fiscal year 2021 q3 quarterly performance report plateau

United States Agency for International Development Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA)

Fiscal Year 2021 Q3 Quarterly Performance Report

72DFFP20GR00085

EMERGENCY FOOD SECURITY PROGRAM (EFSP) IN NORTH-EAST AND CENTRAL PLATEAU

Awardee HQ Contact Name: Buck Bradshaw Awardee HQ Contact Address: 300 I Street NE, Washington, D.C. 20002 Awardee HQ Contact Telephone Number: +1 (202) 572-6594 Awardee HQ Contact Fax Number: Awardee HQ Contact Email Address: [email protected]

Host Country Office Contact Name: Marcelo Viscarra Martinez Host Country Office Address: World Vision International, Haiti Host Country Office Contact Telephone Number: +(509) 2940-7580 Host Country Office Contact Fax Number: Host Country Office Contact Email Address: [email protected]

Date of Submission: July 30, 2021

Quarterly Project Performance Report: April – June 2021

mailto:[email protected]

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World Vision Haiti Award #: 72DFFP20GR00085 FY21 Quarterly Performance Report - Q3 Date Submitted: July 30, 2021

Acronyms BHA Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance CEPAM Centre pour la Promotion de l’Allaitement Maternel COVID-19 CSI

Corona Virus Disease-19 Coping Strategies Index

EFSP FEWS NET

Emergency Food Security Program Famine Early Warning Systems Network

HH House Hold(s) HTG Haitian Gourde-(Local currency) IPC Integrated Food Security Phase Classification LOA Life of the Award MARNDR Ministère de l'Agriculture des Ressources Naturelles et du

Développement Rural MSPP Ministère de la Santé Publique et de la Population NEA Nutritional Health Agent PLW Pregnant and Lactating Women PDM Post Distribution Monitoring S4T Saving for Transformation WVUS World Vision United States USAID United States Agency for International Development

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Program Overview Table Project Title: Emergency Food Security Program( EFSP) in North-East

and Central Plateau LOA Budget: $6,000,000

Funding Agency: USAID

Project Start/End date: July 1st, 2020 – September 30th, 2021

Reporting Period: April 2021 – June 2021

Date of Report: July 30, 2021

Implementing Partner Name(s): World Vision (Prime), CEPAM (Centre pour la Promotion de l’Allaitement Maternel)

Reported by: Jude Suffrin

Email: [email protected]

Project goal: Improved food consumption and resilience of drought-affected communities in the Northeast and Central Plateau Region. Intermediary outcome 1.1: Increased access to diverse, nutritious, and quality foods for vulnerable households and PLW. Intermediary outcome 1.2: Health and nutrition behavior change for PLW promoted. Intermediary outcome 2.1: Increased access to sustainable livelihoods

mailto:[email protected]

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1.0 Activity Summary At the peak of the rainy season, flooding was reported in the Northern region of Haiti. Three (3) people were reported to have been deceased while three(3) were unaccounted for. 1,275 households had their homes damaged during the flooding in the North East. Crop assessments conducted through the Ministry of Agriculture indicate that despite the flooding in most areas of the North East, crop development remains generally normal. According to the CNSA, the spring harvests of maize and beans will be around average in July and will help improve food access for poor households in the country at least between July and September. The socio-political and security climate remains unpredictable due to a rise in gang-related activities. Illegal roadblocks or disruptions to the flow of traffic were a common feature during the reporting quarter. This disrupted project activities as project staff had to follow all necessary security protocols. Slow deliveries to markets both formal and informal resulted in some artificial shortages within the North-Est and Central Plateau regions. The gourde/US dollar exchange rate continues to depreciate, amplifying the volatility of household purchasing power. The official exchange rate is over 91 gourdes to the U.S. dollar. Imported food prices, which are strongly correlated to the informal market exchange rate, will remain significantly above average. The “black market” USD rate continues to soar with 1 USD being exchanged for 1:110 HTG. The informal markets peg their prices basing on the presumptive black market rate, thus inflating the market prices. In areas that are structurally vulnerable to climatic shocks, poor households that have experienced successive shocks resulting in below-average harvests will be forced to adopt crisis strategies (consumption of early harvests or seeds, sale of wood, reduction in the quality and/or quantity of meals, etc.) to maintain their current food consumption, and will remain in Crisis food insecurity (IPC Phase 3)

