France and Brazil
(J.-L. Laville et al. 2005) – not only in the last decades, but starting – yet briefly – with the development
of SSE as comparable yet contrasting backgrounds for Haiti.
Page 21 of 107
In France, the democratic revolutions, such as 1789’s French Revolution, brought not only
“mouvement vers l’individualisme” but also “mouvement vers l’association” or l’associationnisme –
such as the labor and socialist movement and Saint-Simonian utopic associative projects. The same
authors ague that labour movements became “laboratoire des forms associatives”, giving birth to
“projets de la constitutions d’une économie ‘fraternelle’ or ‘solidaire’”, such as Phillippe Buchez’
short-lived associations de production, also expanding previous existent models of compagnonnages1
and societés de secours mutuel. In 1848, Paris knew another “effervescence associative”, with
numerous corporations that became syndicat-governed associations,
gouvernées par le suffrage universel, fondées sur la souveraineté du travail et régies par
le princpe d’association. Les associations fraternelles de métiers d’organisent d’abord
autor de revendications concrètes, pour fixer les tariffs, organiser l’assistance, prévenir le
chômage, maintenir les salaires, limiter la durée du travail, réguler la concurrence, abolir
le marchandage.(J.-L. Laville et al., 2005)
The 1848 revolution also brought l’État social ou l’État providence to France, starting the process of
institutionalisation of social economy. A series of laws was promulgated: 1864, le droit de grève; 1884,
la liberté syndicale; 1898, recognising the status of mutualité; and finally l’association loi 1901 defining
the freedom of association. Modern cooperative model and movement, that started in England by
Rochdale, was echoed in France in the XX century, however formally regulated only by the Loi de 1947
sur les cooperative. The previous experiments were, therefore, summarised in three type of juridical
status – coopératif, mutualiste et associative.
In the case of Brazil, the roots of SSE back to the Old Republic (1889-1930), when religious charities
“assumed the predominant role in taking care of poors and excluded.” In 1891, first cooperative was
created, the Associação Cooperativa dos Empregados da Companhia Telefônica, following by a wave
of cooperatives, and later in 1907, the Decree 1.637 was adopted regulating the cooperativism. Whilst
in the 1930 during Vargas presidency, the Brazilian Welfare State took place, expanding the provision
1
Compagnonnage refers to associations/syndicates of craftsmen that exist until today.
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of public services to the population – promulgating in 1932 the Decree 22.239 instituting cooperatives
acoording to Rochdale principles. (Andion & Serva, 2006)
In the next decades, democratisation movement – of both the market and the State – started first in
the civil society, with the creation of NGOs (non-governmental organizations) during military
governments in the 50s and 60s that received relevant support of the international community and the
Catholic Church – especially those following the Liberation Theology; and later in the State, following
the redemocratisation in the 80s, culminating in the massive thrive of NGOs and social organisations
in the 1990s. a Solidarity Economy Movement became stronger in the 1990s, when it was incorporated
into Central Única dos Trabalhadores (CUT), Brazilian trade union centre’s agenda – motivated partly
because of the transformation of baktrupted industries into workers’ cooperatives, saving therefore
employments of many people. Advocated first by Paul Singer, economia solidaria became a concept
that umbrelled and substititued similar concepts. (Singer, 1996). Concepts such as “economia social,
economia de solidariedade, socioeconomia solidária, economia popular e solidária, economia do
trabalho”, receiving a diversity of
entitites, institutions and peoples around same objectives, that is, a diferenciated way of
organizing a series of existing practices, gaining a greater meaning beyond a form of
workers’ resistance – into a social and economic alternative in a context of globalisation
and neoliberal expression in Brazil, marked by unemployment risis, by liberalisation of
markets and by processes of social exclusion. (Andion & Serva, 2006)
1.2.
International popularisation of SSE
In the last decades, we can observe an international trend of SSE gaining greater visibility, both at
national level of different countries and at international level. Nationally, SSE became more
popularised and institutionalised, with creation of specific secretaries or ministries within the
government – gaining public support; Internationally, SSE is increasingly being debated in the
international cooperation, experiencing efforts in advancing it as an agenda for regional and global
Page 23 of 107
development. In both processes, the SSE concept and practices are becoming more clearly defined and
on track toward convergence.
1.2.1. Country Level: Brazil, France; Latin America and Europe.
Continuing on the case of Brazil, after the first use of economia solidária by Paul Singer, the concept
was integrated in left-wing parties campaigns’, becaming a publicaly supported social policy. Worth
remembering that Paul Singer was also a founding member of Workers’ Party and a well-known figure
among left-wing polititians. The politically organised social movement has successfully promoted
solidarity economy into both the market and the State, resulting in a series of organisations: Cáritas
Brasileira and other church-linked organisations following Theology of Freedom, NGOs, nationallevel confederations and associations, and syndicats subsidiaries. Finally, SSE actors were gathered
during Forum Social Mundial of 2001, resulting in the creation, at the government-level, of
the Secretaria Nacional de Economia Solidária (SENAES) in 2003 under Ministry of Labour and
Employment, following the election of Lula da Silva, from workers’ party, as president of Brazil, with
Paul Singer as its first secretary. (Andion & Serva, 2006)
Coming back to France, processes of institutionalisation also happended in a similar way, with social
movements pushing for the public recognition and support toward SSE. In the 1970s, it was founded
the Comité national de liaison des activités mutialistes coopératives et associatives (CNLAMCA); in
1980, économie sociale became integrant of Partie Socialiste’s policy during François Mitterand, with
the creation of a délegation interministérielle and a Secrétariat d’État de l’économie sociale, naming
Jean Gatel – also from Partie Socialiste – as its first secretary, followed mostly by socialist successors.
Since then, the secretary has remained, despite frequent institutional changes, and, since 2012,
carrying direct mention of “l'Économie sociale et solidaire” in its name. In 2014, the Loi Économie
sociale et solidaire was adopted, marking the public support.(J.-L. Laville et al., 2005)
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Without aprofunding in the national cases, the strengthening of SSE movement and its public
recognition seems increased in many other countries. In Latin America, Argentina published in 2003
a “Plan Nacional de Desarrollo Local y Economía Social ‘Manos a la Obra’”, placing official support
under Ministerio de Desarrollo Social; Venezuela will protect and promote the SSE as in the article 308
of Consitution of 1999:
El Estado protegerá y promoverá la pequeña y mediana industria, las cooperativas, las
cajas de ahorro, así como también la empresa familiar, la microempresa y cualquier otra
forma de asociación comunitaria para el trabajo, el ahorro y el consumo, bajo régimen
de propiedad colectiva, con el fin de fortalecer el desarrollo económico del país,
sustentándolo en la iniciativa popular;
Bolivia has also written the SSE practices into into the constitution of 2009, defining the Bolivian
economic model as “plural” in article 306, that
articula las diferentes formas de organización económica sobre los principios de
complementariedad, reciprocidad, solidaridad, redistribución, igualdad, seguridad
jurídica, sustentabilidad, equilibrio, justicia y transparencia. La economía social y
comunitaria complementará el interés individual con el vivir bien colectivo;
and Ecuadorian Constitution of 2006 also incorporated SSE practices in several articles, as of the article
319, recognizing
[…] diversas formas de organización de la producción en la economía, entre otras las
comunitarias, cooperativas, empresariales públicas o privadas, asociativas, familiares,
domésticas, autónomas y mixtas;
In Europe, Luxembourg has elevated SSE to ministry level with the Ministère du Travail, de l’Emploi
et de l’Économie sociale et solidaire in 2013; Portugal has created “Lei de Bases da Economia Social”
in 2013; Spain has also approved in 2011 “Ley de Economía Social”, recognizing the importance of
Page 25 of 107
“experiencias cooperativas, asociativas y mutualistas”; and Greece also promulgated a law in 2011 on
Social Economy and Social Entrepreneurship. In all other continents such as Asian, Africa, North
America, Central America, Oceania, SSE movements gained increasing visibility, culminating in
national associations, forums, and public legislations and institutions as responses to the demands.
1.2.2. International Level:
Accompanying countries’ attention toward SSE, the internationalisation of SSE movement also gained
relevancy in the recent decade. Despite the diversity, numerous SSE organisations, associations,
regional and international networks were established, and international organisations and
associations also started SSE into their agenda, as we will see some examples below.
Réseau intercontinental de promotion de l'économie sociale solidaire (“Histoire du RIPESS,” 2016),2
for example, has origin in 1997 in Lima3, gathering SSE actors and networks from around the world,
including
grassroots, farmers, natives, women, youth organizations; employers’ organizations;
working communities; cooperatives, micro-enterprises associations; associations of the
Church; Non Governmental Organizations; groups of environmentalists, associations of
technologists; development networks; groups on social economy and a coalitions of 32
countries. (“La déclaration de Lima,” 1997)
Since then, through several meetings each four years, RIPESS is now a a large international SSE
network, composed by five continental SSE networks: Réseau africain d’économie sociale et solidaire
(RAESS), Asian Solidarity Economy Council (ASEC), RIPESS-NA, RIPESS-LAC, RIPESS Europe –
3
Although the name of RIPESS was defined in its 2001’s meeting in Quebec, the first meeting that structured the
network was held in Lima, 1997.
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with member organisations and national and regional networks from 62 countries.{Citation} With
clear definition and advocacy of SSE, in its Charter published in 2008, the concept was defined as
based on human values and principles of solidarityThe social solidarity economy
includes activities and organizations of associative, cooperative, and mutual nature
created to respond to the need for jobs and the well-being of people, as well as those
citizen
movements
geared
toward
democratizing
and
transforming
the
economy;(RIPESS Charter, 2008)
Following its last meeting in Manila 2013 – the 5th International Meeting of Social and Solidarity
Economy, the Global Vision of RIPESS was published stating the transformative potential of SSE for a
systemic change, believing it to be “an alternative to capitalism and other authoritarian,
statedominated economic systems.” (“Histoire du RIPESS,” 2016) RIPESS as stated its international
strategy – on behalf of the SSE movement – as compresing the following components:
-
Building practice on the ground
-
Building and Strengthening SSE networks
-
Research
-
Policy work on local, regional, national and international levels
-
Advocacy
-
Access to markets
-
Raising visibility through education and communication.
As a very comprehensive movement, RIPESS embraces a diversity of forms of Social Economy and
Solidarity Economy – including social enterprises – predominant at its Asian network ASEC. However,
RIPESS’ SSE actors are more inclinated to collective-onwership entities, with little interest on
microfinance, for example. (“Histoire du RIPESS,” 2016)
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There is a number of international forums, networks and events similar to RIPESS, such as – to cite a
few – les Rencontres du Mont-Blanc 4 – International Forum of Social and Solidarity Economy
Entrepreneurs, reuniting larger social economy enterpreneurs e.g. French Crédit Agricole, and
Quebecois Caisse Desjardins, Global Social Economy Forum, gathering local governments, social
economy networks and organisations since 2013; and EMES International Research Network,
associating social economy researchers; International Co-operative Alliance (ICA); International
Association of Mutual Benefit Societies (AIM). Most of these networks – as RIPESS, engage in active
advocacy activities, engaging governments at national and regional level to promote Social and
Solidarity Economy. (“Histoire du RIPESS,” 2016)
At inter-governmental level, with the effort of civil society and SSE movement actors, European Union
has incorporated Social Economy as an agenda since the 1980s, creating in 1989 a Social Economy
Unit in the European Commission. Later, European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) hosted
a “social economy category”, publishing consultive opinions for the European Union for the EU; and
the European Parliament, set a ‘European Parliament Social Economy Intergroup’ in 1990, stressing
the importance of SSE. The EU budget e.g. through European Social Funds, has been allocating to
promote SSE policies and projects across EU countries. In December 2015, Luxembourg has promoted
SSE during its EU presidency by lauching the “Luxembourg Declaration on the Social and Solidarity
Economy in Europe”, affirming the employment potential of the SSE.
At international organisations, Social and Solidarity Economy has also received growing attention.
International Labour Organisation, for example, has been an active supporter of SSE, especially
cooperatives. In 2009, the organisation held a “ILO Regional Conference on Social Economy” in
Johannesburg, and started since 2010 a training programme called “Social and Solidarity Economy
Academy” – with publication of a series of studies and research in SSE focusing in developing
4
(“The MBM’s members | Les Rencontres du Mont-Blanc,” 2011), Web, accessed at http://www.rencontresmontblanc.coop/en/page/mbms-members
Page 28 of 107
countries.5 In 2013, was created within the United Nations a Inter-Agency Task Force on Social and
Soidarity Economy leaded by UN Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD)– now having
14 UN agencies as members, with the previously mentioned GSEF, Rencontres du Mont-Blanc,
RIPESS, EMES, ICA, EESC as observer-members. 6
In 2014, a “Leading Group on Social and Solidarity Economy” was formed with Rencontres du MontBlanc’s initiative, composed by States – France, Ecuador, Morocco, Colombia, Luxembourg, and
Quebec – SSE networks and UN institutions.7 The last meeting "Social and Solidarity Economy for a
Better Financing for Sustainable Development in the Post-2015 Agenda" was organised during the III
International Conference on Financing for Development, in Addis Ababa, with clear objective of
promoting the SSE into the global development agenda.
Finally, we also found on case of State development agency that does have SSE has a portfolio – Belgian
cooperation for development. Belgian Development Agency (BTC) started it in 2012 as a “theme” for
Belgian development cooperation, among others such as Agriculture & rural development, Health care,
Gender equality, Water & sanitation, etc, marking a specific area of intervention. According to BTC,
There are more and more interventions that focus on supporting value chains
(horticulture and seeds in Rwanda; milk in Vietnam; llama, fruits and wood in Bolivia,
wheat in Mali...). They become part of the Social and Solidarity Economy in two ways:
through the participation of farmers' organisations and through the use of financing tools.
Through the farmers' organisations 'market deficiencies', which are typical for most of
the agricultural economies in which BTC operates, are corrected. The financing tools
mostly favour cooperatives and mutual assistance organisations.
5
(“ILO Social and Solidarity Economy Academy, 2010). Web, accessed at
http://socialeconomy.itcilo.org/en/background
6
(“United Nations a Inter-Agency Task Force on Social and Soidarity Economy”, 2016), Web, accessed at
http://unsse.org/?page_id=4
7
(“International Leading Groupe of the SSE,” 2016), Web, accessed at http://www.rencontresmontblanc.coop/en/page/international-leading-groupe-sse
Page 29 of 107
Additionally, USAID, also sustains a Cooperative Development Program worldwide since 2002,
aiming “key cooperative development challenges”:
-
Restrictive cooperative laws and regulations
-
Policy-based governance
-
Raising member financial participation as a major element in self-reliance
-
Achieving scale consistent with quality
-
Reducing the dependency that can result from external assistance
-
Building mutually-beneficial business and trade relationships between U.S. and partner
cooperatives
-
Expanding access to cooperatives throughout USAID partner countries. (“Cooperative
Development Program,” 2013)
Therefore, in consideration of this context of growing international attention – and several aspirations
and advocacies, from different paths – toward SSE, we will start our investigation on the case of Haiti,
in order to discover if whether popularisation of SSE have somehow impacted the international
cooperation in Haiti.
