Foreign Affairs Committee on June 14th, 2006

[Elena Alvarado, Senior Program Officer, America and Caraibes, World University Service of Canada]

My name is Elena Alvarado, and I'm the senior program officer of the voluntary cooperation program in Haiti.

The post-secondary sector is one component of the voluntary cooperation program. Our four partners are: CECI, which works with civil society organizations; SACO, which works in development in the economic sector; the Ministry of Planning and External Cooperation; and the Paul Gérin-Lajoie Foundation, which works in basic education. The World University Service of Canada works in all post-secondary areas, including universities and occupational training institutes.

The program started up one year ago, in June 2005, and it will last three years, until June 2008. We deal with the post-secondary education sector. I'm going to provide you with some background. First, there is little coordination between the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports and universities. Under the Constitution, the State University of Haiti has completely independent control over the university's system. The Constitution dates back to 1987. There are more than 50 private universities in Port-au-Prince, and, in most cases, there is no coordination or cooperation among them.

The National Institute for Occupational Training is the agency responsible for overseeing occupational training, but there are many occupational training institutions of all kinds and levels of quality.

What needs did we identify in our analysis of the post-secondary situation? First, there is a real need for infrastructure: laboratories, teaching equipment, up-to-date technical equipment, etc. There is none in most of the teaching centres in Haiti. The other identified needs in which we can act through the Voluntary Cooperation Program are management needs and everything pertaining to normative and functional coordination between the Ministry of Education's Post-Secondary Education and Research Branch and the universities.

Within the institutions themselves, within the universities and occupational training institutes, we identified administrative and operational needs. For example, there is no registrar's office, human resources office or accounting or computer systems. They are absent or deficient.

In general, there is a lack of management tools, strategic planning, performance and evaluation, as well as serious management and administration deficiencies in administrators. It should also be said that the situation is very uneven. They're quite advanced in some cases, less so in others. So the action plan will come later.

We've also identified teaching pedagogy needs. Most teachers are professionals, who have received no pedagogical training in teaching techniques or program and course preparation. At the occupational training institutes, where there is also a serious equipment and material shortage, teachers need to update their high tech knowledge.

Who are our Haitian partners? First, there is the Post-Secondary Education and Research Branch of the Ministry of National Education, Youth and Sports. It's not the entire ministry, just the branch.

The universities are the State University of Haiti, Quiskeya University, Notre Dame University in Jacmel, Notre Dame University in Port-au-Prince and the National Conference of Presidents of Private Universities. This last organization is an agency that is beginning to bring together university presidents and to focus on training and skills for its members.

In the occupational training sector, our partners are the National Occupational Training Institute, which regulates all occupational training, the Canada-Haiti Institute for Occupational Training, Saint-Gérard Technical College and Claver Technical College. We work through voluntary advisers, and we have to place 29 volunteer advisors over 155 months of work.

Our intervention strategy is first pitched at a macro level: support cooperation between the universities and the Post-Secondary Education and Research Branch of the Ministry of National Education, Youth and Sports in order to implement the recommendations of the National Education and Training Plan. We're going to play a role in communication, negotiation, conciliation and conflict resolution skills training.

At the intermediate level, we're going to support governance within the institutions: training, follow-up and planning and management advice for senior executives and the administration of the universities and occupational training institutes.

There are specific and ad hoc training needs in teaching and technical training for teachers. Our method is as follows: training for trainers; assistance and support, follow-up and advice; evaluation of implementation and results, or RBM, which is used by CIDA; cross-cutting approach; a participatory approach involving partners and diaspora. A number of our voluntary advisers are part of the Haitian diaspora. They are university professors who have worked for a long time in Canada and who would like to return home and do something for their country. We also seek to build consensus among the institutions in Haiti, and we engage in public education and commitment through partnerships with Canadian institutions, in particular universities and CEGEPs. We also engage in action-research. This is intervention in a crisis context over three years, and we conduct rigorous follow-up to that intervention. Our documentation on the intervention is available to anyone who wishes to consult it. It will be used for training in international cooperation in Canadian universities. We're also very much involved in the environment.

In 2005, we had to ask ourselves what we were going to do. The context was one of crisis and insecurity. We couldn't send volunteer advisors to Haiti. What was the alternative? Were we going to build partnerships with universities and occupational training institutions in Canada so that Haitians could come to Canada? Were we going to focus our action in the Jacmel region, a calmer area outside the capital?

