Attachment J.4 - Gender Analysis.pdf

Gender Analysis

Development Objective 2

Economic and Food Security Enhanced Project

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. Introduction 4

II. USAID Legal and Policy Framework for Gender and Social Integration 4

III. Threshold for Gender Integration 5

IV. Methodology for DO2 Gender Analysis 6

V. Key Recommendations 6

VI. Annex 1 Desk-Top Research by Themes 14

VII. Annex 2 Gender and Social Inclusion Strategy 29

VIII. Annex 3 FFP - Stakeholders Gender Workshop 31

IX. Annex 4 FFP Focus Group Discussions 43

X. Annex 5: References 51

ACRONYMS and ABBREVIATIONS

ADS Automated Directive Systems

AOR Activity Official Responsible

BRFS Bureau for Resilience and Food Security

BHA Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance

CCA Climate Change Adaptation

CEDAW The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination

Against Women

CLA Collaborating, Learning and Adapting

CNSA Center for Food Security

COR Contract Official Responsible

DA Development Assistance

DCA Development Credit Authority

DHS Demographic and Health Surveys

DFAP Development Food Aid Program

DO Development Objective

DRG Democracy Rights and Governance Office

DRM Disaster Risk Management

DRM Domestic Resource Mobilization

DRR Disaster Risk Reduction

DO2 Development Objective 2

EGAD Economic Growth and Agriculture Development

EMMP Environmental Mitigation and Monitoring Plan

FAO Food and Agriculture Organization

FBO Faith Based Organizations

FEWSNET Food Early Warning Systems Network

FFP Food for Peace

FGD Focus Group Discussions

FTF Feed the Future

FY Fiscal Year

GBV Gender Based Violence

GCC Global Climate Change

GDA Global Development Alliances

GDP Gross Domestic Product

GFSS Global Food Security Strategy

GH Global Health

GOH Government of Haiti

GSIS Gender and Social Inclusion Strategies

HA Humanitarian Assistance

IDB Inter-American Development Bank

IHE Haitian Institute of Childhood

INGENAES Integrating Gender and Nutrition within Agricultural Extension

Services Haiti Landscape Analysis

IP Implementing Partner

IPC Integrated Food Security Phase Classification

IOM International Organization for Migration

IR Intermediate Result

J2SR Journey to Self Reliance

LEVE Local Enterprise and Value Chain Enhancement activity

MARNDR Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources, Rural Development

MAST Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor

MEL Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning

MSPP Ministère de La Santé Publique et de La Population

MSME Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises

NGO Non-governmental Organization

OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

OFDA Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance

PAD Project Appraisal Document

PCPS Office of Policy Coordination and Program Support

PD&L Project Design and Learning

PPPs Public Private Partnerships

PSDH Strategic Plan for Development of Haiti

PSE Private Sector Engagement

PVO Private and Voluntary Organization

RFZ Resilience Focus Zone

RGA Agriculture Census

UNDP United Nations Development Programme

USG United States Government

VSFP Vouchering School Feeding Program

VSLA Village Saving and Loan Association

WASH Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene

WB The World Bank

WEAI Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index

WEEE Women’s Entrepreneurship and Economic Empowerment Act https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/3247/text

I. Introduction

USAID/Haiti’s Development Objective 2 (DO2) Project aims to increase economic and food security in Haiti by engaging the Government of Haiti (GOH), private sector, donors, and Non-

Governmental Organizations (NGO) to strengthen private sector competitiveness; improve availability, access, and utilization of nutritious food; increase resilience and reduce vulnerability to shocks and chronic stresses.

Economic and food security is essential to strengthening resilience and reducing the periodic need for humanitarian assistance in Haiti, which has been designated a focus country for resilience programming by Administrator Green and the Bureau For Resilience Food Security (BRFS).

USAID defines resilience as “the ability of people, households, communities, countries and systems to mitigate, adapt to, and recover from shocks and stresses in a manner that reduces chronic vulnerability and facilitates inclusive growth.”1

Likewise, “despite the fact that women often face a range of unique challenges in areas of recurrent crisis – and often bear the heaviest burden of shocks and stresses – they also possess enormous individual and collective capacity to help themselves, their families, and their communities.”2 Therefore, it is clear that reducing key gender gaps and ensuring that women are given the tools, resources, and opportunities to lead and participate is critical to the success of any resilience programs. Further, social inequality exacerbates vulnerability and undermine attempts to build resilience, which makes gender and social integration an essential part of the design of

DO2 project in Haiti.

II. USAID Legal and Policy Framework for Gender and Social Integration

This Gender Analysis is designed to inform USAID/Haiti’s DO2’s Project Appraisal Document

(PAD), as required per USAID’s gender policy ADS 2053 and the Women’s Entrepreneurship and

Economic Empowerment (WEEE) Act4, enacted on January 9, 2019. As such, recommendations stemming from its findings must be integrated throughout activities and implementing mechanisms pertaining to this PAD.