1.3.
SSE and Fragile State
1.3.1. State as welfare provider
States have become the most common form of organization among societies across the
world. Following a Weberian notion, the State is an entity that claims the monopoly over the
legitimate means of violence over a particular territory, with a certain degree of legitimacy among this
population and its international peers.(Weber, 2013) . As Hobbes (1996) suggested, its legitimacy
flows from its guardian role of the “Social Contract.”
The Social Contract, according to the contractualism, is the bedrock pact agreed by the people. It
substantiates society (and the State), defines their rights and duties (citizenship) and also invests the
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social body (the State) with the power to fulfill such rights.(Hobbes, 1996; Locke, 2011; Rousseau, 2013)
If in the beginning, the State solely responsibility was was the provision of security, (Hobbes, 1996), it
changed completely during the last centuries in Europe.
In the XVIII, the classical economists started the discussion regarding the relationship of the State with
other spheres of society, as the Market. The advent of industrialization had two main effects on the
perception of the role of the State, its role in the economic development and its role in the provision
of social welfare.(Esping-Andersen, 1990)
First, the gap between England – the first industrialized country - and its peers started to enlarge. As
economic strengthen and military power were closely related, some thinkers, as the German School,
highlighted how State and the economic development of a Nation were connected. They underlined
the necessity of the State to act as a discipliner to promote development – especially in nations which
were still lagging behind. Economic power, then, would translate in a State more capable of fulfilling
its role as the provider of security and to advance the Nation’s interests. (Esping-Andersen, 1990)
The industrialization did not only affect Nations but also changed the society. The advent of the
industrialization destroyed in a great degree the welfare provision structure of the traditional society.
The emergence of the proletariat, orphan of the social fabric from pre-industrialization- raised the
demand for the State to step out from its almost exclusive focus on security and extraction of revenues
to take a provider role of social services. (Esping-Andersen, 1990)
Such new role of the State, however, just come to full fruition in a century: after a robust and capable
bureaucracy was developed (essential to the provision of social welfare) and after the inclusion of the
proletariat in the political system, in which, they were finally able to renegotiate the terms of the social
contract.(Esping-Andersen, 1990)
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The role of the State and its relationship with the Society and Market – how much intervention the
State would perform in both spheres, varied across Europe and North America. It varied because the
terms of the social contract renegotiation varied accordingly to socio-political configurations. As
Esping-Andersen (1990) explains, the Welfare State is the structured relations between State-Market
and Families (understood as the private and communal sphere that also provide individuals with
goods and services).
1.3.2. Turning State and Development upside-down
In recent decades, there is a growing literature regarding the Failed States. Far from the long process
of development that the European States passed and continuing expansion of its roles, the States from
the Third World were born with a high burden to construct themselves while pressured to deliver
certain services and gain legitimacy. As Gros, (1996) states, the unique nature of the States in the
periphery tends to make it difficult to even apply the European State welfare standards when analysing
these States.
Some of these States, however, failed, being almost absent from the triad State-Market-Family. These
Failed States suffer from an acute weakness caused by their lack of legitimacy and disorganized and
weak bureaucracy, which undermine their capacity to extract resources from its populations. Their
lack of resources and bureaucratic weakness hamper their ability to fulfill essential functions like
security and basic welfare provision. Their lack of functionality further undermines its legitimacy and
capacity, since it hinders economic development, and fosters a fertile soil for fratricide wars.
(Fukuyama, 2005)
This vicious circle of State Failure has trapped several countries the world. Although the main way to
solve this loop is to address the State capacity, such change faces a major obstacle. Although Fukuyama
(2005) argues that we should insist on supporting these States, the central fact is that the inefficient
nature of these States and their frequently patent corruption diverges significant part of the resources
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invested in them. Thus, these populations ended up by not relying on and not expecting anything from
the State. The political, social and economic spheres become increasingly disconnected.
In these circumstances, an alternative solution to this impasse would be a bottom-up development,
the so-called social solidarity economy that disentangled from the State can provide some essential
social and economic goods while the State moved away to perform its very initial function of security
provision.
The virtue of the social solidarity economy is that it helps to strength and develop the economic and
social fabric of a particular society since it spreads principles of autonomy, empowerment, and
knowledge-sharing, an outcome that a purely Market approach would be able to deliver.(Amorim,
Dale, Fakhri-Kairouz, & International Labour Office, 2015)
The International Community can play a significant role in the development of such economies by
providing the necessary linkages with resources and know-how (Amorim, Dale, Fakhri-Kairouz, &
International Labour Office, 2015). Far from weakening the State, the social solidary economy can give
the necessary previous step to rebuild society from within and promote minimum economic
development, which in turn, would impact the State positively.
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Chapter II: Context and Background
Well known as being the first African republic in the world and the first independent country of Latin
America, Haiti’s history, regardless of the teller, has been one that combines heroic figures and
frequent occurrences of instability, crises and natural disasters. In terms of occupations and
interventions, it was first colonised by Spain in the XVth century, then was shifted to French rule until
the XVIIIth century. After its independence in 1804, British, German and U.S. armies also exercised
their influence to different extents in Haiti. In the last decades, dictatorships and several coups d’état
arrived one after another, resulting in the MINUSTAH (United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti)
peacekeeping mission whose mandate started in 2004. Recently, the earthquake of 2010 and the
ongoing cholera epidemic portray the country through international media to a global audience.
However, the current political, social, cultural, and economic factors have indeed strong roots and
have evolved over the last two centuries are at play in the coutry(Zanotti, 2010). We will thus look into
Haiti’s history: first a historical overview with selected episodes; then the international cooperation in
Haiti; and last since 2000s to today, highlighting the MINUSTAH efforts and the post-2010
development framework.
2.1.
Historical Background of Haiti
2.1.1. From independence to today
According to the official history of Haiti on the website of its Presidency8, Haiti’s history is divided
into 10 “periods”: Pre-Colombian period, Spanish Period, French Influence, Haitian Revolution, Fight
for Freedom, Instability, US occupation, Role of the Military Junta, Duvalier Dynasty, and Duvalier’s
heritage. To briefly summarize this offical narrative, the pre-colombian Taïnos people, living in what
8
(Présidence de la République d’Haiti, 2016), Web
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was called Quisqueya, were “docile, calme et très hospitalière”; Spanish rulers arrived in 1492, “ont
exploité les ressources d’or et ont réduit les Taïnos à l’eclavage,” and started introducing black
Africans as slaves in 1503, after Bartolomé de Las Casas' denounciation of the expoitation of
indigenous people; then French colonizers took from the Spanish in 1697 half of the Hispaniola Island9
and imported millions of slaves from Africa to accelerate the wealth generated from Haiti, “la colonie
la plus prospère du monde.”
In 1789, same year as the French Revolution, the Haitian Revolution started from the clash of interests
between mulattos and white colonial authorities, followed by rebellions and resistances of black slaves
– followers of vodou – against the plantation system. In 1791, Toussaint Louverture, one of Haiti’s
founding fathers, organised slaves in one army and engaged in warfare with French soldiers, and was
martyred for “la première république indépendante noire” proclaimed in January 1st 1804. Isolated
in international scenario and internally split between mulattos and blacks, the first decades following
Haiti’s independence were marked by instability, until the US occupation in 1915. The US Army
justified its invasion with the Doctrine Monroe and Roosevelt Corollary, and controlled the country
until 1934. Following its retreat, the Haitian Military Junta governed the country, facing broad
demonstrations and unrests until the election of François Duvalier in 1957.
Self-declared President for Life, François Duvalier strengthened his personal army force, while
millions of Haitians escaped the country. Upon his death, his 19-year old son, Jean-Claude Duvalier,
extended the Duvalier Dynasty in 1971, also gaining the US' support. In exchange, he ordered the
slaughter of all Haitian pigs to substitute them with the US aid agency’s imported ones, destroying
Haitian farmers’ livelihoods, provoking public resentment, and resulting in this government’s fall in
1986. As part of the Duvaliers’ legacy, after the demise and departure of Jean-Claude Duvalier, the
country was fragmented again with a succession of military governments and coups d’état.
9
The Caribbean Island hosting Haiti, in the West, and Dominican Republic, in the East.
Page 36 of 107
In 2000, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, previously overturned by the military, won the election again. Yet,
election frauds were denounced by the “international community” and in 2004, demonstrations
against economic crisis and corruption pressured both the government and the international
community to expel President Aristide. In this context, the MINUSTAH was installed. In 2006, after
an election marked by “l’incertitude et des démonstrations populaires”, Aristide’s colleague Réné
Préval won the presidential run. In 2011, Michel Joseph Martelly, was elected with 67.57% of votes.
2.1.2. Dictators, interventions, and instabilities
As might be expected, some recent episodes and peculiarities of Haitian history were missing in this
official version. First, the Duvaliers stayed 30 years in power, depicted by most of international media
as ruthless dictators. François Duvalier, or better known as “Papa Doc”, rigged the constitutional
referendum to win with 99.9% in favour of his Presidency for Life, committed extrajudicial killings
and executions of political enemies of between 30,000 to 60,000 people, before leaving the power to
his son. (Grenne, 2001) Despite being called “Baby Doc”, Jean-Claude, son of François, always faced
accusations of corruption, human rights abuses, involvement in the drug and organ trade, while
upgrading the personal guards to “Leopards” with the US' support. Social and civil movements were
harshly repressed during this period, including the cooperative movement.10
Second, both coups against Jean-Bertrand Aristide were controversial. In 1991, Jean-Bertrand Aristide
was overthrown by the army a few months after his victory in Haiti’s first post-Duvaliers election.
Many observed that the opposition came from the traditional Hatian elite against Aristide’s reformist
policies. During his exile, the UN imposed sanctions over coup leaders, and the first peacekeeping
operation – United Nations Mission in Haiti (UNMIH) – was carried out between 1993 and 1996
under the United States' lead, restoring Aristide’s government to power. In this context, in 1995,
Aristide ordered the dissolution of the Haitian army.(Roupert, 2011)
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The coup of 2004, for many Haitian and international scholars, is a result of power struggles and
international politics. The second election of Aristide, which placed him as President in 2000, was
contested by the United States, yet supported by the Caricom countries. Some observers noted the
popularity and wide support Aristide had at that moment, and suspected that his unfriendliness
toward Western countries may explain his exit.(Grenne, 2001) During the armed conflict raised
against Aristide, Caricom’s request for peacekeeping was rejected by the Security Council. (“UN News
- CARICOM, Haiti appeal to Security Council for help as security worsens,” 2004).
Aristide was forced therefore to resign – yet later claiming that he was removed by a coup d’état
orchestrated by the US. (“Aristide says U.S. deposed him in ‘coup d’etat’,” 2004). Following Aristide’s
abdication, the UNSC approved a new peacekeeping request from the interim government, and
establishedof MINUSTAH – United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti. The MINUSTAH that was
established soon after his exile, however, did not aim to bring him back like the last time, but rather
assisted the transitional government instead. The Haitian population and parties such as Fanmi
Lavalas and supporters of the exiled president were against the UN Mission, seeing it as a new form of
foreign occupation and intervention.(Miller, 2004)
Third, the last elected president, Michel Joseph Martelly (2006-2011), was accused of having been
involved in both coups d’état against Aristide and having won his own fraudulent election with help
of the US. He was accused of delaying parliamentary elections on purpose, while governing the
country by decrees, and of inciting street violence.(Maguire, 2015; Robles, 2015) The 2015 Presidential
Election held in October was suspended after its first round due to alleged frauds and contested results
regarding how Martelly’s choosen candidate Jovenel Moïse, at 6% in the poll went to the run-off with
31.81% of votes. The run-off for a possible new election has been postponed since December 2016
until now. In November 2015, a special verification commission was set up following the complaints
to investigate election irregularities; on April 2016, an interim President was elected succeeding
Martelly. Run-off deadlines were missed several times, until May 30th, 2016, when the election
verification commission recommended a new election instead.
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2.2.
International Cooperation in Haiti
In January 2010, a 7.0Mw magnitude earthquake and a series of aftershocks hit Haiti’s central area,
affecting around 3 million people in Port-au-Prince and nearby, causing 220,000 deaths according to
government fitures, alongside massive destruction of residences and infrastructure, including
hospitals, ports and roads. When talking about international cooperation in Haiti, the first image that
comes to mind is the humanitarian assistance following the earthquake, with blue-helmets and aid
workers rescuing people amidst the debris, or distributing food by helicopter. As the largest natural
disaster in Haiti’s history, the post-earthquake humanitarian assistance was, indeed, unprecedented
in terms of resources and the number of actors involved. International assistance, both humanitarian
and for development, nevertheless accompanies the Haitian history and its several foreign
interventions. Therefore, international cooperation for development had a role in Haiti long before
2010’s catastrophe. We will first track it back to the United States’ intervention in the early XX century,
then to the post-2010 period.
2.2.1. Until the 1990s
According to Haggerty (1991), the United States invested in infrastructure and public services during
its occupation of Haiti between 1915 and 1934:
[…] Roads were improved and expanded. Almost all roads, however, led to Port-auPrince, resulting in a gradual concentration of economic activity in the capital. Bridges
went up throughout the country; a telephone system began to function; several towns
gained access to clean water; and a construction boom (in some cases employing forced
labor) helped restore wharves, lighthouses, schools, and hospitals. Public health
improved, partially because of United States-directed campaigns against malaria and
yaws (a crippling disease caused by a spirochete). Sound fiscal management kept Haiti
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current on its foreign-debt payments at a time when default among Latin American
nations was common. […] (Haggerty, 1991, p. 226))
Despite the aid, local resistance and almost two decades of unrest resulted in US withdrawal in 1934.
It is hard to argue that infrastructure investment during occupation is foreign assistance; however, US
assistance has continued since then. Buss and Gardener (2009) point out that “since 1944, Haiti has
relied heavily upon on-again, off-again foreign assistance from the United States and the international
community.” The foreign aid accompanied US influence to Haiti, later, with the institutionalisation
of Truman’s Point Four Programme into the United States Agency for International Development
(USAID)11. Assistance to Haiti was an integrant part of US foreign policy during the Cold War.
In the early 1980s, what we can consider the first aid disaster took place: concerned by the spreading
of African Swine Fever, the United States together with Canada, Mexico, the FAO, the International
Development Bank and the OAS imposed a swine fever eradication plan on Haiti by killing all 1.2
million of infected Haitian swine12. According to Ebert (1985), the project aimed not only to prevent
the spread of swine fever, but also to modernise Haiti’s livestock production model, fostering a
dependent industrialisation once labourers were freed from unproductive swine breeding. A new
model was introduced involving a foreign breed from the US and Mexico, imposed feeding formula,
care and vaccines, and central processing through the Haitian-American Meat and Products Company
(HAMPCO). For the peasants, “they have become the hapless victims of an `aid' project thrust upon
them by foreign agencies in collaboration with their own government" (Ebert, 1985). The imported
breed was not adapted to Haitian conditions, the repopulation failed, the compensation was not
properly done and most peasants lost their livelihood, leaving the market in the hands of Port-auPrince elites and the US agribusiness industry.
