Lavalas Government Plan, continued
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Major Results Expected
Objective 2004
The Major Axis
First Axis:
Infrastructure and Communications Organization Fanmi
Lavalas has retained the communal section, the smallest
territorial unit, as the basis for its actions. Thus,
in the framework of extension of the nation road network
it has opted to disenclave and interconnect the 565
communal sections. All initiatives in the sector of
infrastructures shall be guided by the concern to facilitate
access to basic social services (education, health)
and economic trade (agriculture and industrial production,
tourism, crafts, commerce).
Organization Fanmi Lavalas deems it fundamental to
establish a certain number of conditions to guarantee
the sustainability of the interventions to be undertaken.
The most important are:
a) the participation of local leaders and communities
in the beneficiary regions;
b) partnerships between the State and private investment
groups for the provision of services (production, commercialization
and management);
c) the presence of small and midsize construction firms
to encash human resources in each department;
d) the encashment of national savings and foreign capital.
On this last point, the Organization intends to first
identify the national sources of funding, in particular
Public Treasury funds and use them as efficiently as
necessary to reach its objectives.
The Organization will actively seek private partners
(big investors, small and mid-sized businesses, individuals
or potential shareholders) interested in investing in
services such as electricity, potable water, construction
of industrial complexes and tourist resorts... It will
pursue negotiations with the bilateral and multilateral
agencies that are willing to continue their support
of this sector and will actively seek out new alliances.
The Organization's concerns do not stop at rehabilitating
existing infrastructures and constructing new ones.
It also intends to develop the country's capacity for
maintenance to avoid having to constantly start over
and prevent countless losses of investments. It's aim
is to meet an enormous challenge: Building and Maintenance
for sustained development.
Under "Infrastructure" Fanmi Lavalas includes the following
sub-sectors:
Roads and construction works Ports and airports Transportation
and Traffic Housing Public Buildings Energy Potable
Water Drainage and Sanitation Objective 2004
Second Axis: National Production
The reactivation of national production is necessary
to provide a solid and stable basis for the economy.
Only national production can provide the bulk of durable
employment needed to build the society of peace envisioned
by Fanmi Lavalas and guarantee the State's income. Agriculture,
fishing and aquaculture, industry, crafts and tourism
are the main components of this sector.
Agriculture
The objective of the agricultural policy developed
by the Organization targets in particular: the increase
of producer income, the improvement of food security,
the reduction of imports of staple goods and the increase
of hard currency income through the development of export
crafts. The areas of intervention prioritized by this
policy should dynamize production in the sub-sector
of staple crafts, export crafts and cattle breeding,
by intervening simultaneously on the intensification
and expansion of the space cultivated. Moreover, in
order to reach these objectives, the Organization deems
that the State agencies and instruments in charge of
implementing the agricultural development program must
be redefined and dynamized.
The major axis of intervention to be retained involves
water management, the pursuit of agricultural reform,
valorizing farming as a profession, direct support to
production, support to product marketing, the development
of new areas of export, the reinforcement of the research-training-development
axis and support to the agricultural world.
Fishing and Aquaculture
Given the vital role they are meant to play in the
area of food security, the income of producers and the
global economic welfare of the country's population,
the Organization will give special attention to the
management and rational exploitation of fisheries as
well as to the responsible development of aquaculture
within the framework of this program.
Commerce
The commercial policy of Fanmi Lavalas will be inserted
in the global framework of the country's economic recovery
and the significant reduction of underemployment and
unemployment.
The country's comparative advantages must come into
play in the resources directed towards profitable economic
activities. At the same time, the relationship between
economic agents and the State must be improved by significantly
simplifying administrative procedures, and fighting
against the arbitrary and corruption in the giving and
controlling of privileges.
In the area of commerce, five (5) major actions are
envisaged, they are:
- the restructuring of assistance to the distribution
networks;
- the implementation of a strategy for the substitution
of import product;
- the penetration of new markets to increase the export
of Haitian products
- the liberation of markets from all forms of corruption;
- the fight against the high cost of living.
Industry
According to entrepreneurs working in the sector, Haiti
now has the extraordinary potential of becoming "the
dragon of the Americas." Haiti must use all means available
to become in the short term, a place of convergence
not only for North-American and European investors but
also for our Caribbean neighbors and most certainly
for investors from Southeast Asia.