III. Threshold for Gender Integration

ADS 205 states:

1 USAID (2012) Building Resilience to Recurrent Crisis, p. 5.

2 Ibid, p. 11.

3 The official USAID’s policy on gender equality and women’s empowerment expands on the legal definition for gender analysis provided by the WEEE Act and gives more instructions regarding gender integration in program design.

4 The WEE Act makes gender analyses mandatory under federal law. The WEEE Act emphasizes the importance of gender integration in development projects, especially in the area of economic growth initiatives. It focuses on the positive outcomes of women’s entrepreneurship and economic empowerment in U.S. funded projects, which is presented as a crucial accelerator of sustainable development.

https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1870/205.pdf https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/3247/text https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/3247/text https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1870/USAIDResiliencePolicyGuidanceDocument.pdf

“a project-level gender analysis should be specific enough to provide insights about key gender gaps and needs for increased gender equality related to each of the activities (i.e.

implementing mechanisms) that will eventually be implemented under the PAD.

If, however, the PAD gender analysis is too broad or framed at too high a level to be useful for designing the individual subordinate activities, then supplementary gender analysis must be conducted at the activity level.”5

As such, USAID/Haiti requires from all activities designed under the DO2 PAD to supplement the information provided under this gender analysis with specific recommendations on gender and social integration, when necessary.

ADS 205 also states:

“Gender integration does not end with activity design and solicitation but should continue throughout implementation. USAID/Haiti gender integration’s process includes good practices such as requiring Implementing Partners to develop gender action plans or strategies.”6

As such, USAID/Haiti requires Implementing Partners to develop a Gender and Social Inclusion

Strategies (GSIS).

GSIS explore how the gender strategy will concretely support the project to achieve its goals, analyses the context within which the implementing partner proposes to work, and identifies gaps in terms of gender and/or vulnerable populations. They also cover staffing considerations, key stakeholders’ engagement, and provides a breakdown of the activity component by component.

Under each component, specific actions to be implemented related to gender and social inclusion are identified and described.7

As regards gender reporting requirement, USAID/Haiti requires all people-level data to be sex-disaggregated. Likewise, Implementing Partners must capture other gender-sensitive data during activity implementation, report on gender-related results in quarterly reports, and document (or address if a viable solution exists) any observed unintended gender-related consequences of the activity.8

IV. Methodology for DO2 Gender Analysis

1. Existing Gender Analyses and Assessments

This analysis draws heavily upon several existing sector-level and high-level gender assessments that have been conducted recently for USAID, such as:

5 ADS Chapter 205, p 19.

6 ADS Chapter 205, p 22.

7 See GSIS Template, Annex 2.

8 ADS Chapter 205, p 22

● Mission Gender Assessment (2016): USAID/Haiti completed a high-level Gender

Assessment across sectors in which it operate to inform the Haiti Strategic Framework

2018-2020. This macro-level analysis, subcontracted to Banyan, included some key findings and recommendations for the DO2.

● Integrating Gender and Nutrition within Agricultural Extension Services Haiti

Landscape Analysis (2016): USAID’s INGENAES project published this report in 2016, which includes many relevant findings for the agriculture sector.

● LEVE Gender Analysis (2011): USAID/Haiti completed a gender analysis for its Local

Enterprise and Value Chain Enhancement (LEVE) activity in 2011, which contains relevant findings and recommendations regarding private sector competitiveness, employment, and value chain development sectors.

● KORE LAVI Gender Analysis (2013): USAID/Haiti’s Food for Peace’s (FFP) Kore Lavi activity conducted a gender analysis in 2013, which contains relevant findings, recommendations regarding food security.

These analyses provide extensive background information on gender challenges pertaining to the sectors relevant for the DO2 PAD as well as the status of women in Haiti in general. This Gender

Analysis builds on these findings without duplicating them to provide actionable leads and optimize gender integration in DO2 programming.

2. Stakeholder Consultations

Consultations and field inquiries have been specifically conducted to support the design of this

Gender Analysis:

● FFP - Stakeholder Gender Workshop (Annex 3): a stakeholders workshop was held at the Embassy in Port-au-Prince on December 18, 2018, which was attended by gender specialists from USAID projects, local stakeholders, and UN Women.

● Field-based focus groups (Annex 4): following on the workshop, USAID/Haiti conducted a series of focus groups in the field to further explore some of the considerations on gender equality and women’s empowerment mentioned in the mission assessments and previous discussions on gender.

V. Key Recommendations

Overarching

1. Data Collection. Population-level indicators shall be consistently disaggregated by sex.

Sex-disaggregation is a USAID requirement and should be in place for all programming.

In addition, gender-sensitive indicators should be systematically considered in all programming and information collected to mitigate the general lack of data in Haiti on gender equality and women’s empowerment.