11
Created in 1961, succeeding previous foreign aid agencies such as International Cooperation Administration,
Development Loan Fund.
12
African Swine Fever Eradication and Swine Industry Development Project (PEPPADEP) was launched in 1981,
by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; the IICA, a branch of the Organization of
American States; the International Development Bank; the governments of Mexico, Canada, the United States; and
finally, the government of Haiti.
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During its authoritarian regimes, a significant proportion of the Haitian population emigrated –
known as Haitian diaspora – to countries like the Dominican Republic, the US, Canada, Cuba, and
France (Erikson, 2014). Haiti’s struggle became better known to international civil society partly
because of this massive emigration. At the same time, foreign civil actors also brought assistance to
Haiti and some have remained until now. CARE International, for example, started with humanitarian
assistance in Haiti in 1954, rescuing victims from Hurricane Hazel; Développement et Paix (Caritas
Canada), for example, started working with Haiti in 1970; Caritas Haïti was founded in 1975; Oxfam
Quebec, in turn, started its activity in Haiti in 1978; Foundation for International Development
Assistance productive cooperatives HAITI (FIDA-pcH), of Quebecois origin, started operations in
1984; the "Groupe de recherche et d'Appui au Milieu Rural” – le GRAMIR, with Swiss funding, was
founded in 1986.
2.2.2. From 1990s to 2000s.
In 1995, in an effort to regulate the country's NGO sector, the government recorded that 309
recognised NGOs were operating in Haiti, of which 74 exist before 1984, and 61 NGOs were founded
– in a leap – from 1985 to 1994. The Swiss-Haitian GRAMIR, in 1989, classified NGOs in Haiti into
four types: humanitarian and direct services; medium or long-term development; long-term
participatory development; and advocacy groups that focus on social justice(Mathurin, Mathurin, &
Zaugg, 1989). While the figures reflect the general trends during the 80s and 90s when NGOs were
more present worldwide, Schuller (2007) observed that the leap in number coincided with two
particular events: the popular unrest from 1985 to 1987, also know as dechoukaj, following Duvaliers’
fall, and the coup d’état between 1991 and 1994. For us, it also indicates a proliferation of international
civil actors on development cooperation, aka NGOs, that follows the evaluated fragilisation of the State.
Although the democracy was claimed as restored in 1994 by the United States, official aid – through
USAID to Government of Haiti – was suspended in 1995 and attempts from the US aimed at
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weakening Aristide’s government, while supporting directly NGOs in Haiti, bypassing the State. 13 In
the following years, Canada and European countries also suspended their official assistance to
Aristide’s government. As result, resources – and often donors’ strategies – were outsourced to the
NGOs instead, greatly strengthening the latter. According to Morton (1997) only between 1992-1994,
a total of USD 100 million of international support was given to NGOs. Schuller (2007) explains that
is because
“donors were reluctant to resume funding that had been suspended during the Cédras
regime14 because of their ‘fear of decreased implementation efficiency and effectiveness’
in the government and because of a perception that the ‘absorptive capacity of the GOH
is severely limited’.” (Schuller, 2007, p100)
On this regard, Schuller noted that “most donor policies and practices fund NGOs instead of the
government, nearly all ‘development’ occurs through the many NGOs. (idem)” Already in the 1990s,
NGOs in Haiti covered a wide array of services, such as Health, Education, Agriculture, Social
Assistance, Community Development, Credit, Human Rights, Women, Environment and Literacy.
For Schuller (idem), this change in aid distribution, since then, resumed the tension between the NGO
sector and the State, even with the government willing – yet unable – to oversee the roles of NGOs.
2.3.
From 2000s to nowadays
13
There are different narratives regarding this episode: Washington Post journalist Lippman (1995) affirmed it was a
republican maneuver to delay resources for the U.S.-sponsored election in 1995 , therefore weakening Aristide and
supporters (“U.S. AID FOR HAITI IS HELD UP - The Washington Post,” n.d.); Schuller, (2007) quoted that the
“official reason was that the Préval government presided over a collapse of the Parliament, which is the
institution constitutionally authorized to ratify international treaties, including bilateral aid agréments
(idem, p100)”; Buss and Gardner (2009) argued that Aid suspension was advocated by Aristide whilst in exile in
the United States in order to repress the coup government, yet it was not resumed timely when he returned later to
power; finally, Edmonds, (2013), citing believed that the United States, in an evaluation of Haiti as a corrupt and
fragile State – preferred to direct the aid to NGOs, bypassing the State.;
14
the interim government that ruled de facto Haiti during Aristide’s exile.
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2.3.1. MINUSTAH
Established in 2004, MINUSTAH has now a total of around 6,000 personnel, of which around 4,500
are soldiers and police15 and UN agencies have altogether more than 1,500 staff in Haiti, of which
around 1,350 are national staff. 16 While substituting the disbanded Haitian army and training the
national police force, MINUSTAH also became the main responsible body for all “stabilisation”related tasks, such as emergency rescue, humanitarian assistance, support to the elections, assisting in
judicial reforms and training of public servants, etc., sometimes even being a donor in financing small
projects.
The eleven years of intervention in Haiti have placed the UN in the sequence of uncomfortable Spanish,
French and American influence, especially when a recent allegation against peacekeepers as the source
of the cholera outbreak generated a wide-wave of resentments and public rejection(Ives). This and
other scandal allegations were instrumental to the withdrawal of the MINUSTAH(“UN confirms
Minustah’s withdrawal,” 2015); however, the UN Security Council renewed the MINUSTAH’s
mandate again as expected(UNSC/RES/2180, 2014), indicating at least one more year of a bitter stay.
It can be said that the UN started with a damaging image and lack of legitimacy among Haitians.
Afterwards, the accusations against the UN can be roughly classified into 3 categories: supporting the
governing elite, involvement in sexual assault and human right abuses, and being possibly the source
of the cholera outbreak.
In 2005, MINUSTAH held a highly controversial operation in the shanty town of Cité Soleil; while
officially chasing after gang leaders, it was blamed for repressing members of Fanmi Lavalas and
supporters of the former president Aristide in the shanty town. The operation caused many civilian
deaths and a humanitarian crisis, wounding near 700 people. (Revol, 2006). Leaked documents in 2011
15
In 2004, MINUSTAH had an 8940 soldiers and 3711 police officers body. The figures have been decreasing
following every mandate renewal.(United Nations, n.d.-a)
16
United Nations, 'UN in Haiti | United Nations in Haiti' 2015, http://www.onu-haiti.org/un-in-haiti/. [Last
accessed December 18, 2015]
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pointed out that the operation was conducted under American pressure in favour of coup-plotters
under the name of “robust” peacekeeping, forcing MINUSTAH to execute it.(Ives, 2011; Kolbe &
Hutson, 2006) 17 In several other occasions Haitian media denounced the role of MINUSTAH in
repressing social movement and protests that have caused many civilian deaths.(Batay Ouvriye, 2008).
In 2006, a survey investigation on civilian casualties and sexual assaults reported that the Haitian
National Police and anti-Lavalas groups accounted for 24.4% of identified perpetrators of sexual
assault, and UN soldiers were also frequently identified. 18 Meanwhile, a 2015 UN internal report
revealed many other abuses, including the common practice of transactional sex with local women,
trading "jewellery, ‘church’ shoes, dresses, fancy underwear, perfume, cell phones, radios, televisions
and, in a few cases, laptops.(United Nations OIOS, 2015)
Last, and most importantly, evidence is gradually pointing to UN responsibility over the cause of the
cholera outbreak of October 2010. The epidemic that infected 700,000 and killed around 9,000
Haitians was tracked, in 2010, to have origin in a MINUSTAH military base of Nepalese
soldiers.(Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, 2015) In 2013, the UN start changing its tone,
and its independent experts confirmed that MINUSTAH troops “most likely” caused the cholera
epidemic.(The Center for Economic and Policy Research, 2013). In a recent public conference in
Geneva, the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti observed the local outrage against the UN
mission’s presence, as the UN pledged for more resources to fight against the cholera in Haiti
(Lindstrom, 2015). In this scenario, the UN’s presence, and the wider international community’s
presence in Haiti, for local people, media and observers, has a component of a moral duty.(Weisbrot,
2012)
17
Months after, the Brazilian commander of MINUSTAH was found dead in his hotel’s balcony, whilst reasons of
death have been changing from firearm accident to confirmed suicide, then to suspected assassination. After these
incidents, the credibility of both Brazilian army and the UN – poorly established – was cast into doubt.
18
The survey counted that “8000 individuals were murdered” since 2004, whilst 35.000 women – half younger than
18 years – were victims of sexual assault (Kolbe & Hutson, 2006). In 2007, a peacekeepers sexual abuse scandal was
exposed to the public, leading to an UN internal investigation which revealed 114 members of MINUSTAH
responsible for sexual abuse and statutory rape (United Nations OIOS, 2015).
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2.3.2. More NGOs since 2010
For observers, NGOs and MINUSTAH have substituted the Haitian State or its institutions. Zanotti
(2010, 757) noted that “before the January earthquake there were between 8000 and 9000 NGOs in
Haiti with very different agendas, budget size and sponsorship”, and that “More that 70 per cent of
available health care was provided by NGOs, but 72 per cent of the population had no access to health
care at all. Eighty-five percent of education was provided by private schools, which were mostly run
by NGOs.”
Plagued by political instabilities and natural disasters19, and circumvented by foreign aid (Buss, 2015;
Edmonds, 2014; Etienne, 1997; Lessard, 2010; Schuller, 2007; Zanotti, 2010), after the earthquake of
2010, the fragile state became for many a failed state, as the natural disaster destroyed even further
Haiti’s infrastructure and remaining government capacity. According to Edmond Mulet, appointed
Special Representative of the Secretary-General and head of mission of MINUSTAH after the
earthquake, “Almost one-third of public servants died during the earthquake, 18,000 of them. Even
before the earthquake, the fragility of the institutions and the state was there, and now it is much worse.”
(“Battle for Haiti - Interviews - Edmond Mulet,” 2011)
It is of general perception both in the academic literature and actors in the field that Haiti’s
humanitarian response and rescue efforts were almost entirely international, and mostly American,
symbolised by the US former president Bill Clinton leading the Interim Haitian Reconstruction
Commission (IHRC). Whie the response was counted as having resources “more than $9bn (£5.6bn)
19
Noted by {CBuss (2015), “From 1993 to 2012, it experienced one earthquake, two droughts, 31 floods, and 26
tropical storms or hurricanes. Every time Haiti progresses in its development, a disaster undoes it, making the
country worse off. In the past decade alone, Haiti was battered by Hurricane Jeanne in 2004, causing losses of 7%
gross domestic product (GDP); Hurricane Fay and tropical storms Gustav, Hannah, and Ike in 2008, resulting in
losses of 15% GDP and destroying 40% of Haiti’s harvestable crop, creating a food crisis; and the 2010 earthquake
producing a loss of 120% GDP, or U.S.$8 billion”
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in public and private donations”,(Walz & Ramachandran, 2013) 20 it is widely understood that the
money didn’t go to the Haitian government, but paying largely donors’ own expenses or to
international NGOs (Mathurin et al., 1989) (Buss 2015; Edmonds, 2014; Zanotti, 2010; Walz and
Ramachandran, 2013) – all criticising the humanitarian response’s failure by excluding the Haitian
government.
Figure 1. Recipients of Humanitarian Funding. (Walz and Ramachandran, 2013)
While 572 recognised NGOs were listed at l’Unité de Coordination des Activités des ONG (UCAONG)
of the Ministère de la Planification et de la Coopération Externe (MPCE)21, Edmond Mulet said Haiti
hosts almost 10,000 NGOs after the earthquake, and that “the international community was partly
responsible for the weakness of the Haitian state, because it did not trust -- and so consistently
bypassed -- successive governments.” (“Special Report - Is aid doing Haiti more harm than good? |
Reuters,” 2010)
"We created this Republic of NGOs, almost 10,000 NGOs, some of them are extremely
responsible and doing good work, but many, many other ones are there, and nobody
knows what they do, and nobody knows where the money comes from or is going to."
(“Special Report - Is aid doing Haiti more harm than good?" , 2010)
20
The Guardian. http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2013/jan/14/haitiearthquake-where-did-money-go
21
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In this chapter, we reviewed briefly Haiti’s history through, and gradually complementing, its “official
version”. First, through other authors’ lenses, we have seen that international assistance is greatly
linked with Haitian and international politics and crisis: noticeable in several episodes, including US
intervention, Aristide’s government and coups, UN peacekeeping missions, and the several
humanitarian emergencies. Second, we realised that at least three elements have contributed to the
fragility of Haiti's public institutions: its political instability with occurrences of coup d’état; frequent
natural and man-made disasters culminating in the 2010 earthquake and cholera outbreak; and
international cooperation’s policy of avoiding the State in aid distribution.
Third, we have observed a number of critics against the presence international cooperation, namely
the United States, UN and its missions, and the NGOs – accusing their political bias, ill-management,
scandals and negative roles in Haitian crisis. In the next chapters on Social and Solidarity Economy
and its International Cooperation, we will recurrently refer to this context.
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Chapter III: Social and Solidarity Economy
Despite recent increasing international popularity, Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) is a concept
that as been used and practiced for more than a century, even with different ranges of coverage,
interpretations and practices. Commonly referring to cooperatives, credit associations, other memberbased associations and/or social economies, in Haiti a variety of actors practice SSE-type projects
and/or promote SSE’s strengths and potential, yet with different objectives and modi operandi. While
some advocate for SSE as a path for an alternative development for Haiti, like Plateforme Haïtienne de
Plaidoyer pour un Développement Alternatif (PAPDA) that criticise development cooperation
policies that violate Haiti’s food sovereignty, others remain apolitical, like l’Association Nationale des
Caisses Populaires Haïtiennes (ANACAPH), developing popular finance more as a business model.
Still others are unaware of what SSE is, like productive cooperatives Haiti (pcH), despite having
promoted rural cooperatives in Haiti for more than 30 years.
This chapter will be descriptive, with document, academic literature and interview sources, first, on
SSE’s history in Haiti both as a concept and its attributed practices, then on its current state in Haiti,
including actors, networks and advocacies, and last, the international support for SSE in Haiti. ,
illustrated by four interviewed cases.
3.1.
Development of SSE in Haiti
Many authors and interviewees placed the evolution of SSE in Haiti's historical context, explaining the
historical roots of many of today’s practices. In an interview with us, Ernest Mathurin, director of
GRAMIR, stated that social and solidarity, prior of being a concept that encompasses cooperatives and
modern SSE practices, has historical roots in Haiti. Mathurin describes three lines of SSE development
in Haiti: first, historical SSE traditions can be tracked back to colonial times, in resistance movements;
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second, after the US occupation, while Haitian intelectuals introduced the cooperative model into
Haiti, and Catholic Church intelectuals started with popular financing experiments; and third, in the
NGO age of Haiti since the 50s, with community-based projects that serve as the foundation for
today’s prevelence of SSE-like projects. It is important to observe that the stages are not “evolutionary”
but coexistent, even nowadays. It is important to observe that the stages are not “evolutionary” but
coexistent into certain extent until nowadays.