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1.0 Activity Outputs

Outcome 1.1: Increased access to diverse and quality foods that meet the nutritional requirements of vulnerable households

Output 1.1.1: Q3 Target Q3 Actual

Q3 Variance

Inception to date EOP Target

Variance

Food Vouchers are provided to eligible participants

16,989 16,903 86

32,095 45,765 13,700

World Vision distributed vouchers worth US$ 1,014,180.00 corresponding to 83,673,409.00 HTG in local currency obtained from the bank rates monthly. The communes of Carice, Mombin Crochu, and Vallieres had a combined total of 1,734 outstanding HHs who received the full round of cycles. These HH had missed a few rounds as a result of disruptions and unavailability of registered HH at the redemption points during the distribution cycles.

Output 1.2.1 Q3 Target Q3

Actual

Q3 Variance


Variance

PLW trained on nutrition best practices

150 176 -26 176 150 26

Output 1.2.2: Q3 Target Q3 Actual

Q3 Variance


Variance

Mother Leaders are trained on good hygiene and sanitation best practices

690 542 148 542 690 148

During this period, (542) MLs (mother leaders) were trained this quarter on nutritional care for sick children; and on complementary/supplementary feeding for children 6 to 24 months.; This was in consultation with MSPP. 378 in the Northeast and 164 in the Central Plateau. 46 in Fort Liberte, 45 Ferrier, 77 Sainte Suzanne, 60 Vallieres, 75 Carice, 75 Mombin Crochu. 74 in Cerca la Source, 90 Cerca Carvajal.

Output 2.1.1: Q3 Target Q3 Q3 Variance


Variance

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Actual

Community infrastructure rehabilitated/ build community gabions

0 0 0 0 0%

The initial groundwork has been completed with the technical teams from the Ministry of Planning and Communication and the local stakeholders. Agreements on the work norms have been achieved, and this phase of the project is largely in collaboration with the Ministry of Public Works. Considering the socio-political situation of the country, the gabions activities have not yet started. Each time we start the process (site visits for the global evaluation) the country faces other challenges that bring us back to the starting point. We will begin conversations in the next quarter with the Ministry to determine whether or not it is feasible to fast-track the work. Otherwise, we may propose to BHA the possibility of dropping this activity and maintaining unconditional vouchers. Output 2.1.2: Q3 Target Q3

Actual Q3 Variance


Variance

Strengthened community savings groups

21 21 0 96 50 46

All groups targeted for the second phase of the EFSP project have been created by project staff 46 groups (31NE & 15CP). Currently, we have 96 S4T groups in both departments with 69 in the Northeast and 27 in the Central Plateau. The last 16 groups for the old 50 existing in the first phase of the project have completed their sharing in this quarter for total amount shared: 2,046,164.00 HTG with 400 members (272 Women & 128 Men). Based on the methodology the existant groups on the first phase have still received the technical support by the staff of project depending their resquest on some key aspects related to the loan application, financial education and sharing of the credit fund at the end of the cycle to better hold the sustainability of this aspect through the communities by the village agents in the respectives localities since their groups have reached the maturity level. In addition, there are 172 members including 109 in the North East and 63 in the Central Plateau of the 46 new groups who have taken loans for an amount of 947,128.00 HTG in order to carry out IGAs (Income Generating Activities) by buying goats, creating small businesses and gardens that can facilitate the schooling of children and improve their homes.

*Note: 1,729 vouchers valued at 103,744.00 USD to 577 HHs outstanding from the last quarter were distributed in this reporting period.

