Hurricane Matthew struck the southern peninsula of Haiti in October 2016, killing 900 and leaving 750,000 others in need of urgent assistance. Catholic Relief Services conducted an Emergency Market Mapping and Analysis in eight communes in the South and Grand’Anse departments to assess the feasibility of a market-based shelter response. The study finds that the local market can technically meet the demand of the most vulnerable, but quality CGI is not available and the target group would not be able to afford it if it were. The report makes the following recommendations for the shelter response in Haiti: “Build Back Better” training for the targeted community;combined local and regional procurement (LRP) and conditional commodity e-vouchers (CGI and other construction inputs) with a network of midlevel wholesalers to reach the target population in a cost effective manner; in very limited cases, LRP with direct distribution of quality CGI and other construction inputs; Cash-for-Work to rehabilitate markets and access roads, and to enable entire communities to have better market access more quickly; advocating for a better business environment and coordinating with traditional and non-traditional Shelter and NFI working group participants in order to “build back better;" and price monitoring and protection mainstreaming to make sure we do no harm to people and markets.
Report authors:
William Martin and Edward Walters