6998: Fanmi Lavalas Govt Plan: The Major Axis (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: MKarshan@aol.com

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 AN 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 ti 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.