Translation released February 11, 2001
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 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.
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