The new formula of the US CBI Act, which focuses on
the textile industry allows Haiti to capitalize in the
short and long terms. It must be immediately taken advantage
of to spearhead Haitian industry and exports. Indeed,
the ability to cut their fabrics in Haiti will encourage
North American companies to relocate in the country.
In the area of industry, Fanmi Lavalas will achieve
the following:
- the upgrading of local industry;
- the implementation of free zones;
The upgrading of local industry will be achieved by:
i) supporting the development of industries with strong
local added value;
ii) promotion of competition;
iii) providing investment security and protection;
The implementation of free zones: Fanmi Lavalas will
favor the creation of free zones throughout the country.
These free zones will be established according to the
land management plan so as to constitute poles of economic
and especially social development. An investment code
will be elaborated to fix taxes for the industrial concerns
involved in the human development process grafted on
the following: housing, electricity, potable water,
education, health, specialized professional training
according to the needs. These free zones should be models
of partnerships between the private and public sectors,
and beneficial for Labor.
Crafts
Fanmi Lavalas intends to put in place an aggressive
program for the promotion of crafts since this is an
area where the country has invaluable comparative advantages
in the region. This involves a systematic search for
outlets for the sector's products. These activities
will be closely associated with those undertaken for
tourist items through:
- the country's diplomatic and consular representations
- participation in international trade fairs
- organizing local and regional trade fairs.
Tourism
In order to make this sector of activity sustainable
and dynamic, Fanmi Lavalas will base its tourist policy
on five (5) specific axis:
a) setting up a normalized environment favorable to
investments in the tourist industry;
b) finding partners-investors;
c) showcasing the country's heritage;
d) developing accommodation infrastructures;
e) improving know-how in matters of tourist management.
Mines
To date, little is known about the country's mineral
resources whose systemic mining could give a vigorous
impulse to the national development process.
Simultaneously with the industrial mining of the major
lodes that have already been found, the Organization
favors the integration of crafts from small mines and
the derivatives of traditional washed-gold items that
have existed since the discovery of Haiti. This will
allow to put in place operational mechanisms to liberate
the sector and facilitate its real development. To do
so, the Organization will call upon experts in the field
to provide training and technical support to the craftsmen.
Environment
Based on a document entitled "Plan d'Action pour L'Environment"
(Plan of Action for the Environment) published in May
in 1999 by the Ministry of Environment, the Organization
will pursue its reflection to arrive at:
a) a truly decentralized approach wherein the local
powers must play an essential role;
b) the development of a set of legal instruments unambiguously
setting the respective roles of the Central State, its
various sectors and local authorities in managing the
environment;
c) the establishment of sources of income from the
exploitation of natural resources to provide local authorities
with significant and stable means of action in this
specific area;
d) coordination, in coming and outgoing control and
assessment of the actions of a multitude of non-governmental
actors who often have access to major financial resources
acquired in the name of the sector.
Third Axis: Education
The Organization's education policy stresses the optimal
development of young Haitian's intelligence, their ability
to access the knowledge and skills of the modern world,
and reorganize these to the dimension of their talents
so that they may fully participate in the (re)construction
of their country... This involves a total revalorization
of the Haitian's multi-learnedness.
This revalorization requires:
a) universal access to fundamental schools for children
between the ages of 6 and 12, to bring up the net rate
of schooled children from 67 to more than 90% between
now and the year 2004;
b) developing in young people the ability to create
freedom of enterprise, a taste for production and the
furthest pursuit of the basic training acquired in fundamental
school, in a technical, professional, scientific or
artistic field;
c) the participation of all in raising the educational
level of the country's disadvantaged populations and
fostering a culture of peace and tolerance.
Fanmi Lavalas will orient the actions of the education
sector from the National Plan for Education and Training,
a reference document developed by the Ministry of National
Education...
The Organization will take care to define a specific
framework of partnership with the private education
sector which currently supplies 89% of the demand. This
partnership will give privilege to those operators who
wish to actively participate in the improvement of the
quality of education in Haiti.
Priority actions...take into account school age children
and specifically target: school infrastructures, universal
schooling, implementation of the new secondary cycle,
curricula development, health-nutrition and the beginning
of the school year.
Professional training is one of the means by which
Fanmi Lavalas plans on reaching its objective of increased
productivity...This involves endowing the country with
a significant number of skilled laborers, and middle
management personnel to allow businesspeople to seek,
both at the regional and world levels, operations contracts
with strong added value for the production of high quality
goods and services.