A similar historical frame is also observed by actors like Gayot (1983) : the first period after Haiti’s
independence in 1804 was characterised by groups of collective workers paid in kind or in cash; the
second period started in 1937 with the creation of the first modern cooperative and, in 1950, the
creation of the saving and credit cooperatives similar to the Quebecois Caisse populaire Desjardins;
and a third period began around the 1960’s with a burst of cooperatives of agriculture, production,
consumers, and craftsmanship.
3.1.1. Roots in the colonial mawonaj
Mathurin et al. (1989) tracks the origin of Haiti’s SSE back to slave resistance during colonisation –
even before the Independence – to have three components: i) fleeing slaves that installed themselves
in the hill country with self-governing structures and productions; ii) passive slave resistances in the
form of “marronage” or “mawonaj”, that constituted social and cultural solidarityles bandes marrons
– that later, combining with first two components, achieved independence. After the independence,
two social divisions took place with “deux projets de nation”: i), a “petit France noir, independent et
catholique”, continuing the French model and the plantations mode of production, wished by
d’affranchis or mulâtres, and rebel army’s leaders; and ii) an Haiti with small-producers economy,
with its own national culture, faith (voodoo) and language (creole) comprised of both mulâtres and
black people was hoped by the freed or previously fled slaves.
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Mathurin et al. (1989) advanced further, stating that the first group, despite securing power,
confiscating land and other means of production, still never managed to appease the social tension,
giving birth to a parallel “Haiti de montagne” that persisted for more than 180 years, alongside
traditional SSE organisations and practices until today: the konbi, as an example, is a collaborative
rotating working system for planting and harvesting among peasants.
White & Smucker (1998) analysing the first traces of solidarity that the elite inherited the national
governing structure from the colonisers, and the former slaves escaped the plantations establishing
isolated communities, often out of the reach of the new State – both in term of institutions and policies.
In this context of an absence of positive state interventions and exploitative market
relations, the peasantry devised new institutions and customs to protect themselves from
-the government, to regulate access to land, labor, and capital. Repressive social and
political arrangements tended to foster growing rural impoverishment over time. The
exclusion of peasants from national institutions also encouraged peasant society to
emerge as largely self-regulating and defensive. (p.2)
Small community-based social structures were born in this context, such as mawonaj – “the traditional
peasant practice of maintaining a low profile, avoiding the apparatus of state, and establishing furtive
agricultural units on the margins of society”). 22 White and Smucker (1998) further affirm this
phenomenon of
[…] horizontal forms of social capital are indigenous, autonomous, local, and specialized
in function. They tend to have a democratic character and emphasize collective activities
along horizontal lines among scicial peers. The groups are self-selecting, self-governed,
stable and repetitive, and based on the rule of reciprocity. People organize specialized
groups for well-defined purposes, such as entertainment (for example, kontradans),
religion (bann rara), secret societies (hann champwel), rotating access to credit (sang),
22
To balance the singular use of “Society”, we will resort to Maguire (1996, in: Fatton, 2002), describing mawonaj
as “a strategy from the country’s pas and evocative of runaway slaves that boils down to ‘resistance through
elusiveness.’ When threatened, leaders and groups blended into the wood-work until it was safe to reemerge. This
practice would serve them well, not just during their early days of organizations, but in the future. Using mawonaj,
Haiti’s evolving grassroots movement survived Duvalier and the rapacious military regimes led by Henri Namphy,
Prosper Avril, and, finally, Raoul Cédras and his cohors.”
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and rotating access to labor (èskwad). In addition to these examples, there are other
specialized groups, a rich lexicon of localized Creole names, and a broad range of local
and regional variants. (p.3)
Lundhal (2010) describing “Haitian tradition of solidarity highlighted ‘lakou’, the ‘konbit’ and the
‘sang,’ all representing “a cooperative tradition with roots going way back into the early nineteenth
century.” Lakou, was an extended family structure that was both “patriarchaSate and cooperative”:
an extended family structure that was both “patriarchate and cooperative”, in which
The ‘pè’ (the oldest male) made the decisions, but the ‘lakou’ also served to ensure that
food and work were shared, that pressing needs were taken care of and that the extended
family appeared as a socially respectable tight-knit unit vis-à-vis the outside world.
(Lundahl 2012, p.120)
Derived from lakou structure, Eskwad or konbit were also popular soon after independence, says
Lundahl (2010), that it was inspired by West African practice.23 The independence wars caused a loss
of labour, therefore adopting a collective rotative working system in farming and harvesting. In the
1920s, konbit developed into sosyete, a larger and more elaborate solidarityat
not only served to mobilise cooperative labour, but in addition they were mutual benefit
societies, they afforded protection and they provided social entertainment during the
work, including music. Units of up to 180 members are known to have existed. (p. 114).
And last, the sang – traditional rotating credit association – was also born in the XIX century. Practiced
in other parts of the world, it is a crowd-funding solution that involves pooling money first before
serving a particular member in turn. According to Lundahl (2010), all these labour exchange and
rotative credit groups are bases for a “Community-based entrepreneurship” 24 , using Peredo and
Chrisman’s definition of “a community acting corporately as both entrepreneur and enterprise in
pursuit of the common good.” White and Smucker (1998) believe that “these social trajectories
23
Robillard (2013)
A common reference in SSE scholarship, considered as one type of SSE, like cooperatives, mutual benefit
associations, social enterprises, people’s associations, savings groups, among others.
24
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continued unchecked for well into the nineteenth century, as Haiti's treatment as pariah state following
the revolution left it isolated from the rest of the world.”
3.1.2. Cooperative movement since the 1930s
Mathurin et al. (1989) tell that around the 1930 to 1950s, after the US occupation, Haitian intellectuals
introduced the cooperative movement into Haiti, while intelectuals linked with the Catholic Church
started in Haiti experiments on popular finance – caisse d’épargne et des crédits - establishing the first
rural credit cooperatives. In 1937, la Société Coopérative Agricole de Source Chaude (TerreNeuve/Artibonite) was created as the first modern cooperative of Haiti, despite the first ventures being
mostly short-lived (Lundahl, 2015). According to Shaffer’s Historical Dictionary of the Cooperative
Movement, “Cooperatives for consumers, credit and transport were formed in the 1940s, followed by
a cooperative development project financed by the United States Government in 1951. (Shaffer, 1999.p
42)”
Around 1950s, according to (Develtere & Fonteneau, 2004), Canadian missionaries introduced
“saving and credit cooperatives similar to the Caisse populaire Desjardins,” , creating first saving and
credit cooperative in 1946. Some still exist today, like la Caisse CAPOSAC, created in 1949. Since then,
Haiti saw the first boom of cooperatives of agriculture, production, consumers and craftmanship,
culminating in the creation of Conseil National des Coopératives (CNC) in 1953.
Between the 1950s and mid-1980s, peasant “community councils” were established throughout Haiti,
primarily by international non-governmental organizations (NGOs). And a gwoupment movement,
“based on small groups of peasant farmers operating pre-cooperative ventures” (White and Smucker,
1998) was also promoted by grass-roots support organization. For White and Smucker (1998, p.5),
gwoupment were a forerunner of todays “producer groups, cooperatives, and community-wide
federations of small groups” “firmly rooted in horizontal relations among peers, direct participation
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by all members, and small face-to-face groupings” (p.4), that greated enhanced “the success of grassroots development efforts.
However, Mathurin et al. (1989) remembered that this trend was harshly repressed during the 60s
under Papa Doc, when growing power centralisation and anti-communist policies affected selforgnised groups: the authoritarian government seized community initiatives into authoritarian
controls under military jurisdiction while repressing other self-governance scructures, resulting in
persecutions (e.g. extra-judicial killing of young cooperativists around 1962-64). This episode was also
remembered in the interview with pcH, as the cooperative movement and the proto-cooperative
movement – such as gwoupment – suffered serious political repressions and threats in Haiti.
In the 1980s, at the climax of the cooperative movement, Haiti was estimated to have 68,000
cooperatives (Develtere and Fonteneau, 2004), including a large number of credit unions, 80 coffee
cooperatives, a dozen cocoa cooperatives and several craftmanship cooperatives. Also suffering from
political instabilities in this period, supportive public policy was limited, and some community
organisations became grassroots and social movements, such as today's well-known Haitian SSE
actors MPP and Tèt Kole.
Yves Charles and Legrand Charles, coordinators of pcH – productive cooperatives Haiti - in interview
with us, told that cooperatives, particularly credit cooperatives, reached another boom in the 2000’s
under Aristide’s government that largely promoted the cooperative model, stressting that Haiti, as
stated in the Constitution, is a “république coopératiste”; therefore, it should have cooperatives as a
national economic model. In this attempt to capture or allegedly democratise financial services in a
called “fièvre de coopératives” between 2001 and 2002, the number of credit cooperatives increased
exponentially. Claiming a 10% or even 15% return rate, these initiatives soon were revealed as pyramid
or money laundering schemes, taking away US $200 million savings from Haitian people (Gonzalez,
2002). Beside economic losses, the cooperative movement was greatly harmed since then. This episode
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was remembered by many of the interviewees with lingering fear, such as ANACAPH, KNFP, and prof.
Franz Piard.
3.1.3. Community-development NGOs from the 1950s
According to Mathurin et al. (1989) , the NGOs boom in the 50s was accompanied by two trends that
could be considered carrying the SSE values: i) by encouraging organisational processes based on
community development; and ii) by undertaking development projects with a critical political
advocacy. The first group, concommitant with the creation of credit cooperatives, was linked with the
Catholic Church. It was a result that arose from the Second Vatican Council, when Theology of
Freedom’s claims became more expressive and were translated into the Church’s development policies
through its social branches (e.g. Caritas). Growing support was directed to peasants organisations, for
example, the rural production cooperatives, and more SSE-like institutions were created in this context.
Later, in the 1980s, these community organisations and initiatives became more laicisied – also
impacted by the authoritarian regimes as indicated also by White and Smucker (1998) – and most
credit unions became business initiatives rather than Catholic development initiatives.
While the second group pointed the roots of Haiti’s developement problems lay in the politics,
criticising and acting against Duvaliers’ regimes and the lack of democracy. Develtere and Fonteneau
(2004, p 13) confirmed that
Une partie des associations, groupements, coopératives et mutuelles s’arriment aux
structures sociopolitiques du pays. Ceci est particulièrement vrai pour ceux créés par des
mouvements paysans et syndicaux qui ont joué un rôle important dans le renversement
du régime duvaliériste.
After the dictatorship, Mathurin observes, many SSE-like actors started having the character of a social
movement, contrary to previous repressed community organisations. White and Smucker (1998, p. 4)
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observed that with “the advent of free speech and a free press”, soon after Jean-Claude Duvalier’s fall,
Haiti had
an exuberant explosion of new and often ephemeral civic groups, political parties,
pressure groups, neighborhood committees in urban slums, local NGOs, exlternal NGOs
linked to the Haitian overseas community, and rapid expansion of the gwoupman
movement in rural areas.
This proliferation of actors could be called by Develtere and Fonteneau (2004) as “l’éveil de la
conscience sociale”. Although difficult to affirm the existence of a coherent social movement, as it was
denied by all interviewees, they admitted that peasant organisations had important roles in the political
developments in the redemocratisation processes.
3.2.
SSE nowadays: Practice, Actors, and Advocacies
Following this historical development of SSEs, we can now look into the actual configuration of the
domain of SSE in Haiti, bearing in mind different historical trends that contributed to their
development. According to Mathurin et al. (1989), informal and daily SSE practices of Haitian people
inherited the first stage, cooperatives and caisses kept the second stage’s progresses, and many Haitian
social organisations advanced the advocacies of the third stage.
Therefore, today’s SSE practices in Haiti could be divided roughly into the following: informal and
popular solidarityives, faith-based organisations as well as NGO community development projects,
and peasant organisations and advocacy groups, without excluding a number of transversal network
organisations of SSE or public agencies. , and peasant organisations and advocacy groups – without
excluding a number of transversal network organisations of SSE or public agencies.
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3.2.1. Popular SSE practices
Of informal and daily SSE practices, many do have traces of the past. In our interview, Haitian scholar
Prof. Frantz Piard 25 cited the sabotaj as an example of popular SSE practices, that remembers
previously mentioned sang. According to Piard, sabotaj is a tontine-alike rotative saving system
between Haitian families, co-workers, street vendors of normally of short duration. It polls saving
amounts of, for example, 150 HTG per member per day26, and withdrawn rotatively on a daily basis to
each member and “sabotating” the fund and, therefore, the name. It could be elaborate and involving
high amounts, especially among street vendors who has more liquidity at the end of the day. Stressing
its popularity, Piard believes that it is often practiced between the Haitian workers of the French
Embassy, like sòl, another popular SSE practices.
According to Bell (2010) sòl is another revolving loan system popular in Haiti with longer periodicity
than sòl – accruing on a weekly or monthly basis; mèn ansanm, following a similar logic of sòl and
sabotaj, occors among business initiatives to crowdsource money to be later rotatively shared; and trok,
is a barter-alike informal exchange practice, exemplified by Bell as “with a woman giving milk from
her cow for another woman’s baby whilst the other gives back beans from her garden.” Konbit systems
that we mentioned earlier, according to Roubillard (2013), despite observed decline, is still relevant in
urban and rural areas and used by people for multiple purposes, from agricultural works, to
reforestation, road building and city cleaning, and even symbolic uses. Roubillard (2013) advocates
for the promotion of konbit practices over monetised works, in order to renew the solidarity relations
among people in Haiti.
25
At the time of interview professor of École Normale Superieur de Port-au-Prince and Chargé de coopération
universitaire de l’Ambassade de la France en Haïti.
26
We understood 150 HTG or gourdes as a high amount, considering our informally surveyed average Haitian
monthly income of around 4000 gourdes. 150 HTG were around USD 2.4 at the time of interview.
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Thus, we have the “people” as the first actors of SSE in Haiti. These and other practices are considered
by Bell (2010) and interviewees such as Mathurin as bearing legacies for solidarity (e.g. cooperatives
and community NGOs, as we will describe below).
3.2.2. Interviewed cases: FINCA, pcH, KNFP, and PAPDA
The increasing use and popularisation of the term “Social and Solidarity Economy” in Haiti is shared
as a trend of convergence among SSE actors of all kinds: credit cooperatives, rural cooperatives,
advocacy groups, social enterprises, networks, Haitian and international NGOs, universities, research
institutions, and finance institutions, etc. Nonetheless, it is hard to identify a “SSE movement” in Haiti.
The reality is that, despite recent efforts and growing identification with the term, SSE actors are often
descentralised, isolated, bearing very different aims and advocacies, as well as their understanding and
expectations about SSE.
In our study, we came across a myriad of SSE organisations or initiatives that carry out SSE practices
and interviewed a number of them. In this section, we will present four of the interviewed
organisations: a microfinance institution – FINCA Haïti, a cooperative supporting NGO – FIDA-pcH,
a solidarity finance network – KNFP (Konsey Nasyonal Finansman Popilè), and a advocacy institution
– PAPDA (Plateforme haïtienne de Plaidoyer pour un Développement Alternatif). A similar
descriptive structure will be applied in this section to summarise the interviews: their activities,
perceptions of SSE network and movement in Haiti, and their objectives and advocacies. While all
were asked on the international cooperation in SSE and its political economy, we will explore this
information in the next chapter.