Fortunately, things have calmed down this year. Based on our analysis of the situation and in view of the many needs and the scarcity of resources in the post-secondary sector in Haiti, we have designed an effective cross-cutting intervention plan under which long-term volunteer advisors will conduct an analysis of more specific needs in their area of expertise for the targeted partners. The long-term volunteer advisors will ensure implementation of the plans and recommendations of the short-term volunteer advisors for the transfer of knowledge through advice, assistance and support to partners. The short-term volunteer advisors have a very specific, very advanced assignment.

We now have sectoral team leaders. These are long-term volunteer advisors in the field. We have a communications advisor and a support advisor at the university in Jacmel. A teaching advisor will soon be leaving, and there is a planning and management advisor. We've already prepared a number of documents and are making a number of observations.

What risk mitigation strategies are we using?

In particular, in view of the political and social instability, we're going to limit agreements and actions. If ever things become more difficult, we'll move people from Port-au-Prince to other provinces in order to provide training. We're engaged in knowledge transfer, and voluntary advisors must evaluate its long-term affects, as well as the results achieved in the course of our intervention. We also have to comply with the agreements.

Now that I have the opportunity, I'd like to tell you that, currently in Haiti, we find that all the country's structures have been dismantled. In some sectors, they are completely dismantled. However, the Haitian people want to put order in the chaos. The new government is preparing a structuring plan. I believe that supporting the plan that the Haitians are developing could be an international cooperation initiative.

In addition, we have to organize international cooperation. A number of us are engaged in activities, but no one has given any cues or guidelines to date. I believe efforts are being made and that discussions in that direction have begun. However, we'll have to focus more on that issue.

Thank you very much.

[Michel Tapiero, Manager, Americas and Middle East Programs, World University Service of Canada]

This is what's called a sectoral approach. All cooperants meet in order to avoid duplicating their actions.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you so much.

We'll go to our next presenters, Monsieur Faustin and Monsieur Barthélus, for 10 minutes, please.

[Eric Faustin, Director General, Regroupement des organismes canado-haïtiens pour le développement]

Thank you. It's a great pleasure for me to address the committee on behalf of ROCAHD. I'm here today with Mr. Barthélus, who is the Vice-Chair of ROCAHD's board of directors.

What is ROCAHD? It's a coalition of Canada-Haiti organizations that has been in existence under that name since 1994, but was founded in 1987 under the name of the Fonds délégués AQOCI-Haïti. ROCAHD represents 47 organizations, including 36 Canada-Haiti international cooperation organizations and 11 Canadian and Quebec organizations.

ROCAHD's priorities are community health, economic development, occupational training and literacy. In recent years, we have supported numerous projects: a midwife training project, a training project for Jacmel hotel staff and a training project for illiterate young mothers from an isolated place, in Port-de-Paix. I should also mention the construction of wells in the Fossé-Naboth region, construction of latrines in Jacmel, the creation of a micro-credit circle, chicken farming, goat farming, coffee production and reforestation activities. These projects reach a lot of people—approximately 30,000—and help them survive and improve their living conditions.

The members of ROCAHD in Canada are all multipliers. They come from various regions of the country, they know the situation in their region and they can propose projects designed to improve the living conditions of those people.

We've been supported by CIDA since 1987, and we've been a diligent partner in that time.

Since ROCAHD is a development NGO, we're mainly going to talk about development, but we're also interested in security in Haiti. Security is a fundamental concern, and the climate of insecurity that has reigned in Haiti in the past three years has slowed the country's development and ROCAHD's development projects. I learned earlier that the education cooperation projects were also affected by that climate of insecurity.

Canada and, more particularly, the United States send Haitian criminals operating in their countries back to Haiti. When they arrive in Haiti, those criminals are considered graduate students of crime. They vitalize the criminal world. They are, in a way, leaders who facilitate communications with Canadian criminals. A good way to help Haiti would be to declare a moratorium on the deportation of criminals because, for the moment, the country isn't able to manage the situation. Until Haiti is in a position to do so, we shouldn't deport these criminals.

