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Canadian Red Cross

In August and September 2008, Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere was struck by three tropical storms. 86,000 people are now living in temporary shelters. Livelihoods and crops have been destroyed, and the entire road system has been severely damaged. This study was a pilot of the nascent EMMA approach with the dual purpose of better understanding critical market systems (beans and timber) for the population affected by the cyclones and gaining learning that could be used to improve the toolkit itself. The report recommends the direct purchase of timber from regional traders for delivery to beneficiary sites. It may be worth investigating a voucher-system instead of an in-kind distribution, which would need to be supported with trader transportation of timber directly to their households. Also recommended is additional research and cross-checking with the Shelter Cluster, government stakeholders and affected communities. Recommendations for the bean market system include cash-based interventions to increase the purchasing power of target beneficiaries; the provision of local and/or well-adapted bean seeds to farmers in time for agricultural production for the next season and supporting them with vegetable nurseries; the supply of credit to farmers to restore productive assets/infrastructure; the supply of credit to wholesalers whose stores were destroyed; market support activities to improve market system performance and monitoring and phase out of food aid activities.

Report authors: 
Anita Auerbach
Download Report (1.13 MB pdf)