22418: Arthur Re: 22410: marina: alternatives to the assembly sector obsession (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Tttnhm@aol.com

Marina and others have asked the following question:

<< can you please propose some concrete alternatives to development >>

Charles Arthur writes:
It seems to me that what was proposed (and ignored) in 1995-6, still applies
in 2004. Please see below the final section of the very useful Development Gap
report: "Democracy Undermined, Economic Justice Denied: Structural Adjustment
and the Aid Juggernaut in Haiti" by Lisa McGowan (1997).

PS Please note that the author is referring to the civil society that
represents the majority population in Haiti, and not to the Group of 184/private
sector......Some people - hello Mr Prime Minister and Radio Metropole - are
confused about this.


Extract begins here:


THE VIEW FROM HAITIAN CIVIL SOCIETY (1997)
There exists in Haiti a dynamic civil society able and working to provide
both an alternative vision of development and the specific programs and
methodologies to implement it. Haitian community development training centers and the
base groups that have been catalyzed by the community agents trained there are
among the most effective in the world. There also exists a strong (if small)
cadre of agronomists, economists, sociologists, human rights specialists and
other professionals working hand in hand with groups in the popular sector to
bring about their joint vision for social change. Throughout the political
turmoil of the past 15 years, it has been the popular groups, peasant associations,
base church communities, those NGOs and NGO associations serving the
grassroots, progressive policy organizations, and student groups that brought
democracy to Haiti. They have amassed and safeguarded the knowledge, perspectives, and
innovative thought and actions upon which a participatory democracy and more
equitable economic development can be built.

Excluded by the international community, hunted down by the military, and too
often ignored by their own government, these groups have nevertheless carried
on. Still, the immense burden borne by civil society has taken its toll, and
confusion, division and simple exhaustion complicate attempts to unify,
collaborate and develop joint strategies and alternatives. This situation -- and the
need for donors and the GOH to do all they can to reverse the negative roles
they have played -- is as real and important a reality in Haiti as is the need
for financing for development programs and should be addressed with equal
energy and commitment.

Despite the challenges these groups have faced, key elements of an
alternative development path in Haiti have been devised and articulated by a broad
cross-section of civil society. Donors who are serious about playing a positive
role in Haiti have a solid base to take as their point of departure and are in a
position to enter into an honest, open and transparent dialogue with civil
society and the GOH to see whether and how they can provide useful resources to a
Haitian-led development process.

Following are some general principles and specific program and policy
recommendations that have emerged in the past three years from a broad base of civil
society.(1)