It is the prerogative of a sovereign state like Canada to deport undesirables, but a moratorium would be appropriate in the circumstances. Haiti's judicial and correctional system should be reinforced so that it can shoulder its responsibilities. If we deport people, we should at least put them in prison and, if necessary, expand prison capacity.

We must invest in efforts to reinforce Haiti's institutions, but those efforts should exclude initiatives that are not the subject of a consensus within Haitian society.

To date, a large part of the assistance provided in recent years has been allocated to stabilizing the situation in Haiti—sending experts and police officers, establishing MINUSTAH—but we should invest more in re-enforcing Haiti's institutions so that they are able to take over when the time comes.

I want to take this opportunity to hail the ultimate sacrifice of Canadian police officer Mark Bourque, who died in Haiti in the context of the efforts to stabilize that country.

Now I'm going to talk about development. CIDA documents show that investments of more than $700 million have been made in international aid since 1968, most of which was specifically intended to deal with crises. In the past two years, Canada has made a commitment to allocate more than $180 million to the Interim Cooperation Framework in response to transition and stabilization needs identified by the interim government.

Today, Haiti remains the least developed country in this hemisphere, with more than 70 per cent of its population living below the poverty line. Fifty per cent of the Haitian population is still illiterate, and only 1 per cent of the country's area is still wooded.

Canada's aid is important for Haiti. ROCAHD appreciates Canada's aid in improving the situation in Haiti. Some $3.6 million persons in Haiti are able to work, and 70 per cent of them are unemployed or underemployed, or still work in the informal sector.

Considering the development indicators in Haiti and the very pronounced shortcomings in meeting basic human needs, ROCAHD thinks Canada's aid to Haiti should continue to involve the organizations of civil society in Haiti and Canada that are engaged in cooperation in order to meet health, education and economic development needs.

It is essential that Canada's aid to Haiti be used, on the one hand, to reinforce the domestic capabilities of Haitian government institutions so that they can more effectively carry out their mission and, on the other hand, to strengthen the organizations of civil society, which are agents of development among the Haitian population.

As regards security, while we agree that it is important to reinforce Haiti's public institutions in this sector, we recommend that the essential portion of aid in this sector be directed toward increasing the number of police officers and judges and improving their training so that they can perform their duties.

As for development, ROCAHD believes that, given the social development indicators in Haiti—illiteracy, unemployment, health, deforestation, water access, availability of energy resources and gender equality—it is essential that the essential portion of Canada's aid to Haiti be directed toward improving the situation of the Haitian people. These needs can be taken into account by government programs, of course, but also by activities in the community sector. The Haitian community sector is very large and can, to a large degree, meet the basic human needs of the Haitian population. We should support that sector so that it continues to do this work.

It is impossible for the Haitian government, and for the Haitian private sector, to take charge of everything there is to do in Haiti. Whether it be projects for reforestation, soil conservation, water access, the establishment of cooperatives for the production and processing of farm and stock farm products, we think that we at ROCAHD can help carry them out. We could do more, if we received more contributions from CIDA and if our Canada-Haiti associations could receive a larger cost-share ratio.

Thank you for inviting us to testify before the committee. We'll be able to provide more details in our answers to the questions that follow.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you for being here.

We'll go into the questioning round.

First, for five minutes, is Monsieur Patry.

[Bernard Patry, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, madam and gentlemen. It's very interesting to hear from you. I'm going to move to the questions right away, since we have five minutes for questions and answers. So I'll shorten by preamble in order to get some answers.

Ms. Alvarado, you and your group are very ambitious, and that's great. I'd like you to tell me about the state of the universities.

For more than 40 years, there's been a certain exodus of people from the universities, both in the medical field, where I come from, and other fields. Do you think it's possible to send advisors to Haiti to move young people on from the primary to the secondary level? We know that you have roughly the same system as France. Do you think we can really move forward with the universities in Haiti? We know they are mainly private universities.

My second question is for Mr. Faustin. The ROCAHD group is doing an excellent job. You're doing a lot of community work and I think that's very important.

There's a lot of talk about security in Port-au-Prince, but I'd like to know your opinion on the situation outside Port-au-Prince. Witnesses have told us that visible projects should be introduced, or else things will fall back into a climate of insecurity, particularly in the streets, a situation that would really be contrary to President Préval's objectives.