2. Staffing Considerations. Implementing Partners should hire a Gender Advisor to develop and support the GSIS. In depth and recurring gender sensitivity training should be provided to all staff.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oK_efutY_221gsF2ksCQDyMxqtQha7InZcwsKYobzNM/edit?usp=sharing https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bvbfVcPMeyVaj5iP_-0sizUXMUkYmA1JJW7S2sRlpL4/edit?usp=sharing

3. Gender Based Violence (GBV). Integrate GBV prevention and response, including behavioral change communication into all DO2 activities.

○ GBV in USAID Nutritional and Economic Security activities: initiatives in that field are generally wide ranging and a good opportunity to engage communities in modifying knowledge, attitudes, and practices with regard to GBV. For instance, by fostering market protection for women selling products or provide overnight secure refuges on the roads where itinerant women traders regularly travel.

○ Evaluate and scale up good practices against GBV: for instance, in income generation for GBV survivors to ensure sustainability of income streams or the prevention of retaliatory violence against survivors from family members provoked by an increase or decrease in income post-remediation.

IR 2.1 Vulnerable households better able to weather shocks and chronic stresses

A. Capacity to manage risk improved

1. Increase women’s participation in Water and Sanitation, Hygiene (WASH) decisions.

Women already play a pivotal role in creating and growing WASH services. In addition, women are the main beneficiaries and users of WASH services, which should be specifically tailored to their needs when relevant. However, it does not translate into representation for women in most of the public and private decision-making bodies and associations. As such, activities should include a proactive strategy for women participation in community water management committees and departmental and national

WASH institutions.

B. GOH capacity to develop and manage effectively targeted social protection mechanisms strengthened

1. Ensure GOH’s social protection policy fully integrates gender. USAID supports the design of GOH’s new Social Protection policy, which must fully integrate gender and social consideration.

2. Create incentives to increase women leadership in government structures and communities. Women are poorly represented in leadership and on the boards of community structures. Quotas are suggested and should be enforced where the project has direct control, at least a 30% quota in line with GOH government policies. In cases where the project does not have direct control, sensitization campaigns, messaging, and training on diversity and inclusion for community groups should be released.

C. Improved livelihoods of vulnerable households

1. Promote Safety-net approaches to help women and communities. Initiatives such as consistent food assistance provided through food vouchers coupled with asset building activities (like savings groups and financial literacy activities) are crucial to build self-reliance and provide a baseline of socio-economic predictability that strengthen resilience and increase coping strategies for households and women.

2. Conduct Vulnerability mapping. Understanding the population being targeted is essential to anticipate the project’s impact and focus resources on the most vulnerable. Vulnerability mapping should be regularly conducted to inform revisions of program targeting strategies toward women, the youth, and other vulnerable social groups.

3. Include Single parent headed households in programs. Households headed by single-parents, often women, are numerous and extremely vulnerable. It should be a strong focus of programming.

4. Support women’s businesses. Empower women to acquire more economic independence through increased human capacity, access to resources, and supportive business relationships. New marketable products or skills can provide new pathways to economic opportunity for women and targeted populations.

5. Increase access to finance for women. Building assets is necessary to move people from extreme poverty, even for initiatives operating at the lowest level such as savings groups.

Women do face more barriers to building assets than men but when given the opportunity, they will take advantage of economic opportunities presented to build more stability in their household assets. Financial literacy, asset building strategies, training opportunities, and access to credit opportunities are invaluable tools in decreasing vulnerability for women and targeted population.

6. Training for women. Women should be specifically taught skills pertaining to a trade

(agriculture, mechanics, household repairs…) to increase their autonomy instead of being only provided short term material support. Studies and focus groups indicate that training activities are designed for men. Further, men are likely to be taught a trade when women are more prone to receiving direct resources from programming. Finally, men tend to export skills abroad to increase their individual income when women are less mobile and more likely to support their communities.

7. Provide access to information and media for women. Studies have shown that women are less exposed to media, especially in rural areas. Providing access to information from the media would improve natural disaster response and connect women to issues outside of their communities.

IR 2.2 Availability, access, and utilization of nutritious food improved

A. Strengthened inclusive agricultural systems that are productive and profitable

1. Ensure alignment with GOH’s gender policies. All new food and economic security programming must be better aligned with the 2014-2034 GOH Gender Equality Strategy and 2014-

2020 GOH Gender Equality Action Plan.

2. Strengthen women's participation and role in value chains. Support measures to maximize gender equality and women’s empowerment within each value chain such as:

○ Systematically develop and implement ways to enhance access to resources, skills and sustainable markets for women farmers, female workers in food and garment companies or members of cooperatives.

○ For example, in the Mango Value Chain, enhance the capacity of “Madames Sara” in commercializing mangos for sale to large companies targeting domestic markets and exporters.

3. Support women/youth employment in agricultural processing: USAID agriculture sector specialists should not only focus on farm production but put equal focus on the value chains beyond the farm. This would be more beneficial for women and youth as it would give them the opportunity to access stable income-generating opportunities.

