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Haiti's Post-Earthquake Transformation: What of Agriculture and Rural Development?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Yasmine Shamsie
Yasmine Shamsie*
Affiliation:
Wilfrid Laurier University, Centre for Research on Latin America, York University
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Abstract

This article examines post-earthquake aid to agriculture and food security in Haiti. It argues that the much-heralded increase in assistance to rural development is likely to fall short of expectations because it comes with a superficial rebranding of a not very useful approach. Macroeconomic policy content remains largely nonnegotiable, full trade liberalization is still favored, and a reliance on free market forces that tend to favor relatively well off, export-oriented farmers still lingers. Furthermore, conflicting approaches to addressing food insecurity highlight an already severe democratic deficit. It appears that the contours of agricultural and food security policy, and hence the destinies of rural Haitians, stand to be shaped from the outside yet again. While new aid resources may offer some modest relief, they hold out only limited opportunities for addressing the profound deprivations and disparities that afflict the rural hinterland.

Type
Policy Issues
Information
Latin American Politics and Society , Volume 54 , Issue 2 , Summer 2012 , pp. 133 - 152
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 2012

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