Project profile — Increasing Food Security and Promoting Public Health

• Haiti (100.00%)

• Basic Health: Basic nutrition (12240) (25.00%)
• Agriculture: Agricultural development (31120) (75.00%)

• Gender equality (significant objective)
• Environmental sustainability (cross-cutting) (principal objective)
• Participatory development and good governance (principal objective)
• Trade development (significant objective)
• Biodiversity (not targeted)
• Climate change mitigation (not targeted)
• Climate Change Adaptation (not targeted)
• Urban issues (not targeted)
• Desertification (not targeted)
• Children's issues (not targeted)
• Youth Issues (not targeted)
• Indigenous Issues (not targeted)
• Disability (not targeted)
• ICT as a tool for development (not targeted)

This project aims to increase access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food and improve the health of 8,000 people in the commune of Saint-Marc, in Haiti’s Artibonite region, by intensifying and diversifying agricultural production while promoting public health. It encourages male and female producers to adopt new agricultural practices that are better adapted to ecological principles and nutritional needs. Specifically, the project aims to strengthen the teaching and applied research capacities of the State University of Haiti, building a sustainable partnership among the university, public health agencies, and the local community. The initiative is designed to help 16,000 people improve their understanding of nutritional health (helping them to improve their own health), and increase the incomes of 2,600 women in Saint-Marc.

The expected intermediate outcomes for this project include: increased application of concepts of food security, both by academics and professionals as well as community members; increased environmentally sustainable revenues for households and especially women, in the fourth section of the municipality of Saint-Marc; and increased access for women and children living in the town of Saint Marc to sufficient, safe and nutritious food.

Results achieved as of the end of the project (October 2018): (1) strengthening the capacity of the State University of Haiti in the areas of food security allowed for (a) the training of 177 students in medicine (including 50 women) and 10 district health unit professionals who now apply the notions of food security and nutritional health in their practices; (2) 16 health structures now offering nutritional health services, which were provided to 61,089 individuals, including 26,827 pregnant and breastfeeding women and 34,262 children under the age of 5; (3) 78 women having received training in women’s leadership; (4) an increase of revenues by 30 % (an increase of approximately CAD$355) from the sale of beans being noted for at least 483 farmers (including 178 women) compared with mid-project in 2015, and this achievement occurring in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way; (5) an average adoption rate of 56 % of best agri-environmental practices being observed, compared with approximately 0 % at the beginning of the project; (6) an observed decrease of households with high food insecurity, which was at 7 % at the beginning of the project and was at 4.2 % by the end of the project; (7) a decrease in the number of children (aged 6 to 59 months) with global acute malnutrition, from 3.7% at the beginning of the project to 1% at the end of the project being observed in the commune; and (8) 270 tonnes of sorghum seeds resistant to yellow aphids distributed to 62,500 Haitian farmers (25 % of which were women), which enabled the planting of approximately 30,000 hectares (approximately 25 % of the total area of sorghum planted per year before the aphid’s arrival) and saving the national sorghum production. These results enabled a sustainable and sustained increase in the food security of the population, particularly women and children, in the Commune of Saint-Marc.

• Proactive disclosure