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3.2.2.1. FINCA Haïti
We met with Emiel Johannes Bouwens, FINCA chief operations officer, on several occasions in Portau-Prince and nearby, focusing on FINCA’s activities in Haiti and the microfinance sector in the
country.
Village Banking in Haiti since 1989
Created in 1984 as an NGO, with its headquarters in the US, FINCA is now a well-known international
microfinance instition (MFI), with branches on all continents using the “Village Banking” or “Banque
Villageoise” model created by John Hatch. In 1989, FINCA Haïti (henceforth FINCA) was founded,
becoming nowadays one of the major MFIs in Haiti with nine branches across the country. The MFI
offers a diversity of services such as loans (e.g. “agricultural loan, individual loan, small and medium
enterprise loans (SME)”) and money exchange, remittances and mobile reimbursement, although it is
centred in group lending using the “village banking” model.
According to the institution’s website, the model is “based on the principle of group or communal
solidarity30,000 HTGs to a self-selected group of between 9 to 25 people, needing no collateral or other
guarantors. Group members should be from the same area, with each one having own “business and
household”. Reimbursements are between four to eight months and repayments “are made every 28
days”, with FINCA providing the “best rate possible.”guarantors. Group members should be from the
same area, with each one having own “business and household”. Reimbursements are between four to
eight months and repayments “are made every 28 days”, with FINCA providing “best rate possible.”
According to Bouwens, Haiti’s formal banking system is “bureaucratic, slow and formalistic”, and
small business won’t go to bank to access financing. Although many banks in Haiti created a
microfinance portfolio, now the largest three are FINCA, ACME (Association pour la Coopération
avec la Micro Entreprise) and Fonkoze (Sevis Finansye Fonkoze), integrating with other MFIs the
ANIMH – Association Nationale des Institutions de Microfinance d'Haïti. At the time of the
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interviews, FINCA had 36,000 clients in the country, with a growing rate of 700 clients per month, and
a total credit portfolio of around USD 8,7 million – 95% in HTG and 5% in USD. It is interesting to
observe that FINCA uses HTG in all accounting, despite its fluctuation and depreciation, and the
reporting currency in USD. The repayment rate has been at 98%, apart from the earthquake aftermath
that took many people’s lives, including FINCA’s clients and personnel, losing 30% of the portfolio.
FINCA receives its international group’s funding, investment and grants from international donors
and social investors that we will detail in the next chapter.
Haitian financial systems
When we inquired about the Haitian financing system and how people access finance, Bouwens cited
the informal money lenders, who charge at least 30-40% per month, while compared to FINCA’s 3-5%
per month, a slightly cheaper but comparable rate to the microfinance market in Haiti. The informal
money lender often uses lands, or its using rights, as collaterals in a system called plané. Bouwens
remembered that, even after a national land reform, the land onwership and entitling system is highly
unreliable in Haiti to be widely accepted by formal institutions as trusted collaterals. Beside informal
money lenders, caisse populaire and credit cooperatives are very popular in Haiti, but with very uneven
quality.
Very interestingly, people do not have banking accounts with FINCA like most MFIs that are not
allowed by the BRH (Banque de la République d’Haïti) to take savings. Fonkèse is the only MFI that
does take savings in a exceptional basis, even not being a bank. Bouwens observes that most Haitian
people do not keep a bank account, but rather invest in assets (e.g. livelihood) because Haitian banks’
savings interest rate is “extremely low”.27
It is interestingly to observe that FINCA’s clients are almost all natural persons, with “less than 1% as
legal persons”, even considering the existent portfolio on SMEbecause of better “liability and stability”.
27
According to World Bank, deposit interest rate was at lowest in 2011 of 0.28%, and last measured in 2014 of
2.61%.
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It means to us that MFIs like FINCA are not typically intermediary financial institutions of other SSEs.
Bouwens explains that cooperatives and other collective initiatives often have “no clear onwership”,
“not only in Haiti, but generally in other countries” as well. As an example, the registered name of the
responsible to the authorities is often not the actual responsible of the organisation, therefore creating
risks for MFIs lending.
Social Impact
Finally, asking about the social impact of FINCA’s services, Bouwens affirms that the social impact is
delivered through the “Village Banking” model, covering 1/3 of the total portfolio, and impressively
92% of the clients. He commented that no business analysis is needed for group lending and that the
very high repayment rate is ensured through the prevalence of the principle of solidarityWhile
business advice is provided, the solidarity among members is limited to social pressure, and not often
on mutual assistance in others’ business. business advices are provided, the solidarity among members
are limited to social pressure, and not often on mutual helps in others’ business.
Similarly to other group lending microfinances, women are the main borrowers: there are never more
than 3 men in a group of borrowers. Inquiring about women's predominance, Bouwens’ answer was
that first, womenve the financial control of the household in Haiti, and second, women are much more
compliant repayers than men.
In order to obtain grants from USDA – US Department of Agriculture - an independent and discreet
assessment on the social impact of FINCA shows that “social improvement and empowerment is
happening”, that clients of FINCA are having more stable and sustainable financial incomes,
increasing consumption and are more resilient to shocks.
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3.2.2.2. FIDA-pcH
We met with the executive director Betsy Wall, coordinateur programme agricole Legrand Charles,
and coordinateur dévelopment coopérative Yves Charles of Foundation for International Assistance productive cooperatives HAITI - (henceforth pcH), focusing on its activities, advocacy and the
cooperative movement and its international cooperation in Haiti.
Supporting agriculture cooperatives since 1984
pcH is a cooperative-supporting NGO founded in 1984 by a 60-year-old Canadian couple who “sold
most of their possessions and moved to Port-au-Prince, Haiti” “to work with the poorest of the poor
in rural communities, to enable them to achieve a level of productivity and economic activity to
provide for themselves and their families.” pcH, the working arm of the FIDA foundation, has now 30
staff in Haiti, partnering with “25 cooperatives representing over 7,000 members” in Haiti.
pcH promotes Haiti the “productive agricultural cooperative model”, by proving
agricultural credit and training in cooperative management and sustainable
agriculture/environmental practices to help increase productivity and generate
economic activity. [contributing] to the building of grain storage units, agricultural
supply stores and health clinics, all within the context of the cooperative model. In 2000,
an extensive non-formal adult education program was introduced to address the
endemic themes of fear and mistrust that so inhibit the cooperative movement in Haiti.
The program has successfully improved the quality of life for cooperative members, not
only by providing an opportunity for them to improve their literacy and numeracy
proficiency, but also through the teaching value added subjects like conflict resolution,
servant leadership, and gender issues. (pcH, 2009)
pcH has conducted/ is conducting 28 projects, mostly of direct support to agricultural cooperatives,
but also training, education, watershed management and irrigation rehabilitation, and post-
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earthquake aid and recovery through cooperatives, community motivation and mobilization, cholera
prevention, research and evaluation. The cooperative model is not restricted to agricultural
production, but also cooperative clinics, housing and management of resources.
Nonetheless, pcH’s cooperatives are not yet all financially self-sustainable. The reasons are natural
disasters such as the 2010’s earthquake, climate change, economic instability such as gourdes’
fluctuation, market changes, and also aid failures. pcH relies on FIDA’s direct financial support
coming from donations and revenues from Wall’s International Guest House, established by the
founding couple Jack and Anne Wall, as well on international assistance.
Cooperative movement
As a convicted promoter of the cooperative model, pcH believes that “this model is viewed as the most
appropriate when addressing the economic issues of poverty, and given a context wherein the country
lacks political will, national infrastructure, and general security.” The organisation has as objectives
“to foster economic development and social transformation in rural communities through the
productive agricultural cooperative model,” with “strict adherence to the principles of participatory
methodology.”
This model, for pcH, should provide “much needed infrastructure at the rural community level where
there exists none”, “is designed to address economic adversity”, “is a democratic model requiring
transparency and accountability”, “requires individual commitment and cooperation”, and adheres
to the Rochdale’s “Seven International Principles of Cooperative”:
1. Voluntary and Open Membership
2. Democratic Member Control
3. Members’ Economic Participation
4. Autonomy and Independence
5. Education, Training and Information
6. Cooperation Amongst Cooperatives
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7. Concern for Community
Yves Charles and Legrand Charles told us that they believe in the cooperative movement, as a
“organisation modèle que nous aide à completer d’autre missions”, because “la coopératif par
excellence peut aider le dévelopement intégral”. The cooperative model, that is “inclusive,
démocratique”, and promotes “développement indigene”, is not restricted to agriculture, but applied
widely to other sectors like hotelery, health, education, etc. However, when asked about the advocacy
and if it bears political claims, Yves Charles and Legrand Charles affirmed that pcH remains
“purement technique”, that may have been inspired by “philosophie chrètienne”, however remains
emphatically “sans la politique.”
“What it this ‘Social and Solidarity Economy’”?
Wall was surprised by the term, claiming that he never heard about it in 32 years with pcH, despite
having been actively promoting activities very similar to what we describe to be SSE. pcH interviewees
are very familiar with the history of the cooperative movement in Haiti, all the peaks and valleys, and
today’s existent network. On the relative prominence of cooperatives in Aristide period, Yves Charles
and Legrand Charles affirm that “maintenant, ces coopératives de la fièvre ont disparus”, and “les
‘vrais’ coopératives existents jusqu’à aujourd’hui.” Therefore, “tout le monde connaît” the
cooperative model, however, the negative impact remained, not only on credit cooperatives but on the
model as a whole. pcH had to undertake an “effort extraordinaire” to overcome the damages caused,
such as the mistrust of the people towards the cooperative model.
Yves Charles and Legrand Charles seem to be more familiar with the network and are aware of the
concept of SSE. They warned that despite numerous cooperatives, NGOs and organisations that claim
to be working with cooperatives, few are principled followers of the movement. They criticised the
credit cooperatives or caisse populaires, citing that most are problematic in their “méthode de gestion”;
despite being cooperatives, they “functionne comme des banques” with “membres pauvres” et
“administrateurs riches”, leaving behind the cooperative mission.
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Finally, pcH listed some like-minded SSE actors in Haiti: le Développement et Paix – by promoting
“économie solidaire” and “financement populaires” and organising events with pcH’s participation
and exchanges); le Mouvman Peyizan Papay/Movement Paysan Papaye (MPP), with whom pcH has
worked as well; le Partenariat pour le Développement Local (PDL) – a network of organisations in all
Haiti and promoter of the cooperative model 28 ; World Renew – also working with cooperatives;
l'Institut de technologie et d'animation (ITECA) and L'institut Culturel Karl Lévêque (ICKL)29, which
develop supportive programmes toward the gwoupment.
3.2.2.3. KNFP
We met with Dieudonné Eugène, responsible for le Bureau de Service et de Renforcement des
organisations paysannes (BSR) of Konsèy national de financement populaire (KNFP) and discussed
about KNFP’s activities and SSE’s actors, networks, advocacies and international cooperation in Haiti.
A rural finance network organisation
Founded in 1998, le Konsèy national de financement populaire, henceforth KNFP, is the main Haitian
SSE network organisation on popular finance – excluding credit cooperatives – that umbrellas nine
members 30 , while hosting three network-level units: L'Institut Mobile de Formation du KNFP
(IMOFOR), le Bureau de Service et de Renforcement des organisations paysannes (BSR), and Kaypam,
a conference and hostel facility. According to its official website, KNFP “travaille à la promotion et au
renforcement du financement populaire en Haïti avec un positionnement marqué pour le milieu rural.”
28
However not in full compliance with the principles, noted pcH.
Well-known advocate of SSE in Haiti.
30
“COD-EMH : Coordination des Programmes de Développement de l'Eglise Méthodiste d'Haïti ; GRAIFSI :
Groupe pour l'Intégration de la Femme du Secteur Informel ; KOFIP : Kolektif Finansman Popilè ; Par la suite, les
trois fondateurs ont été depuis rejoints par d'autres membres tels : ACLAM : Action contre la misère ; CRS :
Catholic Relief Service ; FONDESPOIR ; FIDES- Haïti : Fonds International de Développement Economique et
Social ; FHAF : Fonds Haïtien d'Aide à la Femme ; FOBNO : Fédération des Organisations du Bas Nord-Ouest ; Les
neuf (9) membres pris ensemble rassemblent en 2005 plus de 3,000 structures de financement de base (banques
communautaires ou mutuelles de solidarité (BC/MUSO), soit environ 65000 à 70000 chefs de ménages répartis
dans les dix (10) départements géographiques du pays. L'immense majorité (80%) vit en milieu rural.” (KNFP,
2010).
29
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It engages in training, promotion, and research of rural financing in Haiti, specially the Mutuelles de
Solidarité (MUSO) and the banques communautaires ou villageoise (BC).
MuSo and BC
According to a KNFP study (Mathieu, 2015), mutuelles de solidarité had its first appearance in 1995
in Senegal, and was introduced into Haiti in 1997 after a training seminar by KOFIP – Collectif de
financement populaire. Matheiu (idem) counted more than 1,000 MuSo in Haiti craeted by a number
of organisations, some today members of KNFP. KNFP itself, through its training facility IMOFOR,
also promotes the MuSo model. BC, in turn, was a model created in 1984 by John K. and Maguerite
Sakir Hatch of FINCA, and practiced in Haiti by Coordination des Programmes de Développement
de l'Église Méthodiste d'Haïti (COE-EHM), Catholic Relief Service (CRS), and other MFIs.
For Mathieu (2015), MuSo and BC could
1) Permettre aux populations pauvres de s’organiser et d’échanger sur les problèmes qui
les concernent. 2) Financer des activités créatrices de revenus. 3) Réduire les coûts
d’intermédiation. 4) Renforcer la solidarité de la communauté. 5) Favoriser la circulation
de l’argent dans le milieu.
Eugène, and Mathieu (2015), describe that a MuSo or BC normally are constituted at around 15-30
members, pooling the money into 3 types of boxes: caisse verte or caisse des affairs, caisse rouge or
caisse de secours, and caisse bleue or caisse de refinancement. The amounts are determined by the
members, with the caisse vert as a credit fund between the members, the caisse rouge as an assurance
solidarity fund for emergencies and other non-recoverable spending, and the caisse bleue as an
institutional fund that is not limited to the members, operating external lending or receiving external
funding. During a MuSo meeting, the box holder meets with the key holder, and an accounting journal
is kept for each caisse, securing the transparency.
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According to KNFP’s statistics, from 2003 to 2013, IMOFOR has trained 6,530 people on MuSo and
BC models: 60% of them are women, and KNFP counted more than 7,000 association de base de
cotisation et de prêt (ABCP) in Haiti, including around 3,500 MuSo, 2,000 BCs and 1,000 AVECs
(Association villageoise d’épargne et crédit), totalizing 140,000 users, mobilising 400 milllion
gourdes31.