The Fanmi Lavalas objective is to facilitate the Haitian
student in accessing a good grade of higher eduction,
comparable to that of the region's postgraduate institutions...It
will also stimulate public and private institutions
to modernize, to improve teacher profile, to develop
partnerships with other universities in the region to
engage in educational activities or joint Programs.
Literacy
The Organization's policy aims at allowing unschooled
citizens, especially in the 15 to 45 age group, to actively
participate in constructing the new Haitian society,
generally guaranteeing to all the full exercise of their
constitutional rights, and to provide underprivileged
citizens with sustained technical assistance leading
to their own development. Thus, such a policy will lead
a literate person to:
a) learn the skills he/she needs to actively participate
in his/her community's social and economic development,
and,
b) to play his role as a responsible citizen with maximum
clairvoyance, aware of the task to be performed to bring
the country out its underdevelopment.
Along those same lines, the objectives of Fanmi Lavalas
is to lower the illiteracy rate currently at 55%, down
to 35% in 2004 and to 20% between now and 2006. This
effort will be coupled with the knowledge and skills
learned by the learners. By creating original partnerships
between the State and socio-professional groups such
as: grassroots groups, socio-professional organizations,
territorial assemblies, schools and universities, human
and financial resources will be mobilized to reach the
desired objective.
Fourth Axis: Health
As health is an essential condition to well-being,
Organization Fanmi Lavalas wishes to provide it to the
population. For this reason, health is a priority sector
of its social program. Its policy on this issue is above
all based on preventing the causes of physical and mental
illness in general and of diseases in particular. The
organization firmly believes that the population's health
is first conditional upon:
- a healthy, balanced and sufficient diet
- decent housing in a healthy and pleasant environment
- adequate practice of the elementary rules of hygiene
both in private and in public
- responsible civic behavior resulting from adequate
knowledge of the main causes of most common diseases,
notably those that are said to be infectious and transmissible.
The first two conditions will be met on the one hand
by a decent level of income which can only be provided
by access to employment for the great majority of the
population, and on the other, by a sound management
of the environment, of drainage and sanitation infrastructures,
as well as solid and liquid waste and potable water.
The last two can only be achieved through a process
of formal and informal education. Therefore, the sectors
of economic and social activities as a whole must contribute
to create the essential conditions for maintaining the
population's health.
In this view, the Organization will convene and network
all of the agents of a geographic area: the complementary
and synergy of their actions, their skills and resources
will have a multiplying effect on the results and impact
of their interventions.
In this perspective of optimal coverage of the country
at large, it is imperative to rationalize the health
card by ensuring the distribution of health care centers,
an adequate definition of their vocation and their progressive
endowment with the appropriate resources. The new health
system, with its structural organization and the rational
use of its resources, will allow the State to translate
into concrete action along with its national and international
partners, its determination to promote quality health
care and make it available to the population, especially
the most vulnerable groups such as women and children.
Fifth Axis: Justice and Public Security
According to Fanmi Lavalas, the struggle for a country
of laws requires massive education of the population
in matters of justice and in-depth reorganization of
the justice system, the central pillar of public safety.
The organization's policy revolves around the following
three (3) major axis:
- the democratization of justice
- the protection of human rights
- the reinforcement of institutional governance
The democratization of justice...implies a profound
modification of the relationship to law, the reversal
of the tendency to disaffect the population towards
the legal institution, respect for the decision of the
judiciary and arbitration bodies, and the non circumvention
of the rule as pertains to the application of the law
or arbitration.
The Organization intends to bring the country to a
state of healthy, equitable justice, accessible to all,
administered by a legal system that fulfills the major
prerequisites of the modern world.
The Organization's policy in this area consists of
a reform movement both on the level of law and that
of the organization of justice so as to modernize all
at once the legal and the judiciary, adjusting them
to the international standards subscribed to by the
country to fight against impunity in order to restore
trust in justice to those justiciable and to reinforce
the State in the area of social regulation.
The Organization intends to approach the human rights
issue in a very wide manner, far beyond the strict dimension
of law enforcement in order to ensure the safety of
the population as a whole.
The Organization's policy in matters of public safety
is closely linked to the professionalization of the
national police, the organization of a community police
system, the removal of impunity, the fight against serious
crime.
The reinforcement of Institutional Governance must
be observed by both the Ministry and the Judiciary system.