You referred to micro-credit. Développement international Desjardins is very much involved in Haiti. There are more than 60 bank centres where micro-credit is provided, which is excellent. Is micro-credit working well where you come from? Can you move forward with that? In my opinion it's little things that are highly visible. When people get a little credit, they can create their own jobs, and I think that's important.

Are there any regions outside Port-au-Prince where a well could be built, thus making people's lives easier? That enables people to realize that their government is doing something for them.

I'd like to have your opinion, particularly on the regions located outside Port-au-Prince.

[Elena Alvarado]

First, with regard to the skills at Haitian universities, we found ourselves with some great thinkers. There are a lot of skills at Haitian universities from a human resources standpoint.

It should also be said that a number of professors, from Laval University, UQAM and the University of Montreal, for example, are travelling back and forth. They're already cooperating with Haitian universities on a volunteer basis. They are very much involved in our program, since we ask them for their opinion before we intervene. There are even people from the Ministry of Education and the universities—there's one public university, and the others are private—who are far ahead on the way the system should be structured.

It's true there is a major gap at the secondary level. No international cooperation organization is supporting secondary education, which is really causing a serious problem. A lot of investments have been made in basic education, and they are a bit scattered around the country. Various programs apply in various regions of the country. Sometimes there is no coordination among them.

There's also an infrastructure problem, more so at that State University of Haiti, which has no campus. All the faculties are scattered around the city of Port-au-Prince. The infrastructure is very uneven. There is Quisqueya University, for example, which is very well organized, but is nevertheless our partner, because it wants to improve the skills of the people in who work there.

I'll stop there, Mr. Chairman.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you, Madame Alvarado.

Monsieur Faustin.

[Eric Faustin]

Thank you.

ROCAHD's projects are being rolled out across Haiti, including Port-au-Prince. The well projects are being carried out in the mountains, in the suburbs of Jacmel and at Fossé-Naboth, in the department of Artibonite. Those wells will supply more than 15,000 people with drinking water.

We have a micro-credit project in the suburbs of Port-au-Prince, in the region of Kenscoff and Fermat. There's one in Jacmel as well, in cooperation with the La Konbit Social Centre at Jacmel. We also have a rotating credit project related to stock farming. It involves the farmers of Sainte-Suzanne, in northeastern Haiti, on the central plateau, in Cobanal and Aquin. In these projects, we grant credit to farmers, but this is for chickens. For example, we offer a woman a dozen chickens and a rooster. She guarantees that, the following year, she will repay the credit that she has received to another family. We started this project with 300 people, but we expect to reach 3,000 over a period of 5 to 10 years.

We've also just implemented a goat farming project. We deal with community groups in the field and a group specializing in veterinary medicine applied to stock farming called VETERIMED. This organization was recently given an award by Chili for the community work it's doing in the area of stock farming, especially for its milk production. These people produce milk and raise rabbits. We've financed these stock farming operations, which have enabled farmers to improve their living conditions.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

All right. Thank you. We're running a little late on our questions. They were going about seven minutes.

Madame Bourgeois.

[Diane Bourgeois, Bloc, Terrebonne—Blainville, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Madam, gentlemen, good afternoon. Listening to you speak earlier, I thought that poverty and inequality, among other factors, gave rise to violence, insecurity and political instability.

Mr. Faustin, if I understood correctly, you're a member of a group that is subsidized by CIDA. Your activities are therefore subsidized by Canada. However, Ms. Shamsie, a researcher who appeared before the committee, told us that Canada had been somewhat mistaken in previous years in attaching greater importance to Haiti's economic development than to its agricultural needs. She said that, in 2005, Ottawa had decided to stop giving priority to agriculture in the context of its foreign aid programs.

I see you've nevertheless attached importance to stock farming. Is agriculture a priority for you?

[Eric Faustin]

Absolutely. Haiti is a fundamentally agricultural country, and the country's dependence on agriculture is impoverishing the country-dwelling population. For us, it's essential that we support reforestation, agricultural production and stock farming projects. That's the best way to reach the largest number of people possible and to enable them to improve their living conditions.

We have projects that support coffee production in Sainte-Suzanne. For a long time now, that area has been devoted to coffee production. By supporting the people in that region, we want not only to give the area plant coverage, but also to help increase coffee production. Even in the case of goat and rabbit farming, some of the projects consist in developing pieces of land for agricultural production purposes in order to meet the needs of the animals.

