Economic recovery - how we hope to help

My previous post about the remarkable Joseph Moise made me realise that the Cash-for-Work concept may not be clear to all. So I thought I'd try and explain it.

Cash-for-work (c4w) has a variety of definitions ranging from cash provided for work during an emergency instead of goods to badly affected people, to income earned for irregular employment. In Haiti as part of the earthquake response, Mercy Corps is using c4w to provide income to those most in need through employment for labour intensive and important tasks like rubble cleanup and recovering useful material from the devastation. The assumption is that c4w could be an intensively used short-term programming tool to get communities back on their feet, by providing a cash injection, and allowing people to work rather than become dependent on aid.
There is of course a risk that over-usage of this approach could pervert the labour market, and MC needs to monitor its usage carefully to ensure this is not the case, and to move away from this when it is not longer appropriate.

Although useful in the short term, c4w has a limited value as a tool in emergency programming. Instead, once past the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, short-term but labour intensive needs are required, labour will hired at locally acceptable rates and recompensed based on performance. Longer term, a better contribution to the Haitian economy will come from supporting agricultural and small business projects, although we need to look to ensure that unless there is immediate and critical need Mercy Corps avoids provision of fishing boats a\or farming machinery unless it contributes to an equitable distribution of revenue with an improved market chain with increased efficiency. These are early days in this policy, and given the need for correction of past assumptions, will remain flexible and open to change.

Basically we want to encourage the Haitian people to once more stand proudly on their own two feet, and to equip them to do so. Right now, whilst longer term funding and planning is secured, c4w allows money to circulate and essential works to be completed - but in the coming months it is more important that Haiti is allowed to develop into a more broad-based economy, not one distorted by the short term imperatives of providing food and shelter.