Project profile — Investing in People and Business

This project aims to improve the living conditions of families in the poor neighborhood of Simon Pelé in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Men and women get training in construction trade to work for micro, small and medium sized enterprises engaged in housing and related infrastructure construction. Availability of trained workforce allows these enterprises in the area to meet demands for good quality housing and infrastructure construction simultaneously with increasing employment and income-generation opportunities for communities. To maximize the benefits, the project also provides specific business development and marketing skills for these enterprises as well as management and leadership training for community councils that maintain housing and infrastructure facilities.

Expected results at intermediate level include: i) increased representative (male and female) skilled workforce supporting micro, small and medium enterprises engaged in the housing and related infrastructure construction; ii) enhanced capacity of micro, small and medium enterprises to build good quality houses and infrastructures; and iii) improved capacity of community councils to manage and maintain housing and infrastructure facilities in gender-sensitive way.

Results achieved as of the end of project (April 2016) include: 1) Over 3,200 individuals were given vocational training including more than 1,000 women in various key vocational skills based on community needs established before the project, such as construction, refrigeration repair, auto driving and cosmetics; 2) 22 Community infrastructure projects were executed by the Community Council, funded by the project. The community infrastructure projects improved the sustainability of the community while ensuring the community’s capacity to manage reconstruction needs; 3) All six community zones of Simon Pelé were reached on gender equality and on women’s productive role in the economy; 4) A total of 6,000 individuals learned how to reconstruct homes, including 3,000 women who participated as equal residents and potential economic providers in the community; 5) A total of 659 homes were repaired or reconstructed and daily lives of more than 15,000 individuals was improved from infrastructure upgrades and 6) Almost 900 people including over 200 women have experienced an increase in the number of days of work in the commercial or construction sector as a result of basic construction and livelihood training as they have started applying their training to obtain small jobs. These results contributed to creating a skilled and representative (women and men) workforce, an enlightened gender sensitive community council able to manage its affairs and a safer and better neighbourhood in the Simon Pele area of Port au Prince. It is also helping start micro, small and medium enterprises as the trained individuals are taking up local construction needs or home repair projects.