We do SSE
Eugène affirms that KNFP was founded in 1998 inscribed in the term of “economie sociale et solidaire”,
as “finance solidaire,” with the belief that “finance comme outil pour permettre le développement
sociaux et économique des acteurs” and that “l’homme est situé au centre des actions du KNFP”.
KNFP is member of many international SSE networks, such as International Association of Investors
in the Social Economy (INAISE) and Foro Latinoamericano y del Caribe de Finanzas Rurales
(FOROLACFR). While in Haiti, KNFP actively promotes SSE, forming a plateforme/réseaux de
l’économie sociale et solidaire in Haiti with other SSE actors through the joint organisation – with
ANACAPH, INAISE, FOROLACFR – of Premier atelier international sur le financement de l’économie
sociale in March 2014. Eugène also remembered a number of studies him and Lionel Fleuristin,
president of KNFP, realised on the SSE in Haiti and the role of KNFP.
Eugène told us that KNFP is among the rare SSE organisations that do have a “lobby” dimension, as
it is in the organisation’s strategic plan. Therefore, KNFP’s activities toward small and medium
enterprises and peasants organisations have SSE as a base, that is understood by Eugène as having in
common principles such as “gouvernance démocratique et autogéstion”, intrinsic values of
cooperatives and solidarity finance. The makom, a KNFP supported civil society organisational model,
for example, gathers people in a community in a solidarity group, and became in many places an
important stakeholder for local politicians. Candidates present their plans to makom members before
31
The total cotisation is up to date until Sep 1st, 2015. (Le Nouvelliste, 2016)
http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/149325/Les-Mutuelles-de-Solidarite-et-linclusion-financiere-en-Haiti
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the election, and once elected, have to report periodically to the makom, ensuring the political
accountability and democratic participation through a SSE initiative.
Haitian SSE
The SSE in Haiti, according to Eugène, involve a diversity of actors and practices, including
“fondations, coopératives de production, coopératives financières, ONGs qui travaillent dans le
développement avec un racinement local” like ITECA, peasant organisations and federations like MPP,
Coordination régionale des organisations du Sud-Est (CROSE), and 4G Kontre32; and some still-used
yet declining mutual-help practices of konbit or its varieties (e.g. malanga or èsqwad).
According to Eugène, the SSE in the financial sector in Haiti, or Social and Solidarity Finance, are wellstructured such as by KNFP, ANACAPH, Le LEVIER – covering globally the actors of the cooperative
financing - and by ANIMH – representing non-cooperative MFIs, but without a positioning of SSE.
KNFP, ANACAPH and ANIMH are supporting associations of financial institutions, KNFP on MuSo
and BCs, ANACAPH on caisses populaires d’épargne et credit, and AMINH on MFIs. Le LEVIER is a
network but also a financial institution per se, offering integrated financial services for its membered
credit unions.
Meanwhile, the SSE in the productive sector is more diverse, including peasant movement, rural
cooperatives, education, infrastructure, tourism, migration, agriculture, local development, and
community-reinforcement. However, the actors are not as structured as the financial sector at the
national level. There are some relevant actors, such as MPP, a regional peasant movement in the
Central region of Haiti that gathers 4,184 “goupements (hommes, femmes, mixtes, jeunes)” with a
total of 53,680 membres (MPP, 2012); le CROSE is another regional peasant movement in the SouthEast of Haiti; while 4G Kontre is a advocacy network formed by MPP, MPNKP (Mouvement paysan
national du Congrès de Papaye, a national-level movement founded by MPP), and Tèt Kole, a
32
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national-level peasant movement. For Eugène, unfortunately this is still not a single movement or
network of productive SSEs in Haiti.
Similarly, the myriad of NGOs that undertake SSE projects are also scattered. Each NGO works very
independently. COHE, Coordination Haiti-Europe, for example, gathers a large number of NGOs, but
only those with European partners. Nonetheless, despite the diversity of activities and advocacies of
the SSE in Haiti, for Eugène, the actors share a common point ideologically: “le point central c’est de
favoriser le bien-être, l’épanouissement des gens du milieu rural.”
3.2.2.4. PAPDA
We met with Ricot Jean-Pierre, directeur de programme du PAPDA, debating primarily PAPDA’s
activities, and the political advocacy of SSE movement.
PAPDA – Plateforme haïtienne de Plaidoyer pour un Développement Alternatif, was founded in 1995,
and is now composed of eight members: la SOFA (Solidarite Fanm Ayisyèn), le MITPA (Mouvman
Inite Ti Peyizan Latibonit), l’ITECA (Institut de Technologie et d’Animation), l’ICKL (Institut
culturel Karl Levesque), le CRAD (Centre de Recherches Actions pour le Développement), l’ANDAH
(Association Nationale des Agro-professionnels Haïtiens), le COHPÉDA (Collectif haïtien pour la
protection de l’environnement et le Développement Alternatif), and le FONHADES (Fondation
haïtienne pour le Développement économique et sociale).
It lists many social movements and organisations as partners, including POHDH (la Plate-forme des
Organisations Haïtiennes des Droits Humains) et le RNDDH (Le Réseau National de Défense des
Droits Humains), le GARR (Le Groupe d'Appui aux Rapatriés et Réfugiés), le SAKS (Sosyete
Animasyon ak Kominikasyon Sosya/Société d’Animation et de Communication Sociale), and trade
union federations (e.g. Batay Ouvriye (BO) – the most critical trade union federation in Haiti). Thus,
PAPDA represents
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un regroupement de mouvements sociaux et d’organisations de la société civile haïtienne
qui travaille sur les politiques publiques par le biais de l’information, la formation,
l’analyse critique et l’élaboration de propositions alternatives.(“PAPDA,” 2006)
PAPDA works on Social and Solidarity Economy, and topics such as food sovereignty, alternative
economic integration, external debt, and participative democracy through a journal in French “Justice
Économique” - a monthly newsletter in Créole Yon lòt Ayiti posib - their website www.papda.org,
community radio programmes and many events conferences, including the well-known Université
populaire d’été.
Recent yet complex SSE
Acording to Jean-Pierre, the use of the term “économie sociale et solidaire” is recent in Haiti, dating
back only to the 1990s to 2000s. The concept quickly became very popular among community actors
since then, as it can find its historical and cultural roots and references in Haiti. Although regarded by
many as a palliative remedy to the lack of support and services or informal substitute of the formal
economy, PAPDA believes in a “dynamique politique, économique et culturelle par derrière” the SSE.
It is therefore “un système alternatif à l’économie capitaliste” that marginalises local initiatives and
creates more poverty. In this perspective, SSE actors are actually participating in a definition of a
system “politique, économique et culturelle qui répondre au défis majeurs connu par la societé qui est
une forme même de l’organisation de la société."
For Jean-Pierre, in the economic dimension, solidarity entreprises have the potential for transforming
the profund social relations in both the community and global trade; in the cultural dimension,
through solidarity mechanisms, community population could be engaged in participating and
influencing in “construire une alternative”; and last in the political dimension, a political education
through SSE would bring a national-level political project at building a non-capitalist society,
renewing the social dialogue. So SSE in PAPDA’s framework vision is not only isolated interventions,
but a social movement. For Jean-Pierre, it could find paralells in some other countries of Latin America,
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particularly Brazil (a bottom-up social movement), Venezuela (State-led transformation), and
countries like Ecuador, Bolivia and Argentina. He cited the article of The relationship between
solidarity economy and State in Latin America: contrasting dynamics in Brazil and Venezuela
byLemaître and Richer (2009).
Political advocacy and Université populaire d’été
Jean-Pierrer recognises different approches SSE actors are adopting to solve diverse problems, such as
the financial sector using SSE at targetting the financial problems, or isolated interventions on family
farming, filling the absence left by the State. However, he criticised the trend in the financial sector
that doesn’t adopt an integral answer with SSE, but rather becoming an intermediary to the capitalism
and the existing banking system. Meanwhile, the credit sector, the caisses populaires d’épargne et crédit
in Haiti “finance de moins en moins des activités productives,” with less than 15% of their portfolio
for these activities, although 80-90% of the fund are deposited in commercial banks. Thus, they do the
hard work that traditional banks are not willing to do - that is the capture of the savings from the
poorest, while failling at their original and primary objective, that is, mobilising community savings
for local development. They should not be considered anymore – for Jean-Pierre – as SSE actors, and
the same skepticism goes for business ventures that claim to be SSE.
For PAPDA, the SSE would be an important grassroot rebuilding effort, benefiting small farmers and
their subsistence agriculture, while fighting against development policies promoted by some
international donors (e.g. the USAID of export-led agriculture and low-wage assembly plants).
Additionally, PAPDA, using a reported from Grassroots Inernational, warned that “development
plans of some donor countries will rely on foreign troops for implementation, which may lead to more
dependency and social unrest”, remembering the credibility loss of the UN peacekeeping force.
(Richardson, 1997)
PAPDA, in turn, seeing the “économie solidaire comme le troisième voie”, alongside the market and
the State, adopts a political approach. Asked if the SSE movement demands are voiced in formal
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political participation (e.g. through parties and elections). Eugène lamented that there is no true and
representative left-wing movement in Haiti or in the government, except for few sympathizers in the
government. It engages instead in promotion, advocacy, popular education, influencing the policymaking and public opinion on SSE as an alternative system at both community and at government
levels. The institution organised, for example, the Université populaire d’été for the past 10 years.
The Université populaire d’été is an annual event of national and international participation organised
by PAPDA, its members and partners, inviting Haitian and International social movement actors,
supporters and scholars. The last three editions of Université have been “économie sociale et solidaire”.
The 2015 edition was held in Port-au-Prince, gathering 110 participants from 39 rural and urban
organisations of Haiti, and foreign organisations and scholars from Europe, the US, Latin America
and Africa. Entraide et Fraternité (2015) listed some of the shared SSE experiences:
-
la mutuelle de solidarité de Carrefour (département de l’Ouest) ainsi que du
département du Nord-Est ;
-
l’expérience de boulangerie alternative dans la commune d’Aquin, à Belle
Fontaine sur la commune de la Croix-des-Bouquets, et sur la commune de
Petit-Goâve ;
-
l’expérience d’une coopérative agricole de riz dans l’Artibonite […] et la
construction d’une fédération nationale de producteurs de riz dans 5
départements du pays […]
-
l’expérience d’une coopérative de production et de commercialisation de
mangues sur la commune de Gros-Morne.
Finally, PAPDA adds that SSE is not only a topic for Haiti’s popular university, but taught and
researched in formal universities in Haiti as well. For example, Université d’État d’Haïti (UEH) has
created recently a master programme in “économie sociale et solidaire”, hosted by UEH’s Université
de formation continue of Faculté des Sciences Humaines.
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In this chapter, we went through the history of SSE’s development in Haiti in three stages: preindependence SSE practices rooted in anti-colonial solidarity resistance; cooperative movement since
the 1930s; and community-development NGOs from the 1950s. These stages marked concomitant
trends of SSE evolution in Haiti, giving birth to today’s SSE diversity in Haiti in term of actors, network
and advocacies. In a summary balancing the literature and interviews, we can observe the following
groups of SSE – in lacto census – nowadays in Haiti: i) popular SSE practices among the population,
such as konbit, with the people as actors; ii) financial SSEs, including self-help mutual and community
banks (represented by KNFP), credit cooperatives (caisses populaires d’épargne et credit represented
by ANACAPH), and non-cooperative MFIs such as FINCA (represented by AMINH); iii) productive
SSEs, such as rural cooperatives and supporting organisations such as pcH, and many social
enterprises for example those promoted by DP33; and last, iv) SSE advocacy organisations, including
peasant movements (e.g. MPP, CROSE, 4G Kontre), and SSE advocacy organisations such as PAPDA
and its member or partners. The different actors, as we saw, bear very different views of the SSE and
advocacies.
Therefore, there is not a large SSE movement in Haiti, like other cases of Latin America. The ownership
of the concept SSE in Haiti, as we observed, is more scattered in actors’ own narratives, far from being
institutionalised. Nontheless, there is to some extent an informal network among SSE actors, in terms
of mutual knowledge, facilitated in many cases by events and by media.
33
To be described in the next chapter. Considering Développement et Paix (Caritas Canada) as an international
actor – despite its relevancy in Haiti – favors better our analysis.
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Chapter IV: International Cooperation for SSE
When invited to comment on international cooperation, the SSE actors often do not associate the term
with their international partners or the funding donors, but more commonly viewing it as part of a
wider context of international intervention, criticising how such intervention contributed to the
fragility and weakness of today’s Haiti. Doing justice to Haiti’s history that we previously described,
the international cooperation does have two dimensions in SSE: first, as providing context in reference
to both the military intervention and aid, and the post-2010 humanitarin response; second, as speficic
partners of each SSE actor or funders of their projects.
Despite the diversity of the activities and advocacies, all SSE actors we looked into and/or interviewed
receive support – whether financially or not – from international development organisations, from
faith-based organsiations (e.g. Dévelopement et Paix, Entraide et Fraternité), international SSE
networks or organisations (e.g. INAISE, Caisse Desjardins), or state development agencies (e.g.
USAID, CIDA), social investors (e.g. Triodos Bank, KfWEntwicklungsbank), or even universities and
research institutions.
In this chapter, we will explore the international cooperation for SSE: first surveying actors’ perception
on international cooperation in Haiti, then a more direct survey of the main supporters of the Haitian
SSE sector, as well as their stated reasons, and last a political economy analysis behind the promotion
of SSE in Haiti.
4.1.
International Cooperation VS SSE
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4.1.1. Unwelcomed international cooperation
Jean-Max St-Fleur 34 , a media specialist, gave us a panorama of the perception of international
cooperation in Haitian media; for Haitian people, international actors have an “image mitigée” – to
not say that it is all bad. St-Fleur cited that some donors, such as Cuba, Venezuela, and Brazil, despite
their involvement with the discredited MINUSTAH, have performed better in this regard, having
therefore a better image for Haitian people. However, the same perception doesn’t hold for most of
the other international actors.
Pointing out that protests are recurrent and heard on a daily basis on Haitian radio and other media,
especially in rural areas, St-Fleur observes that peasants are often protesting against two groups: “l’État
haitien” and “la communauté internationale”. It is vey commonly perceived by peasants that the
internationals “ils sont venu en notre detriment”, with projects that often don’t benefit the farmers
but the governing elite. St-Fleur cited an example of the Haitian banana sector: between 1989 and 2000,
when the national production was harmed by diseases and climate changes, the government showed
no support to the sector, but increased importation from Dominican Republic, damaging deeply the
farmers’ livelihoods.
While investment in national agriculture (e.g. cooperatives) is extremely insufficient, the donors,
many still considering Haiti as a humanitarian crisis, prefer to spend millions ineffectively in food
distribution and and “capacity-building” programmes, marginalising the recovery of rural
productivity. Episodes like this are very common in Haiti – says St-Fleur – and justifies the protests
and complaints of syndicates, associations and peasant movements.
Eugène also remembered the damages caused by international cooperation, noting that donors never
have the local needs as the priority, whereas they are always motivated by other reasons that favour
either themselves or local elite. He cited the Dominican Republic (DR)–Haiti road financed by the
34
Journalist and National expert for UNDP-Haiti’s Emergency Preparedness and Response (EPR) unit at the time
of the interview.
