National Food Sovereignty, Food Security and Nutrition Policy and Strategy (PSNSSANH), Volume I: Policy

Volume I of Haiti's national policy on food sovereignty, food security and nutrition, issued by the Prime Minister's office on 25 September 2020 after several years of consultation. The final page is marked DRAFT, which is worth knowing before citing it as an adopted policy.

The policy's premise is that Haiti's growth is held down by an agriculture in retreat since the 1980s and by eroding human capital, and that the current trade policy, tariff profile and budget policy are themselves sources of poverty, hunger and malnutrition. It rests on four strategic decisions: rebalancing away from policies favoring international trade toward food sovereignty, making family farming and agro-industry the motor of recovery, investing in social safety nets and basic services, and building the national capacity for a food-security program budget under the LEELF law. It is organized in four axes, political, operational, institutional and cross-cutting, and translates into 35 measures and 25 national programs to be carried out by 11 ministries and 12 agencies, with a new agency, ONASAN, to be created by a legal text as the implementing structure.

The diagnosis is where the numbers are. Rice self-sufficiency is about 17 percent and 58 percent for food crops overall, against only 8 percent of rice imported in 1985, the year before structural reform of agricultural markets; 83 percent of rice consumed is now imported. The 2012 poverty survey found 59 percent of Haitians poor and 24 percent in extreme poverty, some 6.3 million unable to meet basic needs and 2.5 million not eating enough, with more than 80 percent of the poor in rural areas. The richest 20 percent hold more than 64 percent of national wealth and the poorest 20 percent barely 1 percent. Agriculture receives 1.1 to 1.6 percent of the general budget and under 0.2 percent of private credit. Against that, the policy's own scenario has agricultural GDP growing 6.7 percent a year to 2030, creating 3 million lasting jobs, where 10 percent annual growth in manufacturing GDP would create 87,000, and raises food-crop self-sufficiency to 88 percent.