4. Support land tenure for women such as access to land: Identify and partner with local organizations dedicated to increase women’s access to land. Specifically, the ones disseminating information to women and facilitating land ownership recognition with local authorities. Remove barriers for women’s membership in existing associations. For instance, change these associations’ by-laws and practices to remove land ownership as a membership condition. Dual membership

(woman and male responsible for the land, no matter matrimonial status) should be authorized to include the women who would not have a primarily claim to the land. To increase women’s attendance, choose a time convenient for women and help with childcare arrangement.9

5. Promote women’s membership and leadership in associations. Address multiple barriers to women’s membership in associations, large and small, including business associations, cooperatives, market associations, and producer organizations. Possible approaches include:

○ Agriculture: Require a certain percentage of women’s membership or leadership in cooperative or other forms of association supported by USAID programming.

Quotas are one of the ways to increase women's voices in the agriculture sector. It is useful in making sure that women are heard before designing and providing specific agriculture trainings.

○ Business development: Encourage women to create, become a member or serve in leadership roles in business associations no matter the sector, value chain or scale of the association.10 In particular, support les “Madames Sara” associations as they serve as wholesalers and play a key role in multiple value chains. Some level of

9 http://ilssi.tamu.edu/publications/reports-and-publications-related-to-ilssi/ 10 IFAD. Small Irrigation and Market Access Development Project in the Nippes and Goavienne Region.

https://operations.ifad.org/documents/654016/b5244dcd-d189-4541-b351-5f4830b0f7fa http://ilssi.tamu.edu/publications/reports-and-publications-related-to-ilssi/ incorporation and/or association of the “Madames Sara” could help strengthen their negotiating power and solve rampant concerns regarding market security, roads safety when traveling and GBV in general.11

6. Enhance women skills in agriculture: Projects must provide training, education and support that is adapted to women’s situations and needs. USAID agriculture sector specialists pointed out an education gap between men and women in the agricultural sector (agronomy schools are mostly educating men as women do not receive support to study science in primary/high school and fail entry tests). Men are also more likely to use mechanization and export their skills abroad, thus depleting workforce in the countryside.

Agronomy schools are mostly educating men in the fields of agricultural studies because school-aged female students are not encouraged to study the sciences in primary and high schools. Thus, they fail terribly when taking the entrance admission exams to these schools. Need to ensure more women are trained and educated in agriculture in order to have equal representation in agriculture professions and in leadership roles within the sector.

7. Improve Synergy among USAID’s offices. Institutionalize collaboration and leveraging of assets across USAID technical offices (Health, Food For Peace, Office of Infrastructure, Energy, and Engineering, Economic Growth and Agricultural Development). A shared approach would help link health activities, livelihoods, social safety nets, agriculture, and economic opportunity activities in a deliberate collaboration for implementing partners to engage in:

8. Nutrition-sensitive agriculture and economic growth interventions such as bio-fortification (maize, sweet potatoes, beans) could be implemented with a value chain approach along with the activities focused on industrial food fortification. These interventions could move households and communities toward improved health and nutrition by helping them meet key nutrition-sensitive agriculture outcomes. It would improve the availability, affordability, and desirability of diverse, nutrient-rich foods in local markets; increase income control by women and equitable opportunities; and save time and energy for women in households.

B. Consumption of nutritious and safe diets increased

1. Encourage male engagement. Especially with regard to food security and parenting, including through the recruitment and use of Lead Fathers, in all aspects of USAID nutrition and family planning education.

○ Under Kore Lavi, Lead Mothers faced questions from male partners about their role in the groups, especially during the Lead Mother’s visits in other households for the nutritional campaign and awareness raising initiative. In response, the project used Lead Fathers to help create a more positive, supportive environment for Lead Mothers’ engagement and increase the impact of the care groups’ network.

11 Gender consultation of November 17, 2018 (to be modified with specific reference)

2. Prioritize women in safety net food voucher activity. Women are the primary decision-makers on family nutrition and usually responsible for food preparation. As such their role and voice should be carefully considered in nutrition-based programming as well as single-parent headed households even if they are not headed by a woman but maybe a grandparent who may be a male.

3. Improve Dietary Quality/Diversity. Diversified diets are associated with several improved outcomes for women and children such as birth weight, child anthropometric status, and improved hemoglobin concentrations. Improving dietary diversity specifically for women of reproductive age and children 6-23 months will allow them to be more resilient to face stresses and shocks.

IR 2.3 Private Sector Competitiveness Improved

A. Business enabling environment enhanced

1. Support female-owned businesses. Promote increased access to information on business best practices for formal and informal women-owned businesses and link them with each-others for mentoring purposes. Organize professional training workshops for women to support the acquisition of new skills, business expansion and economic initiatives development. Identify and prioritize women’s businesses funding in activities through market mapping techniques to identify them, proactively reaching out, using quotas to guarantee a certain level of fund allocations, positive discrimination and other forms of preferences.