Quarterly Participant Voucher Distribution Progress

Month Total Planned participants

Total Actual participants Difference Value of Voucher

Fem Male Total Fem Male Total Fem Male Total Target Actual Variance

April 3,050 2,035 5,085 3,084 1,962 5,046 -34 73 39 305,100 302,760 2,340

May 3,050 2,035 5,085 3,032 2,021 5,053 18 14 32 305,100 303,180 1,920

June 4,365 2,454 6,819 4,361 2,443 6,804 4 11 15 409,140 408,240 900

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Total 10,465 6,524 16,989 10,477 6,426 16,903 -12 98 86 1,019,340 1,014,180 5,160

3.0 Programming Performance Outcome 1.1: Increased access to diverse, nutritious, and quality foods for vulnerable households and PLW. At the end of the last quarter, 60.16% of the households had reported consuming at least six (6) food groups. The constant supply line and diverse markets that include commodities from the Dominican Republic had much of an impact in some sections that had market shortages. The sensitization conducted by the health and nutrition technicians within the projects supported the increase in the consumption of quality foods by the households. There has been a marked increase with regards to food utilization where in comparison to the baseline 38.15% has increased by 15.62%. The increase in the varieties and reasonable market prices has contributed to the increase in access to commodities. The project has noted a significant decrease in terms of food bartering. It has however been noted through the focus group discussions that a larger proportion of the HH do share food with relatives and neighbors as part of the cultural norms. The larger group has also indicated that the ration being received has been able to last for at least one month. Outcome 1.2: Health and nutrition behavior change for PLW promoted Based on ongoing monitoring by project staff, 100% of the women interviewed during focus group discussions and the monitoring visits by the AEN, professed that they exercised exclusive breastfeeding and have participated actively in the “ti fwaye” cooking demonstrations.

4.0 Challenges and Solutions

Challenges Recommendation / Solutions

Some participants reported walking long distances to redeem their vouchers.

The support of the mobile vendors ensured that HH do not walk long distances to do redemptions. And also, the identification of new vendors in nearby locations reduced the time for walking.

The bad weather and the rains during the month of March made transportation more difficult and had an impact on the progress of activities in quarter 3.

Project staff began to identify other vendors to have more availability of products in the community to serve the target households in real-time. However, people of the community worked on the road that could give access to the transportation trucks.

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Fuel shortages due to blocked access from the main fuel reservoirs to the Northern Regions due to gang-related activities.

Internally the project teams have prepositioned fuel stocks as part of the contingency efforts. Vendors have been sensitized on the prepositioning of commodities and where possible to combine trips with other local vendors to cut transportation costs

5.0 Market Analysis Markets have remained stable amid the disruptions caused by the closure of the Dominican Republic border due to a surge in Covid-19 cases that were recorded between the two countries. The socio-political climate remains volatile with gang violence reaching alarming levels and blockages to the fuel pipeline contributed to the scarcity of commodities on the market. The movement or free trade was restricted or limited. Below is a summary of the market analysis that has been conducted during the reporting period for key commodities. Rice: The price of a 25 kg bag of rice has increased on average in all the communes of the project. In the Nord-Est department, the price increased by 7.60%, compared to 5.14% in the Centre. The largest increases were in Carice and Sainte Suzanne, at 8.94% and 10.93% respectively. This increase has been attributed to the scarcity of local products on the market and the closure of the border. Fuel scarcity was also a factor that necessitated the price increases in the most remote locations like Sainte-Suzanne. Ground Corn: There was an increase in the price of ground corn. The average price per pot was 242.87HTG and 199.72HTG respectively in the Northeast and Central departments, an increase of 1.33% and 9.82%. However, in some communes, the average price of a pot decreased compared to the previous quarter, because some suppliers have purchased other, less expensive products to compensate for this scarcity. Wheat Flour: The average price per pot of wheat flour in the Northeast Department is 235.22HTG, compared to 186.81HTG for the Center. As with ground corn, there has been a decrease in the price of the marmite in some communes due to the arrival of new competitive products such as in Mombin Crochu, Carice, and Cerca-La-Source. Cooking Oil: Most of the varieties of cooking oil come from the Dominican Republic. With the closure of the border, the average price per gallon of cooking oil increased during this quarter. The gallon of cooking oil increased 15.63 percent in the Northeast compared to 15.87 percent in the Central region. Black Beans: The price of a pot of black beans increased in all communes except Mombin Crochu, where the harvest by farmers in the commune significantly increased the supply of beans on the market, causing the price to fall. The average price per pot for the Northeast

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Department is 677.23HTG, an increase of 12.05%, while in the Central Plateau the price per pot has increased by 17.62%. Spaghetti: The average price of spaghetti is higher in both departments. Within the reporting quarter, the average price of a bag of 24 units was 1043.34HTG in the Northeast and 975.19HTG in the Central Plateau Region. At the communal level, a significant increase was noted in Sainte Suzanne and Mombin Crochu, at 16.69% and 11.09%. Annex 1 below provides a graphical presentation of the market trends.