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European Union as an example, questioning this intervention that prioritises first the DR-Haiti road
transport while transportation infrastructure between Haitian’s own departments were left behind.
Without judging the initial motivation, this international road ended up with massive dumping of DR
products with nearly zero taxes into Haiti since the earthquake35, and Haiti’s rural producers all over
the country, especially North to the capital, need urgently transport infrastructures for the market
integration.
PAPDA, in turn, is also well-known for its critical articles and announcements in the Haitian press
and media, repudiating publically the international cooperation lead by local elite, US intervention
and UN army. In April 13th 2016, PAPDA denounced the donation of 500 tons of peanuts dumped by
the US into Haiti, harming its national market already saturated with its own production. Opposed to
the MINUSTAH since its creation, in a 2014 press note, PAPDA critised Ban Ki Moon’s report on
Haiti’s situation that renewed the peacekeeping for one more year:
Le rapport montre une méconnaissance totale des problèmes vécus par notre pays et
présente une image idyllique des résultats de la Mission en refusant de reconnaitre son
échec et les nombreuses violations, constantes et systématiques, des droits fondamentaux
commises par la Minustah au cours de ces 10 années d’occupation de notre territoire .
A parcel of critics also focused on the foreign NGOs in Haiti. Most interviewees criticised the lack of
knowledge of NGOs about Haiti, and how blind humanitarian aid actually became more harmful than
helpful to the country and its people. Mathurin, from GRAMIR, told us that the organisation has
worked for decades in the “reorientation et conscientisation” of the NGOs in Haiti by emphasising i)
the needed coordination and network, ii) co-management with local community, iii) exit strategy
toward the independence of local capacity, and iv) good partnering. Many trustworthy NGOs or nonstate development actors worked in Haiti long before the 2010 earthquake and the international
solidarity was indeed important for the country’s recovery, as Mathurin noted. However, he adds, each
35
In our way on the bus from DR to Haiti, we have observed a massive inflow of merchandises – mostly DR
produced banane, food, drinks, and necessities – from DR into Haiti with nearly no customs control.
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humanitarian disaster brings a massive wave of passionate and unprepared NGOs into Haiti, injuring
often the existent development efforts from within the country.
4.1.2. No portfolio on SSE
As St-Fleur recalls, no state actors or UN agencies have a portfolio on SSE. WFP, UNDP and other UN
agencies had some interventions (e.g. cash for work or cash for assets) that may have had an impact
on cooperatives or solidarity-based groups, yet there were many more humanitarian and short-term
projects, and not long-term recoveries or SSE-strengthening plans.
KNFP’s programme head Eugène also views that donors, including most KNFP project funders (e.g.
EU, France) do not have SSE as a portfolio or objective:
Je pense pas à mon avis je ne sens pas que les donateurs sont été . Moi je pense pas, je
pense plutôt que des donateurs financents des choses qui, pdans leur interêt, mais, par
compte, ça peut rencontrer le champ de l’économie sociale et solidaire. Ça rencontre les
organisations de l’ESS.
Yolène Jacquet, directrice exécutive of ANACAPH also observes that the donors do not carry a SSE
advocacy or portfolio. The EU, Jacquet affirms, renewed its partnership with ANACAPH more
because it sees the latter as a reliable partner at delivering the results, but with no specific preference
on the credit union model. Even some external known as SSE actors – such as Caisse Desjardins,
develop its activity in partnership with ANACAPH as a business outreach and extension, without any
particular concern over the SSE advocacy.
Bouwens, chief operations officer of FINCA, also adds to our observation that most project are
coincidental in a rush for funding. As Bouwens observes, donors have at their disposal an considerable
amount of resources that need to be spent on no matter what project – through funding application,
friendship, or private network. Therefore, this funding-model existent in Haiti favors not necessarily
the fullfuling of local needs, but of the documents and reports of the funders.
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Through a comprehensive search into the major donors, we confirm the observations of the
interviewees: no major donor applies an agenda of SSE in Haiti. Belgian cooperation (BTC), the only
state donor that has SSE as a portfolio, does not develop any direct projects in Haiti. USAID, who has
a cooperative development programme worldwide, also has no project specifically under this portfolio,
but rather most cooperative-related projects are within the “Food and Economic Security” pillar.
There is a USAID project called Konbit, to “strengthen Haitian civil society organizations and business
service providers.”(USAID, 2016) Interestingly, we found a reference in Roubillard (2013, 57)’s paper,
stating that
Many NGOs, including large international aid organizations like USAID, use the word
"Konbit" in their project titles, even though these are top-down heavily-financed
activities that do not reflect the principles of konbit. At the core the principle they reflect
is that of the people being controlled for the objective of the donor; this may be
“participation,” it may be “collaboration,” and it even may also be “solidarity”—but
simply being these three is not konbit. Konbit requires that the ownership and the desire
for participation, collaboration, and solidarity come from the people, not from external
control.
There are, nonetheless, some “exceptions”, as a number of donors' funding agencies do support
microfinance and social enterprises, and a number of non-state actors, including faith-based
organisations, do have explicit objectives on SSE when supporting donors, as we will see in the next
section.
4.2.
International cooperation for SSE: Why?
In recent years, many international events in Haiti had explicit mention of the term “Social and
Solidarity Economy”. To cite a few, in June 2012, La Via Campesina issued a declaration with its “allies”
in favor of the “économie solidaire”; in May 2013, the Centre de la Francophonie des Ameriques
organised in Haiti the “First meeting of the Francophone Social and Solidarity Economy Network of
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the Americas” (CED, 2016); in August 2013, the same organisation supported the first “Caravane
National sur l’économie sociale et solidaire” in Haiti"(Cincir, 2016).
And, since last year, in September 2015, the Groupe d'économie solidaire du Québec (GESQ)
organised a one-day workshop “Apports et potentialités de l’économie sociale et solidaire:
L’agroalimentaire en Haïti”, and inaugurated the first of two summer universities on SSE in Haiti, with
the second to be held in September 2016 (CED, 2016); in October 2015, Développement et Paix
organised the symposium “Économie sociale et solidaire (ÉSS) et entrepreneuriat social en Haïti. État
des lieux, enjeux, défis et perspectives”(DP, 2015); and recently, in December 2015, Quebecois
Services Conseil (S2L) and Chantier de l’économie sociale launched a new accelerating programme
for Social and Solidarity Economy.(CED, 2015)
During the the First meeting of the Francophone Social and Solidarity Economy Network of the
Americas in 2013, Poirier, from the Canadian Community Economic Development Network affirmed
that the promotion of SSE in Haiti would “scale up the international linkages and partnerships of our
members in order to foster the emergence of a globalized civil society solidarity(CED, 2013)
La Via Campesina in its declaration jointly with its Haitian member organisations, namely MPP,
MPNKP, Tèt Kole and allied organisations including PAPDA, affirmed solidarity, as alternative ways
of development. They considered these areas as important steps, marching “to say no to green
capitalism, no to domination by transnational corporations, no to the destruction of the planet,” and
also fighting against the production of agrofuels or GMOs instead of food for subsistence. as important
steps as they were marching “to say no to green capitalism, no to domination by transnational
corporations, no to the destruction of the planet,” also fighting against the production of agrofuels or
GMOs instead of food for subsistence. (La Via Campesina, 2012)
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Furthermore, David Leduc, Director of Développement et Paix, affirmed in 2015 that “L’économie
sociale et solidaire constitue un engagement fort en faveur de la justice sociale, car elle permet aux
personnes les plus marginalisées et exclues du monde de l’économie d’en devenir des acteurs.”
4.2.1. DP: aid-independence
Dévelopment et Paix Haïti (henceforth DP), now called Caritas Canada, is perhaps the most active
supporter of SSE in Haiti. Operating in Haiti since 1970, “le programme d’économie sociale et
solidaire” is now the last panel of DP’s reconstruction programme, integrating the domains of
“développement économique et social” and of “souveraineté alimentaire.”
DP has engaged in development activities in Haiti by supporting projects and actors under the
domains of “l’aide humanitaire mais également la reconstruction d’infrastructures, l’alimentation, le
renforcement de la démocratie et de la participation citoyenne, l’égalité entre les femmes et les
hommes, et plus largement de la défense des droits de la personne.”
In October 2015, DP organised the symposium “Économie sociale et solidaire (ÉSS) et entrepreneuriat
social en Haïti. État des lieux, enjeux, défis et perspectives” (DP, 2015), and in April 2016, we met with
DP’s Jean-Claude Jean, head of Développement et Paix’s office in Haïti.
Promotion of ESS and social entrepreneurship
Held at Hotel Montana in Port-au-Prince from 14th to 16th of October 2015, the Symposium
“Économie sociale et solidaire (ÉSS) et entrepreneuriat social en Haïti. État des lieux, enjeux, défis et
perspectives” (DP, 2015),reunited around 200 people of civil society, trade unions, cooperatives,
public sector, private enterprises, Haitian expats, students, researchers and engaged citizens. The
opening ceremony counted with the presence of Haiti’s Prime-Minister Évans Paul, UQAM’s
professor Gérald Larose – also President of Caisse d’économie sociale Desjardins.
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For D&P, the symposium is in the context of the last stage of DP’s reconstruction programme
following 2010’s earthquake. At this stage, 3 million dollars were delivered to create “une douzaine
d’entreprises sociales." Haitian PM Évans Paul, in the opening session, expressed this gratitude toward
D&P’s engagement.
According to D&P, with a USD 3 million budget, 657 jobs were created, of those 138 direct and 519
indirect. The social enterprises created are present in 7 of 10 Haitian departments, with 55% of them
in the sector of agriculture, 21% in housing, 12% in textile and confection, 10% in food production
and 1% in tourism and entertainment. In conclusion, D&P affirmed that SSE is “un levier qui brise le
cercle de la dépendance”, by regrouping “des organisations produisant des biens et des services à
grande utilité sociale (DP, 2015).
Before and after the Earthquake
Traditionally, DP’s work in Haiti has been of supporting human rights, justice and peace through
development projects, promotion and protection of human rights, protection of environment, and
improvement of gender issues. To advance this agenda in a country like Haiti where “l’État est faible”,
it needs “une société civile forte et dynamique” to consolidate the democracy, that could “faire face à
l’État pour pouvoir faire de demande”, expressing le “voix de citoyen”. Thus, DP chose to support
initiatives at the community level in order to realise its social and political justice agenda, at the same
time working together with Human Rights organisations to defend Human Rights violation victims of
and giving legal assistane to Haitian people.
After the 2010 earthquake, DP established a post-seism reconstruction programme, engaging in the
first stage in humanitarian relief (e.g. food distribution) to render assistance to the victims, and in the
second stage, after 6 months of the disaster, in recovery activities. Jean affirms that DP is a
development organisation, therefore planned with emphasis on the recovery – in the short and longterm – even during the emergency. For Jean, the tragedy of the earthquake was amplified by the
weakness of the State, but the roots of structural problems lie in the society. Therefore, to recover the
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productivity and building a stronger civil society, DP has chosen “l’économie sociale et solidaire” that
was an ideal answer, right in their path.
SSE as in the times of less aid
Most importantly, most local organisations rely on external resources, while humanitarian
organisations are already leaving the country, decreasing their funding toward Haiti. Therefore, the
current development path that is dependent on foreign aid is no longer sustainable, given the
international financial crisis and diminishing international assistance. To a certain extent, the recent
years of post-earthquake Haiti reflect this new context of international cooperation, urging for a
“transformation de paramêtre/paradigme de l’aide internationale”.
Thus, at the end of DP’s humanitarian response, the SSE showed potential to answer both concerns of
building stronger civil society and aid-independent actors. On one hand, SSE would be useful for the
“construction et reconstruction de l’organisation et batîment sociaux”, at same time recovering “la
capacité productive des rganisations paysans,” supporting therefore the country’s response capacity
to both food and nutritional security and food sovereignty; on the other hand, it could generate
revenues sufficient to support its social actions, without needing external aids.
Pas de contradiction entre l’économique et le sociale
Jean notes that, previously, social projects were always aid-dependent, since “l’engagement sociale
n’arrive pas à se donner son propre moyen d’éxistence.” Social actors had no economic concern and
economic actors had no social concerns. So by generating and reusing the profit for social actions,
there is no contradiction “entre l’économie et le sociale.”
Asked about the difference of social economy and solidarity economy – and if SSE needed to be
restricted to membership-based initiatives and profit-sharing – Jean revoked such differenciation. He
affirms that except in the ideology dimension – from Marxist or even Christian traditions, that reject
the economic and its dynamics, seeing it as “pécamineuse ou immorale” – there is no such opposition.
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There are, indeed, scepticals about social enterprises, that have “superstition à l’égarde de l’économie,”
and one should view the social and the economic integraly, without putting the economic in a different
sphere. Because, “l’économie au depart il est neutre.”
Therefore, for Jean, the problem – as for explotation – does not lie in the profit-seeking concept, but
in the use of the profit. Therefore, DP’s promotion of social enterprises looks into the support and
professionalisation of social-economy activities.
4.2.2. pcH: understand the mission
Betsy Wall, from productive cooperatives Haiti (pcH), affirms first that “agriculture cooperatives in
Haiti are not well-supported,” because donors have “no interest in the cooperative movement” and
Haiti’s “agriculture production is never a priority.” They also share the feeling that most donors
actually don’t care about their work but mostly operate under political rationing. Since
[…] disaster, disease and poverty are all about getting money. Investment in the ability
of people to provide for themselves is never a priority.
Too many people make money on Haiti’s poverty, to export subsidised-products into
this country, or by addressing the poor’s’ neediness as it is a commodity for the NGOs.
As an organisation like pcH, that is the purest form saying that we truly believe in the
ability of people to provide for themselves does not make you popular.
Wall observes that donors often seek through its local partners the realisation of their objectives,
without listening to what Haitian organisations’ opinion. Since most NGOs and that aid industry that
came to Haiti “needy for money”, they often match with donors own interest, with no real interest in
the development of the country.
Wall affirms that in the last 35 years of pcH operation in Haiti, in only few exceptional cases donors
tried to understand and identify pcH’s mission before pouring money in. Donors with little knowledge
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of the rural Haiti often insisted in their methods and results surpassing the local partners. For Wall,
most resulted in aid failures and irreparable disasters to the local population. After several regrettable
experience – mostly involving ignorant donors, pcH became very cautious in choosing donors, since
it does not follow donors’ agenda.
Additionally, most donors reached pcH because its activities contain keywords they were looking for
– says Wall – such as “local participation”, “participatory approach or process”, and very often
“sustainable economic development.” Whilst “they have no idea what they are talking about” and
know nothing on the organisation’s own values and missions. Wall cited an example with ADRA,
Adventist Development and Relief Agency Canada, who looked after “local participation.” which
insisted in implementing its own approach in the project, ignoring peasants and pcH’s tested method
in training, farming – even trying to introduce seeds that were not previously tested in the locality.
In another episode, a pcH budget report was praised by the donor, however questioned on the lack of
international consult’s name in the report, without believing that the consults are Haitians educated
in Haiti – as it is in the case of pcH.
