Fish in the Dust

Numerous reports have been written about the difficulties Haiti faces in exiting from its endemic poverty. Political instability, catastrophic environmental phenomena, and poor rule of law are only a few of the commonly recognized causes of Haiti’s grim situation. And yet, even in the poorest region of the poorest country of the Western Hemisphere, the ingenuity of the individuals leaves a small, but resilient hope of resurgence for this battered nation.

During our visit to the Parc Cadeau 2 in Anse-à-Pitres, we came across a large hole in the ground similar to a small-sized swimming pool, although deprived of water. Upon our investigation, we discovered that a resident of the camp had worked on this project with the help of local NGOs, hoping to eventually breed fish to be sold on the market. Although this small artificial lake (approximately the size of a car) lacked water, its creator has been operating a minor puddle, where he is testing the feasibility of its project on a smaller scale. He was hoping to begin to eventually raise eels and shrimp, and to sell them to customers across Anse-à-Pitres.

The ingenuity of local Haitians struggling to cope with their harsh daily existence is often frustrated by cumbersome obstacles trapping individual entrepreneurship. Anse-à-Pitres lacks a weekly market, where citizens could sell their products and invest their profits in improving their own entrepreneurial ideas. Although you would not expect to witness this sort of behavior in desperate situations such as the Haitian refugee camps, the human drive to succeed is present and thriving. Local politicians should facilitate and incentivize these behaviors; simple reforms such as the introduction of a local market to facilitate the entrepreneurs’ access to their customers would have a long lasting impact over the development of this region.

The Haitian and Dominican private sectors have recently implemented a joint program called the Binational Economic Council Quisqueya, which aims to bring public and private investment in the border region in order to achieve a sustainable economic development to prevent forced migratory influxes across the two countries. Whether this initiative will be successful remains to be seen: but the unleashing of the available human capital will empower the individuals, providing the only untested solution to Haiti’s endemic maladies.