    * Only by fundamentally changing the current configuration of
inter-national development assistance to Haiti and addressing the chronic imbalance of
power and wealth that haunts Haitian society, can the country's poverty be
effectively addressed. This implies not only a redistribution of resources within
Haiti, but also a shift in the country's relationship to the world economy.
Rather than providing cheap labor for that economy, for example, Haiti must
direct its work force and resources in the first instance toward the production of
locally consumed food and other goods.
    * As advocated by several women's groups in Haiti, economic rights must
be the basis of development. Without these rights, women, as well as their male
counterparts, will continue to subsidize industrial production through
poverty wages and other forms of exploitation.
    * Haitian workers feel that foreign investment could provide an important
source of employment in Haiti, but not if it is done at the expense of
workers' rights. IFIs should actively support Haitian workers' demands that foreign
companies operating directly in Haiti or through subcontractors respect
Haitian laws regarding minimum wages, working conditions, benefits, the right of
Haitian workers to organize, and the right to negotiate a collective contract.
Workers are also calling for an increase in the minimum wage to 75 gds, or
US$4.90 a day.
    * Direct and significant material and financial support to peasants and
peasant associations, along with a land-reform program that distributes state
lands plus other attendant policy measures, is needed immediately to assist
them in rebuilding their capital base and increase food and export-crop
production. The main goal of this assistance would be to strengthen food
self-sufficiency in Haiti by both increasing the availability of food locally and decreasing
the cost of food. This strategy implies a thorough understanding of the
gender dimensions of food security and the need to explicitly address these
dimensions in programs. Export-crop production in this schema is an important
supplement to food production, but would not take precedence over it.
    * The professional agronomists association (ANDAH) is calling for 25-30
percent tariffs on grains imported by Haiti as a means of "leveling the playing
field" on which poor Haitian farmers are being forced to compete with their
heavily subsidized competitors. Donor- financed food-aid programs should
purchase locally produced food as a means of strengthening local food production and
agricultural markets and lessening Haiti's dependence on imported food.
    * Industrial-sector planning should valorize and strengthen local
production, such as handicrafts. A long-term policy for the development of the
Haitian craft sector that establishes and strengthens linkages with government
programs in agriculture, environment, natural-resource management, education,
tourism and commerce is badly needed and should be integrated with a larger
national development strategy.
    * To increase the amount of domestically available credit to peasants and
small and informal-sector entrepreneurs, limits should be placed on the
government's ability to borrow money from domestic sources. This might entail
taking the banking system out of the control of the state (also a goal of the
IFIs), though private banks should be required to make flexible, affordable credit
available to these small producers across the country, if necessary through
special programs. Capital shortfalls should be funded by international
assistance not on the backs of the poor through the imposition of excessive austerity
measures.
    * Economic policies that help create political stability through
equitable growth, streamline business regulations and secure positive rates of
interest on savings are a preferable means of attracting foreign investment than a
policy of exploitative wages, tax holidays, excessive subsidies and preferential
access to resources by the export sector, as is the case today.Immediate and
substantial increases should be effected in health and education spending --
some of which might be in the form of subsidies to private providers -- such
that services are increased and the cost to families decreased.
    * While popular groups and NGOs agree with the EERP on the need to
increase government revenues, they argue for the more equitable method of imposing
and collecting progressive income and property taxes and more heavily taxing
luxury imports rather than taxing such critical consumer items as food and fuel.
    * The Haitian people are also calling for debt cancellation. They argue
that the poor of Haiti should not be made to pay for the excesses of the
Duvalier regime nor those of subsequent, non-democratic governments.
    * In addition, popular groups support the rebuilding of their country's
infrastructure, the rationalization of its economic system, greater government
efficiency and less public corruption -- all elements of the EERP -- but they
want this accomplished within the context of a larger, more effective,
service-delivering state that is accountable to and addresses the needs and
priorities of the people of Haiti, not foreign donors or investors.

These recommendations collectively form a comprehensive, logical and, for the
Haitian people, relevant programmatic framework for Haiti's economic future.
It is not for the lack of viable alternative, therefore, that the IFIs refuse
to back off from the economic program that they have foisted upon the country.
Rather, they are unwilling to entertain, in Haiti or in the many other
countries in which they operate, any economic option that is not congruent with
their well-established economic orthodoxy and that does not serve a well-defined
set of special interests.

By ignoring the voices of civil society, the IFIs and their current program
certainly will not serve the people of Haiti. Indeed, they will perpetuate the
economic, social and political crises that have for far too long marked the
sad history of that nation. As those crises intensify and instability
regenerates in Haiti, the architects and adherents of adjustment may well come to rue
having blockaded the road not traveled.

The whole report can be read at: http://www.developmentgap.org/haiti97.html

1) Recommendations for alternative policies and programs in Haiti can be
easily found in a number of documents and news reports, as well as through
conversations with groups and individuals. The recommendations cited in this report
come from a variety of sources, such as: the Fleurant and Mangones report;
declarations by peasant groups and professional associations (i.e., Mouveman
Payizan Nasyonal Kongre Papay, Deklarasyon Final/Declarasyon de Payay, Kongre
Espesyal MPNKP, 17-20 March 1995); papers prepared by individuals for discussion,
such as Webster Pierre's "Elements de Reflexions Pour un P.A.S. Alternatif,"
(March 1996); reports of international organizations with partner groups in
Haiti, such as Oxfam America, and various bulletins and articles from the
Platforme Haitienne de Plaidoyer pour un Development Atnernatif (PAPDA) in
Port-au-Prince. In addition, Haiti Info, a biweekly newsletter published by the Haitian
Information Bureau, provides coverage of alternative policies and programs
advocated by Haitian groups.