Therefore, even among the supporters, the identification with the the cooperative movement mission
and values, while basing the project on local needs without imposing interference are deemed as
necessary by pcH. On this regard, pcH highlighted, from the past partners donors, Oxfam Quebec,
John Deere Foundation, and Hope International as exceptional “lucid donors” that understood well
pcH’s work.
4.3.
If you have to do something… without the State
According to Develtere and Fonteneau (2004), social and solidarity economy is intrinsic to the Haitian
sociopolitical world – a world that lacks State regulation or enforcement on what should be the SSE.
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Develtere and Fonteneau (2004) became very critical on the association of SSE and international
cooperation in a stateless environment:
Parmi les effets multiples de cette absence d’un alter ego politique, l’hybridation de
l’économie sociale avec la coopération internationale semble la plus dévastatrice. Sur la
scène haïtienne, de nombreuses initiatives d’économie sociale manquent d’éthique
sociale et deviennent des regroupements à but privé et politique. En l’absence de
ressources et de politique d’État, les acteurs de l’économie sociale locale cherchent des
alliances avec des bailleurs de fonds étrangers pour un appui financier. (idem, p.13)
In this regard, they warn us against the national economy being seized by donors’ policies. Although
with the stated independence and self-sustainability, Haiti’s SSE are still very dependent “en fonction
des logiques et priorités de la coopération internationale, puisque celle-ci est la seule interlocutrice
active de ce type d’initiatives.”
Swiss cooperation’s director Stefano Berti, in interview with us, also observes that because of the
absence of the State, many international actors and donors go to the community level, following the
logic “Il fault faire le développement où il n’y a pas d’état.” However he notes the high dependency of
local SSE actors on international aid. Even the most active peasant movements, such as MPP, “il est
c’est qu’il est gràce à l’aide”. In this way, Berti sees as of same importance the strengthening of state
capacity and structure at same time of grassroots development. Therefore, in accordance with
Develtere and Fonteneau, Berti doubts the “nativeness” of the SSE movements – because there were
mostly created and now sustained by the international cooperation. In areas where the public power
is absent, local grouping became the substitute of public governance – supported by the foreign aid.
Into the same direction, prof. Frantz Piard commented that SSE is just a palliative in the urgence –
unfortunately almost a permanent condition in Haiti. In this context, “l’urgence est devenu tellement
prioritaire” that people ignore or postpone the in-depth answer. State’s spending is also directed
toward emergency and humanitarian needs, purchasing foreign rice and distributing in the country,
but not investing in infrastructure such as public schools and hospitals. In this constant sacrifice of
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rural areas and agriculture productions, SSE movement and practices are therefore justified and
thriving on the absence of a State development strategy.
In contrast to SSE advocacies that see the practice as an alternative development model, Piard
comments that SSE is often limited in the short-term, to the informality and daily subsistence – as the
caisses populaires or microfinance. The solidarity-practices is, therefore, the “face cachée de la
pauvreté et de la misère” and does not address the structural problem of Haiti. The international
cooperation for development in Haiti became a systematic support structure and invaded in the
country’s development.
Nonetheless, it is also a consensus among interviewees, both practioners and scholars, that Haitian
State is controlled by a oligarchic elite since the independence, no real political movement has been
seen and the democratic participation that could change the country is still remote.
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Conclusion
While aimed at answering “why international cooperation support SSE in Haiti” – sounding like a
decision-making research question, we fell gladly into a much more complex situation. History,
society, culture, economics and politics are mixed together in this interdisciplinary masters thesis.
In this study, we explored first, in Chapter I, the literature that explore the concept of SSE and the
context of a state with limited capacity. Then, in Chapter II, we looked into the very complex political
history of Haiti and the frequent occurrence of instabilities, crises and natural disasters that have left
the State with limited capacity. Into this context, the international cooperation and the country’s
development paths are inserted. While international actors, especially those following the 2010
earthquake, are vital suppliers of social services in Haiti, their images are seriously hampered by
recurrent controversies and scandals and the perception that they are concomitant with foreign
political intervention.
Under this scenario, we noted, in Chapter III, that practices and movements that could be considered
as Social and Solidarity Economy have been in place in Haiti prior to the entrance of the post-2010
international aid or the recent popularisation of the concept. The Haitian SSE practices are better
known in the field of popular finance – extendable to microfinance – and in rural cooperatives. While
there is a lose network between these actors to some extent, they often differ in term of objectives and
advocacies to be considered as a single SSE movement: some are ideology-oriented, some are just
business models, and some are not even aware of the concept and its networking.
Therefore, contrary to our previous assumptions, SSE is more an endogenous response to Haiti’s own
socio-political dynamics. Despite the fact that most SSE projects received some kind of international
support, we learned in Chapter IV that it is not a priority or a portfolio for most of the international
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donors. With very few exceptions, international cooperation in Haiti do not have a focus on “SSE”,
excluding microfinance and social enterprises. Most financial assistance toward SSE projects are
unintentional, without envisioning a specific intervention on the SSE advocacies; while explaining the
explicit support toward SSE, the “lack of State” is the most cited reason. Non-state actors including
faith-based organisations of Christian/Catholic origins, cooperative movement network, international
social movements, and critical scholarship are the most active supporters of SSE in Haiti.
Bearing in mind the diversity of objectives from both Haitian and international actors, we observed
different conceptions and expectations of SSE. On one hand, SSE is praised for its social, economic,
and political potential, such as women empowerment, environmental and financial sustainability,
crisis-resistance, and local economic development, promising an alternative development for Haiti
and elsewhere. On the other hand, it is viewed as a palliative or intermediary stage of development,
anterior or in the lack of better development properly speaking. Meanwhile, the need for development
because of the “lack” of the State seems to be shared between the actors, resorting to self-help
organisations, relying on community’s own capacities in production and provision of social and
financial services in a post-crisis scenario.
While unveiling an unexplored issue, this study faced several limitations: first, the method is based
solely on existing literature and narratives of actors instead of being an investigative study on the
potential and limits of the SSE organisations and projects in Haiti. Second, it does not measure the
contribution of SSE in quantitative language in terms of its advocated potentials (e.g. economic
recovery, employment rate, and social or environmental impact). Third, our research is an exploratory
effort into very complex domains – on the evolution of a specific type of self-provided development
policy in Haiti’s historical conjectures and societal dynamics, and on the choice and support of this
model in the international cooperation. Fourth, we worked within time and capacity constraints to
better map, describe and follow-up the SSE initiatives, actors, and narratives and its international
supporters.
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Considering the advocated potentials of SSE and its peculiarities in term of organisation and operation,
the case of Haiti reveals a previously overlooked aspect of SSE: its potential in a post-crisis scenario
toward socio-economic recovery. Yet its benefits in other post-crisis or post-conflict cases remain to
be explored, as well as its long-term promise in favor of social/environmental sustainable development.
A series of new questions arise: for example, could SSE be promoted in favor of a genuine sustainable
development without risking it becoming just a new buzzword? Should SSE and its international
support circumvent/substitute the role of the State? How is SSE growing internationally? Could SSE
effectively bridge the humanitarian and development gap?
These doubts also shake our initial objective: to promote SSE as an effective recovery policy in a postcrisis scenario. The case of Hait showcases much more failures based on good wills than success stories.
To answer these and other questions, further research is much needed in three levels: at a micro-level,
to study the operation and development of a specific SSE project in a post-humanitarian crisis setting
(for example, illustrating this topic with an in-depth research on the cooperative energy company
erected by UNEP); at a country-level, to study comparatively another case of a similar setting,
revealing SSE potential and limits for post-crisis development; and at an international level, to study
the SSE policies and outreach from the side of the international actors and its donors.
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URL:
ANNEX I – Interviewees
Name of the interviewee
Organisation
Date
Place
Jean Max St-Fleur
Media specialist; National Expert EPR – UNDP
April 9th, 2016
Port-au-Prince
Emiel Johannes Bouwens
Chief Operations Officer – FINCA Haïti
April15- 25th, 2016
Port-au-Prince
Ernest Mathurin
Director, GRAMIR
April 19th, 2016
Port-au-Prince
Jolette Joseph
NATIONAL SECURITY PROGRAM OFFICER
Aril 20th, 2016
Port-au-Prince
– Swiss Embassy/ Swiss Agency for Development
and Cooperation (SDC)
Betsy Wall
Executive Director – FIDA-pcH
April 20th, 2016
Port-au-Prince
Yves Charles
Coordinateur dévelopment coopérative
April 20th, 2016
Port-au-Prince
Legrand Charles
Coordinateur programme agricole
April 20th, 2016
Port-au-Prince
Franz Piard
Professor – École Normale Superieur de Port-au-
April 22nd, 2016
Port-au-Prince
April 21st, 2016
Port-au-Prince
Director Ejecutivo – América Solidária
April 21st, 2016
Port-au-Prince
Fotógrafa; KO.LO.M.M, “kooperativ lojman man
April 21st, 2016
Port-au-Prince
Prince; Chargé de coopération universitaire –
Ambassade de la France en Haïti
Dieudonné Eugène
Responsable du Bureau de Service et de
Renforcement - KNFP
Diego Vela Grau
Fernanda
Mastrantonio
Soto
and man”, (Cooperativa de Vivienda Mano con
Mano)
Yolène Jacquet
Directrice exécutive – ANACAPH
April 22nd, 2016
Port-au-Prince
Ricot Jean-Pierre
Directeur de programme – PAPDA
April 22nd, 2016
Port-au-Prince
Adrienne Stork
Environment Project Manager – UNEP
April 23rd, 2016
Port-au-Prince
Jean-Claude Jean
Directeur – Développement et Paix en Haïti
April 25th, 2016
Port-au-Prince
Stefano Berti
Premier
April 25th, 2016
Port-au-Prince
collaborateur/Directeur
resident
suppléant – Bureau de la Coopération Suisse
Page 101 of 107
ANNEX II – Haiti Aid Map in 2011.
Figure 1. Haiti Aid Map, an interactive visual mapping platform, depicting individual aid projects being conducted in Haiti.
Status: January 2011. (Source: New Security Beat, 2011, January 24)
Page 102 of 107
ANNEX III – Haiti Aid Map in 2016.
Figure 2. Haiti Aid Map. Status: June 2016. (Source: NGO Aid Map, 2016, June 15)
Page 103 of 107
ANNEX III – Distribution of MFIs in Haiti in 2008
(Cooperative and Non-Cooperative MFIs)
Figure 3. Distribution of Microfinance Institutions in Haiti. (Source: USAID MSME (Micro Small Medium Enterprises)
Haiti Program, July 2008.
Page 104 of 107
ANNEX IV – Financal Cooperative Locations in Haiti in
2008
Figure 4. Financial Cooperative Locations in Haiti. (Source: Whiteside and Wardle, 2009, p. 14)
Page 105 of 107
INDEX
agriculture, 15, 35, 38, 43, 44, 47, 49, 52, 55,
56
earthquake, 7, 13, 14, 25, 27, 31, 32, 41, 43,
52, 55, 56, 59
Asian Solidarity Economy Council (ASEC),
19, 20
Ecuador, 19, 21, 48
Europe, 16, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 29, 47, 49
association, 7, 9, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 35, 37,
39, 46, 47, 52
European Union (EU), 20, 21, 52, 53
FINCA, 40, 41, 42, 45, 50, 53, 65
Association Nationale des Caisses Populaires
Foundation for International Development
Haïtiennes (ANACAPH), 35, 38, 46, 47,
Assistance (FIDA), 28, 40, 42, 43, 65
50, 53, 65
fragil state, 29
Belgium, 21, 53
fragile state, 15, 22, 31
Bolivia, 18, 21, 48
France, 16, 17, 18, 21, 28, 36, 40, 53
Brazil, 13, 16, 17, 18, 30, 48, 51
government, 7, 13, 17, 18, 26, 27, 28, 29, 31,
Canada, 28, 29, 50, 54, 57
32, 38, 49, 51
cholera, 7, 13, 25, 30, 31, 32, 43
Groupe de recherche et d'Appui au Milieu
civil society, 16, 17, 20, 28, 46, 54, 55, 56
Rural (GRAMIR), 29, 35, 52, 65
conflict, 13, 14, 15, 26, 43, 60
gwoupment, 38, 44
cooperatives, 7, 10, 13, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22,
humanitarian assistance, 7, 13, 27, 28, 29, 30,
26, 28, 35, 37, 38, 39, 40, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46,
47, 49, 50, 52, 55, 56, 57, 59, 60
international cooperation, 7, 13, 14, 18, 22,
crisis, 7, 13, 15, 26, 30, 31, 32, 33, 52, 56, 59,
60
32, 52, 55, 56, 60
25, 27, 32, 33, 41, 42, 45, 51, 52, 56, 59, 60
international intervention, 13
democratisation, 17, 39
International Labour Organization (ILO), 21
development model, 13, 15
Keynesian state, 15
donor, 29, 30, 49, 53, 57
konbit, 37, 40, 46, 49, 53
Page 106 of 107
Konsey
Nasyonal
Finansman
Popilè
SME, 42
(KNFP), 38, 40, 45, 46, 47, 50, 53, 65
Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE), 1, 7, 13,
Latin America, 16, 18, 25, 28, 48, 49, 50
14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 33, 35, 36,
Lavalas, 27, 30
37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50,
legitimacy, 22, 23, 30
51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 59, 60
Luxembourg, 19, 20, 21
solidarity, 15, 16, 18, 20, 40, 41, 42, 54
Mexico, 28
modern solidarity, 15
microfinance institution (MFI), 41, 42
philanthropic solidarity, 15, 16
Mouvman Peyizan Papay/Movement Paysan
the State, 1, 7, 15, 17, 18, 22, 23, 29, 30, 31, 32,
48, 49, 55, 57, 59, 60
Papaye (MPP), 38, 44, 46, 47, 50, 54
non-governmental organization (NGO), 29,
United Nations (UN), 10, 13, 21, 25, 26, 27,
28, 30, 31, 32, 33, 49, 52
30, 35, 39, 40, 41, 43, 47, 64, 67
peacekeeping, 13, 25, 26, 27, 30, 32, 49, 52
United Nations Stabilization Mission in
Plaidoyer pour un Développement Alternatif
Haiti (MINUSTAH), 25, 26, 27, 30, 31, 51,
(PAPDA), 35, 40, 47, 48, 49, 50, 52, 54, 65
Port-au-Prince, 27, 28, 40, 41, 43, 49, 55, 65
productive cooperatives HAITI (pcH), 28,
52
United States, 10, 13, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 32, 33,
35, 38, 41, 42, 49, 52
United States Agency for International
35, 38, 40, 42, 43, 44, 50, 56, 57, 65
reconstruction, 14, 54, 55, 56
Development (USAID), 21, 22, 28, 29, 49,
redistributive solidarity, 15
51, 53, 64, 68
Réseau africain d’économie sociale et
Venezuela, 18, 48, 51
welfare state, 17, 23
solidaire (RAESS), 19
Réseau intercontinental de promotion de
women, 42
l'économie sociale solidaire (RIPESS), 19,
20, 21
Page 107 of 107