2. Build-up female vendor’s structures and businesses. Association creation should be encouraged for women entrepreneurs to increase access to information and capacity-building services. This will enable more women’s businesses to meet criteria to be considered vendors under social security programs.

B. International and regional trade capacity improved

1. Increase women's access to higher-income export activities. Men dominate the higher-income agricultural export sector. While women play a crucial role in post-harvest marketing and sale, their access to more lucrative roles in the value chain are limited by low access to business support services, credit, and export-oriented collectives.

2. Protect, unite and support “Madames Sara.” these female traders are the backbone of domestic agricultural commerce and uses informal networks across Haiti to sell locally sourced agricultural products and/or provide small amounts of credit to local farmers.

3. Connect “Madames Sara” with larger credit opportunities. Identify measures to engage

“Madames Sara” in loans execution and guarantee. In particular in down-market lending by banks such as SOGESOL and its subsidiary dealing with micro-enterprises.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GM9EBMEqNi7HSl9oTa4LvWxovZY46_jy5ICOaJlMR1E/edit#heading=h.nmxi2rfuqlsw

C. Access to finance increased

1. Increase access to credit for women. Build upon existing methods and develop new downstream financial products to increase women's access to credit and business development services through Village Savings Loan Associations (VSLAs) and credit unions, for example, targeting the specific needs of women and youth borrowers.

2. Create specific financial instrument and policies for women. Place pro-women credit strategies in project to increase women’s participation. Design specific products or instruments to enable women’s access to credit without collateral, alternative types of collateral or enormous interest rates and target their specific needs.

3. Increase women’s financial literacy and independence. Use stand-alone activities integrated in program activities, VSLAs, credit unions and similar activities to increase literacy, targeting women and girls in particular.

4. Bring awareness to the GOH. Engage government officials and institutions on increasing access to finance for women by suppressing legal barriers and discriminatory practices. For instance, a husband or companion formal approval is requested for a lot of procedures when wife’s approval is almost never requested in practice.

D. Increased employment, opportunities, especially for youth

1. Address household duties discrepancy in programming. Ensure that all initiatives that support women’s economic empowerment also address the inequality of women’s carrying almost the sole responsibility for household work and childcare in Haiti, which effectively limits their economic, social and political participation.12 Likewise, workforce development initiatives should be designed with flexible hours or other accommodations so as not to deter women’s participation.

2. Building women support networks. Continue mentoring and connecting vocational and technical training centers in areas where activities are carried out to develop vital human resource capacities in the private sector. Respect the quota of (at least) 30 percent women as direct beneficiaries of these initiatives.

3. Focus on youth and keeping girls in school. Socio-economic challenges in the country need to be addressed at a core generational level (ages 15-25). Stagnating nutritional statistics, particularly for stunting, are reflected in part through trends in early pregnancy.

According to data from the Demographic and Health 2016-2017 Surveys, 21% of adolescent girls have begun childbearing by age 19.13 Early motherhood has serious consequences on nutrition because the nutritional needs of adolescent girls (15-19 years old) are higher than that of an adult female. Adolescent mothers present a cause of concern

12 USAID/Haiti Gender Assessment Report 2016 13 (IHE and ICF 2017; Cayemittes et al. 2012) with regard to lower birth weights, malnutrition, and increased risk of illness and death, especially given that 13% of all women of childbearing age are underweight.14

E. Access to electricity increased

1. Promote inclusive use of electricity. There are inequalities in how electrification of homes benefits the entire household. Men tend to use electricity for TV and for refrigeration when women use it to facilitate core household maintenance and cooking.

○ lack of access to electricity leads to people relying on charcoal and fuelwood for domestic energy needs. This affects women’s workloads in particular, as they are generally responsible for going out to search for charcoal and fuelwood. In addition to the time and labor, women can be at risk of violence when searching for charcoal and fuelwood.

2. Involved women in electrification planning/decision making process. When women are not adequately involved in planning for use of lighting/electrification, the resulting infrastructure can make women more vulnerable or less served by electricity.

14 République d’Haïti Ministère de La Santé Publique et de La Population (MSPP) (July, 2018). Haïti Enquête

Mortalité et Utilisation des Services (EMMUS-VI 2016-2017)

ANNEX 1 Desk-Top Research by Themes

1. Laws, Policies, Regulations, and Institutional Context

Although Haiti’s original legal and constitutional framework has been partially updated on an irregular basis, it was primarily constructed following its independence in 1804 and it is not unusual to encounter legal codes and regulations dating from that era that are still applicable today.

In 1950, the Haitian Constitution granted women the right to vote, which marked a turning point for gender equality and women’s empowerment for the country. Haiti’s current Constitution was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on March 10, 1987 (and by referendum on March 29, 1987) establishes legal equality between men and women. Further, the Constitution was amended in 2012 to introduce a 30-percent quota for women’s participation in Haiti’s political life and governmental institutions.

