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Project to Strengthen agricultural opportunities through training and technological investment (PROFIT) - Midterm evaluation

eval_number:

3537

eval_url:

https://webapps.ilo.org/ievaldiscovery/eval/3537

lessons_learned:

themes:

theme:

Local economic development

category:

Employment

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comments:

The 1154 direct beneficiaries of PROFIT and the local population in general.

challenges:

During the surveys, among other things, the beneficiaries of PROFIT were called upon to express their main concerns, which could be the subject of structuring discussions in line with elements of adaptable responses to be formulated. These are centered around questions of the economic benefits of the activities for the various target groups of the project. It is therefore necessary to better circulate information so that they can have a clear idea of the impacts of key activities such as breadfruit processing and cocoa fermentation on their own lives. The various claims raised in the exchanges are: 1. The establishment of the breadfruit processing pilot center is a step in the right direction. However, it would be important to train young people from the area on the transformation process in order to have local resources available capable of providing their service to the center. 2. It would also be important to set up other more structured processing centers with a greater capacity to produce breadfruit flour in order to make better use of the local resource. 3. The involvement of the Haitian state through the Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Rural Development (MARNDR) and other private and/or public actors is also a condition that can help in the sustainability of this activity by supporting in resource mobilization. 4. It is necessary to aim for the integration of young people in the activity by allowing them to create their own businesses which will enter the marketing and/or processing chain of breadfruit and, thus, reduce post-harvest losses.

success:

In discussions with the evaluation team, beneficiaries state that they expect PROFIT to help create the conditions for the creation of wealth by improving opportunities in the targeted value chains and through the joint financing activity. In this sense, they believe that an extension of the implementation period to help them consolidate their knowledge and consolidate the achievements of the project is a necessity.

context:

Very few economic opportunities are available in the project intervention areas. According to the results of the perception surveys conducted among the beneficiaries of PROFIT, supplemented with the information collected during the realization of the improvised focus-groups, at least 95% of the beneficiaries are young people and women in search of an economic opportunity to help their families to face extreme poverty. They are generally people who evolve in a situation of great precariousness. Their parents and/or family members (elders) are people living in a context of abject misery and multidimensional poverty. One gets the impression that their only recourse remains the support of development projects, financed by extra-national financial mechanisms, and/or implemented by bilateral or multilateral cooperation operators. Otherwise, the latter remain very vulnerable to the attraction of acts of banditry and prostitution in large cities, which is likely to further aggravate concerns in terms of public insecurity, and hamper efforts to combat multifaceted violence and juvenile delinquency. The setting up of centers for the transformation of breadfruit into flour and the search for a sales market is a viable opportunity to promote this relatively widely available agricultural product and create employment opportunities to reduce poverty among young people, women, and men in the project intervention areas.

description:

SUBSTITUTING WHEAT FLOUR FOR BREADFRUIT FLOUR IN BREAD MAKING HAS THE POTENTIAL TO CREATE ADDED VALUE AND STIMULATE LOCAL ECONOMIC GROWTH.Research work carried out by Quisqueya University (UNIQ) has demonstrated that it is possible to successfully substitute up to 30% wheat flour with breadfruit flour in the traditional Haitian bread-making process. This very relevant news brings hope for operators who have them. The latter lose each year between 75 to 80% of their natural production of this commodity.

administrative_issues:

-

url:

https://webapps.ilo.org/ievaldiscovery/lessons/251197

---

location:

country:

Haiti

region:

Americas

---

eval_title:

Project to Strengthen agricultural opportunities through training and technological investment (PROFIT) - Midterm evaluation