The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is the development agency of the American government and a major bilateral donor to Haiti.  USG support to Haiti is considerable - In Fiscal Year (FY) 2007, USAID provided 245 million dollars in foreign assistance to Haiti, 279 million in FY 2008 and is scheduled to provide 245 million in FY 2009.  The goal of this support can be summarized in one word - stability. The point of this blog is not to evaluate these programs but to point out what USAID is doing, where, and to highlight some useful resources on the USAID/Haiti website. Read more »

Security and food security go hand in hand in countries like Haiti that are dependent on importation for survival.  President Rene Preval announced a 15 percent cut in rice prices and a series of measures to uphold national food production namely by providing subsidies, credit and technical assistance to farmers.  Rice exports are banned.  However, Haitians cannot survive on rice alone. Corn, beans, oil, etc. all remain expensive. The President has yet to appoint a Prime Minister who can assemble a new Cabinet.  We hope, whoever he or she is, the new Prime Minister will take food security seriously and communicate often with the public about what is doing to reduce food costs and improve national production.  This should have been a priority long ago. Read more »

Friday was World Malaria Day 2008.  Global health depends on controlling this global disease.  It is the leading cause of death in African children and a major health concern in Haiti.  It overwhelms fragile health care systems and hurts economies - the annual economic loss in Africa due to malaria is estimated to be $12 billion (1.3% loss in GDP.)   Yet, we know how to prevent it and how to treat it.  There has been tremendous progress made in the past year, so much so that the international community increasingly agrees that we should begin working toward eradication - in other words, a world without malaria.  It would be a better world indeed. Read more »