[Diane Bourgeois, Bloc, Terrebonne—Blainville, QC]

Are they engaged in agricultural production for commercial purposes or for their own consumption?

[Eric Faustin]

It's for their own consumption, but they sell part of it.

[Diane Bourgeois, Bloc, Terrebonne—Blainville, QC]

One speaker who preceded you said that women were a poorly used strength in Haiti. Do you have any plans to make better use of the strength these women represent?

[Eric Faustin]

Absolutely. One of the components of ROCAHD's work is the promotion of gender equity. Some of our projects are specifically aimed at women. The merchant micro-credit project is strictly aimed at women. As you are no doubt aware, approximately 72 in every 1,000 women dies in childbirth for lack of medical care. Merely training midwives and enabling them to assist women in childbirth helps this population improve its living conditions.

We've given our support for the training of young mothers at two locations in Haiti: Port-de-Paix, which is in the northwest part of the country and Les Cayes, which is in the south. These projects are essentially aimed at women. We assist and support them and give them training. In the context of SOFA, training is intended for midwives and seamstresses. The idea is simply to enable them to work in both the formal and informal sectors.

[Diane Bourgeois, Bloc, Terrebonne—Blainville, QC]

Thank you.

My question is also for Ms. Alvarado and her companion. Are putting people to work so they can eat, send their children or young people to school, keeping people busy and making the country a little safer objectives that are suitable to you in the event the committee prepares a report?

[Elena Alvarado]

First, I want to talk about women. I'm new to the country, but I'm not new to international cooperation or to this issue. I haven't done any studies on the subject, but I realize that Haitian society has remained standing for so long because of women and their work. They are the backbone of the country, but they don't take part in decision-making, except that of the female Minister of Health in the foreign government. There are no women deans, presidents and so on.

Apart from that, action must be sustained. Education can't be provided through three-year projects. We need to carry out long-term projects and expand the horizons. We won't get the job done with ad hoc action. Nor will we get it done by competing for resources. So we have to combine our efforts and follow master plans. That's my opinion.

[Michel Tapiero]

We shouldn't delude ourselves: our university and post-secondary governance program represents $7 million over three years, allocated among four NGOs. For the secondary level, we're talking about $1.2 million over three years. We can do the impossible, but we can't work miracles.

[Vernick Barthélus, Vice President , Board of Directors, Regroupement des organismes canado-haïtiens pour le développement]

We spoke about women, and I would like to point out that ROCAHD is still asking people who submit projects what role women have played in their preparation and what their role will be in their implementation. We ask how many women there are in their organization. Based on those answers, we determine, among other things, whether the projects submitted are acceptable.

[Elena Alvarado]

Thank you for clarifying those four points.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

All right. Thank you. You're well over time, but I couldn't have cut you off any sooner. They might have thought we didn't want to hear all the good things the women are doing in Haiti, and we do.

We're going to go to Mr. Goldring for five minutes, please.

[Peter Goldring, Conservative, Edmonton East, AB]

Thank you, mesdames et messieurs.

Mr. Faustin, what would your annual budget be, and has it been consistent for a number of years? And for how many years back has your organization been funded by CIDA, and what would that funding be today on an annual basis?

[Eric Faustin]

Our organization has been receiving funding from CIDA since 1987, when it was called the Fonds délégués AQOCI-Haïti. At the time, CIDA funding represented $700,000 a year. The cost-sharing ratio was 9 to 1. That was the period following the fall of Duvalier. The situation was considered catastrophic enough to justify support for Canada-Haiti agencies wishing to help Haiti.

As regards the contribution we're currently receiving from CIDA, we have a three-year agreement, which has been extended. That organization pays us $300,000 a year, and our matching ratio is 3 to 1. In 1987, when an organization like that of Mr. Barthélus wanted to carry out a project and provided $10,000 for that purpose, it received a matching amount that could help it carry out a $100,000 project. Today, that same $10,000 contribution could help carry out a $40,000 project. So conditions have been tightened.

As a result, Canada-Haiti organizations are less able to intervene. However, they do their best with what they have.

[Peter Goldring, Conservative, Edmonton East, AB]

As I understand it, then, it's a ratio of 10:100. The community raises $10 to receive $100 of aid.