February 10, 2023
The World Bank Board of Directors on Monday approved additional financing of US$50 million for the Resilient Agriculture for Food Security (PARSA) Project in Haiti. This additional funding will support access to nutritious food with a particular focus on school feeding and capacity building of relevant national actors. It will also increase agricultural production and climate-smart nutrition, as Haiti has one of the highest levels of chronic food insecurity in the world.
“Haiti continues to struggle with a persistent political and institutional crisis, gang violence and vulnerability to natural hazards that have worsened the food security situation for nearly half of the country’s population,” said Laurent Msellati, Chief World Bank operations in Haiti . “ With this additional financing, the World Bank is helping the Ministry of Agriculture improve resilient food production systems and investing in human capital to promote inclusive economic growth. »
According to the World Food Program (WFP), 22% of Haitian children suffer from chronic malnutrition. While agriculture is key to addressing food insecurity in Haiti, given that it contributes 20% of the country’s GDP and employs over 40 percent of the workforce, the sector continues to be plagued by problems such as drought, low rainfall and degraded watersheds.
The additional funding for the Resilient Agriculture for Food Security Project (PARSA) will add approximately 120,000 beneficiaries to the initial project, including 100,000 children per year who will have access to a hot meal prepared with local food products. 4,000 ha of agricultural land will also benefit from technological packages and access to water, thus increasing productivity.
It will also generate 4.5 million man/woman-days of work through labour-intensive participatory community activities to strengthen rural productive infrastructure, which will also have a direct impact on rural households, and resilience to weather events and climate change trends. Fifty percent of the workers will be women.
The initial Resilient Agriculture for Food Security (PARSA) Project was approved by the Board on March 17, 2022, for $102 million and targeted 450,000 people, 35 percent of whom are women. The project is implemented in the departments of Sud, Grand’Anse, Nippes and Center, and will now be extended to the North-West.