6.0 Cross-cutting Elements During the reporting period, World Vision has conducted sensitization sessions around gender-based violence and child protection concerns. These sessions were conducted during each distribution pre-address and question and answer sessions conducted within the communities. The objective is to raise awareness and ensure that there are minimal to zero gender disparities that fuel inequality such as women being deprived of education, economic independence, and the fair apportionment roles and responsibilities within communities. Gender plays a key role within the project, and the social dynamics around gender concerns that WV monitored indicated that women play an important role in a number of concerns that include decision-making and motivating other community counterparts to be active. 60% of the project participants within the community committees are women, examples being the complaints management committees as well as in the S4T groups. As members of the complaint committee, women remain involved in the voucher distribution and redemption activities.

7.0 Planned Activities for the Next Quarter: Plans for Next Quarter • Distribute 13,036 vouchers in the two regions of North East and Central Plateau. • Continue awareness sessions during voucher redemption on COVID-19 prevention

measures for the target households. • Monitor voucher redemption process. • Support S4T activity and start training for Agent for all communes of the project into both

departments. • Continue with the food voucher for assets activity starting with the installation of gabions. • Finalize the creation of and train community help desks persons. • Continue to focus on sensitization sessions on topics related to breastfeeding, nutrition,

hygiene, and health at the community level. • NEAs to conduct IEC sensitization sessions at the community level (schools, churches,

public markets, CBOs, rally posts, coupons distribution points, others) • Home visits for Mother leaders and pregnant and lactating women (PLW).

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• Conduct formative community meetings to raise awareness and reinforce PLW’s knowledge and matron skills on sanitary and best breastfeeding practices.

• Conduct cooking demonstration sessions in 36 clubs. • Screening “under- 5” children for malnutrition and referral. • Implementation of nutritional awareness communication campaign with following activities:

o Realization of product exhibition tables (Fair) o Educational talks with women's groups in churches o Achievements of educational kiosks on the nutritional values of foods o Achievements of the knowledge competition on food values o Distribution of booklets of songs and recipes on good nutrition and hygiene

8.0 Success Story Nutrition Foot Soldiers Winning the Malnutrion War

22-year-old Scarlie Val is a mother of 9-month-old Midwechka Pierre from the Demahague area in Cerca-Carvajal. Scarlie, being a new mother, experienced difficulty in breastfeeding as a result of scratched nipples and engorgement. Due to the pain that Scarlie was experiencing, she resorted to refuse to breastfeed Midwechka citing the fear of pain associated with breastfeeding. The result was immediate on little Midwechka and the baby was starting to lose weight. Etlide Francois, the community mother leader of this area being made aware of the situation intervened. Etlide conducted regular home visits to Scarlie and Midwechka and

coached the mother on the need to exclusively breastfeed the child and also provided quick actions or solutions. The actions included the demonstration of

manual breast expression. Scarlie was also educated on food groups to eat to ensure she remained healthy for her and the baby. Follow-up monitoring was also conducted by the field agents and baby Midwechka has recovered and her health chart continues to be impressive, “thank you to USAID and its partners World Vision and CEPAM lead training to the communities”. The Mother Leaders remain the foot soldiers fighting the “nutrition war” from the battlefield.

Pic 1: Scarlie holding baby Midwechka with the Mother Leader Etlide looking on

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Annex 1: Commodity Trends

1800.00

1900.00

2000.00

2100.00

2200.00

Jan-21 Feb-21 Mar-21 Apr-21 May-21 Jun-21

Evolution of average rice prices

Northeast Central Plateau

0.00

50.00

100.00

150.00

200.00

250.00

300.00

Jan-21 Feb-21 Mar-21 Apr-21 May-21 Jun-21

Evolution of average Ground Maize prices

Northeast Central Plateau

0.00 50.00 100.00 150.00 200.00 250.00

Northeast

Central Plateau

Average price of wheat flour (Marmit)

FY21 - Q3 FY21 - Q2

0.00 200.00 400.00 600.00 800.00

Northeast

Central Plateau

Average price of black bean

FY21 - Q3 FY21 - Q2

850.00 900.00 950.00 1000.00 1050.00 1100.00

Northeast

Central Plateau

Average price of bag of spaghetti

FY21-Q3 FY21-Q2

72DFFPGR00085 Quarter 3 Responses

Serial # Issues/Concern WV Response 1 On page 4 paragraph 1, Is the

information provided by WV regarding crop assessment as well as spring agricultural season public? If yes, could WV share the reference source?

https://fews.net/central-america-and-caribbean/haiti/key-message-update/may-2021.

