Thursday June 27, 2024, for more than an hour, Vernet Joseph the Minister of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Rural Development accompanied by 4 members of his cabinet, spoke at his office with Rachelle Pierre Louis, the Acting Representative in Haiti of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) who was accompanied by 2 executives from his institution.

Minister Joseph underlined the importance of technical cooperation developed with IICA, whose interventions in Haiti began in 1972. He took the opportunity to recall that this Transitional Government has a clear mandate, and in the short period of time of his mandate, he will have to lay the foundations for the development of Haiti. Stressing that the support of Partners external to the agricultural sector such as IICA is of capital importance.

In her intervention, Rachelle Pierre Louis, Acting Representative of IICA in Haiti, summarized the main lines of the IICA Medium-Term Plan 2022-2026 focused on five technical programs of continental action:

1) Bioeconomy and productive development;

2) Development of the territory and family farming;

3) International trade and regional integration;

4) Climate change, natural resources and production risk management;

5) Agricultural health, food safety and quality. She also mentioned two cross-cutting areas of intervention: (a) Innovation and technology and (b) Gender and youth.

The Representative took the opportunity to insist on the establishment of strategic and technological monitoring in order to reflect on the major challenges of the agricultural sector in Haiti.

The discussions also focused on the joint initiative of IICA and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), through a project to strengthen the climate resilience of small Haitian agricultural producers, submitted to the Green Climate Fund for financing. The Acting Representative of IICA highlighted the need for co-financing, taking into account the scale of the action, to achieve the project's objectives. Minister Joseph is committed to supporting any approach to seeking additional funding.

While thanking IICA for its constant and fruitful collaboration, the Minister took certain steps to follow up on the meeting, announcing the appointment of a Ministry official responsible for liaising with IICA.

HL/ HaitiLibre