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During
the past year or so in Haiti, as humanitarian actors raised an
alarm about hunger, Haiti Grassroots Watch (HGW) journalists
kept hearing complaints and rumors about the misuse, abuse, or
negative effects of food aid. HGW journalists and the community
radio members who worked with them decided to investigate.
Why –
when the country has received at least one billion U.S. dollars
worth of food aid between 1995 and the 2010 earthquake – is
hunger on the rise? Who are the actors in the “hunger games” in
Haiti and internationally? What can be done that isn’t
currently being done?
HGW
and its partners visited two programs funded by the U.S. Agency
for International Development (USAID), which recently ended or
are ending this year. This week, we will publish in Haïti
Liberté a report entitled “Food Voucher Program Hurt
Farmers, Favored US Exports,” an investigation of a CARE
food coupon program in Grande Anse called “Tikè Manjè”
(Food Voucher) at first and later called “Kore Lavni Nou”
(Supporting Your Future), which ended in August. Another
article,“Why is Haiti hungry?”, provides background on
the issues involved.
Next
week, we will publish another investigation entitled “Questions
About World Vision’s Targeted Food Program,” about a World
Vision feeding program on La Gonâve and in Savanette that
targets pregnant women, mothers, and young children. It is part
of that organization’s five-year “Multi-Year Assistance
Program,” slated to wind up at the end of 2013. Two other
analyses, “Measuring Hunger” and “Aid or Trade? The
nefarious effects of three decades of U.S. policy” will
accompany that piece.
This
series produced by HGW is distributed in collaboration with
Haïti
Liberté.
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