Haiti’s Constitution establishes a ”monist” state, where international laws only require a formal ratification by the parliament to directly enter into force without the need to draft and vote an additional, specific national legislation to this effect. The Government of Haiti (GOH) has ratified multiple international human rights instruments related to women’s rights, including the:

○ Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women;

○ Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence

Against Women (Convention of Belem do Pará); and

○ American Convention on Human Rights.

In 2014, the GOH adopted (and publicly launched on March 8, 2015) the 2014–2034 Policy on

Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (“Politique Egalité Homme-Femme et d'Émancipation des Femmes”). Haiti’s legal framework prohibits certain forms of gender-based violence (GBV) but it is worth noting that Haiti’s penal law did not change its classification of rape as an offense “against morals” to turn it into an actual crime until a 2005 legal decree.

Women’s Rights Organization in Haiti have made strides in advocating and raising awareness on practices harmful to women as well as pushing forward important legislative and policy reforms.

Nonetheless, implementation of the national law and international conventions remains very low and confused. The lack of a systematic approach to law enforcement and legal reforms create grey areas, gaps and conflicts between existing norms that block any consistent progresses and even sometimes further discrimination and violence against women by upholding a culture of impunity.

2. Land ownership and title

A major legal challenge for rural men and women is land ownership. The Rural Code (Law of 24

May 1962, amended in 1986) is the primary existing legislation governing rural land through 19 separate laws. In practice, however, customary law governs rural land rights and use15. Right to land ownership results mostly from inheritance and informal transactions, which are often

15 Implementing the Tenure Guidelines for Women and Small-scale Food Producers: an analysis of Mozambique, Tanzania, Senegal, and Haiti (October, 2015), p. 46.

achieved through verbal agreements16. While land ownership is more prevalent in rural areas (35-

37%), most Haitians do not own a land (71-74%) and only a limited number of women declared having sole ownership of a house (6%) or owning land (7%)17.

Nonetheless, access to land is also possible through sharecropping and other forms of tenancy, especially for rural households. However, it is common for households to lack a valid legal claim on these lands as owners or tenants. In Haiti, statutory law does not recognize customary or informally held land unless it has been registered with the government but most citizens avoid formalizing their rights due to the registration high-cost, fear of a corrupt and inefficient government structure, or nefarious private interests18. As such, stakeholders estimate that 90% of the parcels in some rural areas may be unregistered.

Regarding legal title possession, over half of the few women landowners surveyed in the 2016-

2017 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) did not possess any legal titles, and if they did have one, it is often that their names were not referenced in the document. Conversely, it is significantly more common for men landowners to have a corresponding legal title identifying them as legitimate owners of the land19.

In addition, women’s land ownership can be complicated by marriage practices in rural communities. According to the DHS 2016-2017, 52% of women are in a union but only 32% of them are under a “legal” civil or religious marriage status.20 Cohabitation, known locally as

“plaçage” or “concubinage,” and common law marriage, known as “regime communautaire”, are the main forms of extralegal union. Over half of the Haitians in a relationship are in a “plaçage”

(51% women; 57% men).21 Respectively, 26% and 23% of the total women and men surveyed declared being in “plaçage.”22 These customs, very common in rural areas, can put women’s land rights at risk, since the law does not recognize inheritance of their husbands’ land if they are not legally married.23 However, during field focus groups conducted by USAID/Haiti in January and

February 2019 in Artibonite, North West and South East departments, respondents noted that in general formal, legal marital status can actually restrict women more in this regard. A number of respondents noted that in a formal marriage status, they are required to consult with and gain consent from their husbands for a number of financial concerns, including land ownership -whereas those who remain in informal relationships have more flexibility in their financial decision-making and rights.24 Generally, women’s property rights derive from their marital or

16 Ibid, p. 47.

17 République d’Haïti Ministère de La Santé Publique et de La Population (MSPP) (July, 2018). Haïti Enquête

Mortalité et Utilisation des Services (EMMUS-VI 2016-2017), p. 362.

18 Implementing the Tenure Guidelines for Women and Small-scale Food Producers: an analysis of Mozambique, Tanzania, Senegal, and Haiti (october, 2015), p. 47.

19 République d’Haïti Ministère de La Santé Publique et de La Population (MSPP) (July, 2018). Haïti Enquête

Mortalité et Utilisation des Services (EMMUS-VI 2016-2017), p. 362.

20 République d’Haïti Ministère de La Santé Publique et de La Population (MSPP) (July, 2018). Haïti Enquête

Mortalité et Utilisation des Services (EMMUS-VI 2016-2017), p. 68.

21 Ibid, p. 68.

22 Ibid, p. 68.

23 De Ferranti, David, Antonella Bassani, Maria Correia, Orsalia, et al. 2002. A review of gender issues in the

Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica. Report No. 21866-LAC, The World Bank.