2 Page 5 Output 1.2.2 Please provide additional information to explain why WV did not achieve the target

The creation of mother leaders is based on specific criteria, for example, it is important that they are receptive and can share the training received, they must be able to read and write. For the two central plateau communities (Cerca La Source & Cerca Carvajal), these resources were not freely available. A large majority of pregnant and lactating women in the target areas do not meet these requirements. A larger percentage of the youth under 30 years do not possess adequate literacy skills, thus affecting the progress and creation of the full complement of the groups. WV continued sensitization sessions and maintained a minimum set of requirements to ensure the achievement of the target.

3 Page 5: For Carice, Mombin Crochu, and Vallieres, can WV indicate the number of food voucher cycles completed, and that remains to date?

We have completed 6 cycles of distribution through June 2021. We have 3 cycles left to complete in the next quarter.

4 Page 6, Paragraph 1, “The constant supply line and diverse markets that include commodities from the Dominican Republic had much of an impact in some sections that had market shortages”. Could WV clarify this statement? Are they referring to the closing of the Dominican borders Does that have an impact on the availability of products in those markets?

The flow of commodities from the DR promoted largely the inflows of different varieties on the market. The negative impact was on the pricing of some of the goods, especially in remote locations. The was a constatnt inflow of goods but the pricing of the goods kept fluctuating as a result of fuel and exchange rate gains against the USD.

5 Page 6 (Saving groups): What is the total amount that the 46 new groups created during the second phase of the EFSP have saved so far? Indicate also the number of members for the 46 new groups with disaggregation by gender.

1,596,410.00 HTG approx.. 16,300 USD is the total amount saved of 46 new S4T groups for the 1,150 members of which 827 are women and 323 are men.

72DFFPGR00085 Quarter 3 Responses

6 Page 6, Paragraph 1 “The increase in the varieties and reasonable market prices has contributed to the increase in access to commodities” Could WV clarify this statement? Which variety do they refer to? As per the market analysis, the price of most of the commodities has increased, What does reasonable market prices mean?

On average at the departmental level, the prices of products have increased. However, in some communes, the average price of certain products such as wheat flour, beans, and ground corn has decreased due to the emergence of new varieties on the market. These new varieties of products are often more reasonably priced. Basing on the context: Reasonable price; meaning more affordable, fairer price.

7 This sentence on pages 7 and 8 “people of the community worked on the road that could give access to the transportation trucks” is not very clear. Can World Vision elaborate further?

With the rains, the roads leading to some places have become impassable. The inhabitants of these communities have worked together to make the roads passable and to re-establish the means of transportation. This made it easier for the vendors to receive the commodities and to exchange the coupons that were distributed.

8 Between 6 to 7 rounds of vouchers have been implemented and participants continue to report walking long distances for voucher redemption. More or less, how many beneficiaries may find themselves in this situation? Are the stated mitigation measures currently being implemented given that distance remains an issue?

Communal sections in the highlands have reported walking long distances. This is somehow subjective as all the distribution points have been strategically positioned to cater for HH not to walk more that 30 mins to redeem vouchers. Most importantly, WV has mobile vendors supporting communes that have challenges to access the redemption points. WV has reallocated HH to other communal zones where they have easy access compared to being allocated to their named communal zone. The mitigation measures have to a larger extend worked with the aid of the sensitization to both vendors and HH.

9 Can World Vision share an updated calendar for the remaining months of the North-East/Central Plateau EFSP?

Calendar requested for remaining months of distribution cycles of the project.

Distribution de Coupons_EFSP-Phase

fiscal year 2021 q3 quarterly performance report plateau

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