This reinforcement comprises three aspects: internal
management, decentralization/decongestion of the judiciary
administration and human resource.
1. Real Economy
a) the creation of 500,000 stable jobs in the public
and private sectors;
b) the establishment of some fifty public/private partnership
contracts for the production, commercialization and
management of electrical energy, the management of ports
and airports, land, sea and air transportation, the
development of the housing sub-sector, the management
of the State's heavy equipment, the regulation of the
financial sector and the field of telecommunications;
c) a 30% increase in nutritional self-sufficiency (net);
d) the organization of savings and loan cooperatives
and the mobilization of their assets through a cooperative
bank where they hold a majority of the shares;
e) the creation of economic groups in the Tenth Department
(Miami, New York, Montreal, New Orleans, Paris...) that
could increase investments by at least 50%.
f) the reorganization of some fifteen diplomatic representations
of Haiti abroad (Taipei, Brussels, Berlin, Rome, Washington,
Santo-Domingo, CARICOM, Scandinavian countries...) so
that they may play an active economic role;
g) an increase in the GNP's growth rate from 1.2% in
1999/2000 to an average minimum annual level of 4%;
However, significant efforts will be made to surpass
this rate;
h) a reduction of the inflation rate from 15.3% to
less than 10%;
i) a reduction of the unemployment rate from 60% to
approximately 45%.
2. Infrastructure and Related Services
a) the generation of an additional 348 MW of electric
energy and the reduction of losses to less than 20%;
b) the improvement, rehabilitation and construction
of more than 3.500 km, of secondary and tertiary roads
and 2000 km. of primary roads; and the opening of new
roads in order to link the 565 communal sections with
each other;
c) the renovation of at least five (5) national airports
and the up sizing of Cap Haitian's international airport;
the rehabilitation of the Port-au-Prince Airport; and
the renewal of the national air freight carrier's activities;
d) the improvement of urban and inter-urban transportation
services with the rehabilitation of five (5) coasting
ports, the expansion of Service Plus activities, the
installation of five (5) ferry boat wharves in the Bay
of Port-au-Prince;
e) social communication: national coverage through
state media (radio or television);
f) telecommunications: increase the one hundred thousand
(100,000) existing telephone lines to four hundred and
fifty thousand between now and 2006;
g) potable water 200 community distribution points
in the rural areas and the rehabilitation of 60 urban
systems;
h) a health care center in each communal section;
i) a functional fundamental school (1st and 2nd cycles)
in each communal section;
j) ten functional sports centers;
k) four (4) large correctional facilities;
l) a functional tribunal in each commune;
m) eleven thousand five hundred and twenty (11,520)
housing units;
n) the sanitizing of the nine department's chief towns
through the rehabilitation of the drainage networks.
3. Social
By opting for this strategy, Organization Fanmi Lavalas
intends to reverse the tendency of negative indicators
and accelerate the recovery of those already inflected.
In the next five years, it aims at improving Haiti's
position in the classification of countries with a low
index of human development, or:
a) increase the population's access to healthcare from
a rate of 45% to 80%;
b) increase the population's access to potable water:
- from a rate of 16% to 70% in rural areas
- from a rate of 44% to 80% in urban areas
c) increase the rate of schooling from 67% to at least
90%;
d) increase the rate of literacy from 45% to 80%.
In 2004, Haiti will commemorate the bicentennial of
its Independence. The Organization will work so that
all the sons and daughters of this country may together,
rebuild the identification strategy stemming from 1804,
and thus make a significant mark on this unique date.
The main theme retained by the Organization to orient
the events of this commemoration is that of identity
in durability. Indeed, if the ancestors did not consider
the quality of materials when building ht efforts during
the war of Independence, the testimonials of our past
wood be less eloquent. These forts constitute a lasting
heritage we are proud of. For the organization, the
strength of building an emancipating identity is linked
to stone. The bicentennial of our Independence will
remind us of the stone our past of strife is built on
and will care in stone our present and the future we
wish to create in peace.
Fanmi Lavalas is indeed convinced that the power to
change the present resides in a new reading of this
country's history. Today, the duty of every XXIst century
Haitian is to learn constantly, to study his land's
history in depth in order to continue the work of the
founding fathers. However, he/she must take care to
avoid both internal and external dangers, to develop
strategies inspired by the struggle of our brothers
of America, Africa or Asia in the pursuit of well-being.
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Haiti@inxil.com
· James
R. Morrell, executive director