Rome.– While the two nations of the island of Hispaniola – the Dominican Republic and Haiti – may have different languages, histories, cultures and economic situations, their futures remain unbreakably intertwined.

In an effort to provide lasting poverty-reduction solutions for both countries, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) recently announced a series of new grants and loans that aim to create job opportunities and ensure food security in Haiti, and provide lasting mechanisms for rural development in neighboring Dominican Republic.   

“You can’t provide sustainable solutions for Haiti without also addressing the needs of her neighbor with a comprehensive approach,” IFAD President Kanayo F. Nwanze said.

Nwanze will visit the Dominican Republic and Haiti next week to better assess the issues facing the people living in the countryside of these two nations. In the Dominican Republic, Nwanze will meet with President Leonel Fernández Reyna and key IFAD stakeholders, including representatives from the FEDECARES organic coffee growers federation, to chart a course for the organization’s new funding and discuss the latest trends in the nation’s growing agriculture industry.

Nwanze will then travel to Haiti, where he will meet with Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive, Agriculture Minister Joanas Gué and Economy and Finance Minister Ronald Baudin. Nwanze will also visit an IFAD-funded crop intensification project and assess the impact January’s earthquake in Port-Au-Prince has had on people living in the country’s rural areas.

New funding for Dominican Republic

While IFAD has been funding projects in the Dominican Republic for the past 30 years, the latest round of loans signals a renewed commitment and cooperation between the United Nations’ rural poverty agency and the Caribbean country. The new loans, totalling approximately US$28 million, will fund the Development Project for Rural Poor Economic Organizations of the Border Region, and the Rural Economic Development Project in the Central and Eastern Provinces.

“Over the past decade, the Dominican Republic has emerged as one of the world’s foremost exporters of organic and fair-trade products. But still, people in the countryside remain poor,” said Josefina Stubbs, Director of IFAD’s Latin America and the Caribbean Division. “With this in mind, we’ve developed the border region project, which not only aims to give local farmers better access to niche markets, but will also provide the training and tools necessary to cultivate better staple crops such as beans, rice and corn to ensure food security.”

The project will be implemented in 11 provinces in the western area bordering Haiti, where poor smallholder farmers are cultivating high-quality organic coffee and bananas, but lack the resources to bring their produce effectively to market.

The project for the Central and Eastern Provinces of the Dominican Republic will complement the border project by covering the remaining parts of the nation. The project aims to work in partnership with the private sector to increase sustainable access to domestic and export markets for smallholder farmers.

Haitian effort continues

Across the border in Haiti, IFAD is focusing on creating a long-term strategy for the Haitian countryside. The Fund is currently reviewing its strategy for the next five years and aligning it with plans by the Haitian government. IFAD’s plan includes programs that will improve access to credit, markets, tools and training. In its April 2010 meeting, the Executive Board of IFAD also approved a debt-relief package that provides the basis for permanent debt forgiveness of Haiti’s debt burden to the organization.

Prior to the earthquake, IFAD had three ongoing projects in Haiti, for a total amount of $50 million, and was the second-largest financier of the agricultural and rural sector. The organization has recently allocated an additional $18 million for a project that is currently under design, plus $2.5 million for a job-creation and irrigation project.

“We reacted quickly to the disaster with a debt relief program and a recently approved water and job-creation project, but the scale of this disaster requires a far-reaching plan that will not only help with the nation’s immediate needs – food, water, sanitation – but will also look to a better Haiti five, 10 and 20 years from now,” said Nwanze. “I imagine a place where rural farmers can send their children to school and have access to enhanced planting techniques that will ensure there’s food on the table when the children get home, a place where farmers transform their operations into true business enterprises, a place where hunger and insecurity are things of the past.”