24 See Annex 4., p.

family status as daughters, mothers, or wives and their ownership rights change, and sometimes become more complex, when their household status changes25.

Marriage law recognizes men and women equally in their right to inheritance, but local customs can be obstacles to women land ownership in Haiti. USAID’s 2016 gender assessment found that

“inheritance of land and houses is bilateral, and equal among heirs except that women receive smaller shares; children inherit equally and separately from their mother and father, regardless of whether the two are in some kind of union.”26

In rural areas, large landowners (grandons) own or operate vast tracts (100 hectares or more) and rent their land under sharecropping agreements. Adjusted for quality of land, the poorest farmers cultivate 0.54 hectares per household while the wealthiest farmers cultivate 2.51 hectares per household. Female-headed households tend to have fewer and smaller land plots than male-headed households.27

3. Precocious Marriage and Pregnancy

a) Early Marriage

Under the Civil Code from 1982, the minimum legal age of marriage in Haiti is 15 years for girls and 18 years for boys but the President of Haiti can grant age exemptions to this for

“serious reasons.”28

According to UNICEF’s State of the World’s Children report, 18% of Haitian women were married before the age of 18 and 3% before the age of 15,29 which sources its data from Haiti’s

2012 DHS (without much precision). According to the more recent DHS 2016-2017, the number of precocious unions before 15 has decreased from 4% among women between 45-49 to 2% among women between 15-19. However, the number of Haitian women married before 18 is relatively stable at 17%.30

The DHS notes that the average age of the first union for women has increased (by 2,4 years) in the last 10 years from 20,4 to 22,8 years old. In addition, women (and men) in the city tend to enter their first union later in life. In the countryside, the average age for the first union for women is

21,8 as opposed to 24,4 in the city.31

25 Ibid.

26 Gardella, A. 2006. Gender Assessment for USAID/Haiti Country Strategy Statement 27 De Ferranti, David, Antonella Bassani, Maria Correia, Orsalia, et al. 2002. A review of gender issues in the

Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica. Report No. 21866-LAC, The World Bank.

28 Haitian Civil Code, art. 144 (Archive Code Civil d'Haiti, p. 78.)

29 UNICEF (2017), State of the World's Children, Haiti profile, DHS 2012.

30 République d’Haïti Ministère de La Santé Publique et de La Population (MSPP) (July, 2018). Haïti Enquête

Mortalité et Utilisation des Services (EMMUS-VI 2016-2017), p. 69.

31 Ibid, p. 69.

http://www.dloc.com/IR00000115/00001/89?search=marriage https://data.unicef.org/resources/state-worlds-children-2017-statistical-tables/

Field focus group participants did not note a prevalence of women under 18 in legal marriage but reported a high rate of teenage pregnancies. Even then, there is generally no wedding involved in case of an early pregnancy unless religion or a specific church is involved.32

b) Early Pregnancy

Early pregnancy is a real concern in Haiti and poses multidimensional challenges for young women and children with regard to physical health, nutrition and securing long-term economic opportunities. According to the DHS 2016-2017, 10% of the girls surveyed between 15-19 had started their reproductive life. However, this result marks a decrease of 4% from 14% (which was the number recorded ten years ago).33 Specifically, 1% of the 15 years old girls surveyed reported a pregnancy against 21% for the 19 years old girls. In addition, the prevalence of the early pregnancy is much higher in the countryside at 13%, than in the city at 7%.34

In general, the DHS reveals that 16% of the bulk of women surveyed between 25-49 years old had their first child before turning 18.35 Early motherhood has serious consequences on nutrition because, relative to older mothers, the nutritional needs of adolescent girls between 15-19 years old are higher than that of an adult female (Branca et al. 2015; Karakochuk et al. 2018; Prentice et

al. 2013).36 Malnourished younger mothers tend to have babies with lower birth weights, are malnourished, and/or have increased risk of illness and death. In addition, the risk of stunting is also 63% higher among first-born children of girls under 18 years in Latin America and the

Caribbean.37

4. Employment and Labor

Haitian labor law mandates that employers provide 12 weeks of maternity leave, with six weeks of full pay and no possibility to dismiss the employee.38 However, 83% of active women work in the informal sector and don’t benefit from this regime (Office of the Special Envoy to Haiti, 2012).

While women generally have the freedom to work independently, their participation in the workforce is limited by their larger role in domestic labor. Agriculture is the largest employer in

Haiti, but as discussed above, only a fraction of women own their own plots and few are paid in cash for working on plots owned by others, diminishing their financial independence and security.

According to the DHS 2016-17, 26% of men and 44% of women have not worked over the past

12 months. Employment sectors are gendered, with 71% of women vs. 16% of men working in

32 See Annex 4., p. (....)

33 République d’Haïti Ministère de La Santé Publique et de La Population (MSPP) (July, 2018). Haïti Enquête

Mortalité et Utilisation des Services (EMMUS-VI 2016-2017), p. 81, 86.

34 Ibid, p. 86.

35 Ibid, p. 85.

36 SPRING and Save the Children. 2018. Engaging Adolescents to Accelerate Progress on the First 1,000 Days.

Arlington, VA: Strengthening Partnerships, Results, and Innovations in Nutrition Globally (SPRING) project.

37 Fink et al. 2016 Risk Factors for Childhood Stunting in 137 Developing Countries: A Comparative Risk Assessment

Analysis at Global, Regional, and Country Levels

Food and Agriculture Organization: 2017 Country Profile Haiti 38 Haitian Labor Code, art. 321 (Haiti Justice: Conge de maternite/Conge de paternite).

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/b1ca/5208b8c0c059ac698098fb815a6968418534.pdf http://haitijustice.com/crij/full/27/Conge-de-maternite-Conge-de-paternite sales and services, and 44% of men vs. 9% of women working in agriculture (women primarily work in subsistence-level farming).39 Most Haitians (75%) work in the informal sector, where they face no fixed income, social benefits or social safety net coverage; and only 30% work in formal private, public, and agricultural sectors. A majority of the population (66% of men and 53% women) believe that men have more right to a job than women, a bias that is reflected in the fact that women are 20% more likely than men to be unemployed (almost 3 times as likely in rural areas) and 6% more likely than men to earn less than the minimum wage. The gender gap in wages is also steep, with Haitian women earning on average 32% less than Haitian men (a gap that holds even between women and men of similar education, working in the same sector).

5. Marriage and Household duties

A study conducted by Richard Haggerty on behalf of the Library of Congress in 1989 describes the traditional roles of rural men and women as complementary:

“Men assume primary responsibility for farming, especially the heavy field labor. Women commonly assist in weeding and harvesting. Women assume primary responsibility for selling household agricultural produce in local markets. In peasant farming, the income generated through agricultural production belongs to both husband and wife. Women may own or inherit land, but men usually control land transactions and the primary land base for peasant farming. Women are responsible for most household tasks, including cooking, laundry, gathering wood, and carrying water. Haitian families are patriarchal, but women play a key economic role—ultimately the pivotal role in day-to-day operations of the household economy.”40

The current situation in rural Haiti mirrors these past observations. It should be noted that women appear to lack any real control over the income they contribute to generate and the land they inhabit, which are two crucial resources - necessary to build assets and economic individual independence. This state of affairs is reflected in the most recent Women’s Empowerment in

Agriculture Index (WEAI) score for Haiti is 0.85, with 50.4% of women meeting minimum criteria for empowerment, and 49.6% falling below the threshold for empowerment, as defined by their ability to provide input and autonomously make decisions about agricultural production, their control over and access to productive resources, their ability to direct the financial resources from agricultural production, and their social capital and comfort speaking in public within their community.

Furthermore, the relations between men and women in rural areas has traditionally followed the informal practice traditionally known as plasaj rather than legal marriage:

“Such relationships are considered normal and proper in peasant families and the urban lower class. Spouses generally have an explicit economic agreement at the beginning of either legal or customary marriage. In rural Haiti, this understanding is negotiated, 39 République d’Haïti Ministère de La Santé Publique et de La Population (MSPP) (July, 2018). Haïti Enquête

Mortalité et Utilisation des Services (EMMUS-VI 2016-2017), p. 43.

40 Richard Haggerty (1989) Dominican Republic and Haiti : country studies, Library of Congress, p. 337 https://cdn.loc.gov/master/frd/frdcstdy/do/dominicanrepubli00metz/dominicanrepubli00metz.pdf oftentimes between the families of the two parties to a marital union, and usually requires the husband to provide a house and cultivate at least one plot of land for his new wife. For the most part, lower-class men and women undertake legal marriage primarily for social prestige. Given the significant expense of weddings, many couples in plasaj unions delay legal marriage for many years.”41

Field focus groups, conducted by USAID, all participants confirm that a relationship can be either an official marriage and/or a common law union (plasaj) and that “plasaj” unions are widely more common in their community. However, a number of group participants responded that since

“plasaj” unions are by nature not formally registered, it is safe to assume that it covers probably no more than 50% of the relationships. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and

Development (OECD) Societal Institutions and Gender Index reports that 85% of marriages remain informal according to this practice. However, there is also evidence the norm has changed as religious authorities strongly encourage “legal” marriage.

Participants also largely agreed that women in unregistered relationships have more freedom because they can decide to end their relationship anytime. Women participating in the discussion particularly emphasized that this is very agreeable to them and noted that women in unregistered relationships are generally more able to make independent decisions regarding their own future based on the utilisation of their individual income (if reasonably stable and sufficient). On the contrary, married women have more control over the household income, generated by both partners, but are less able to drastically use it to advance their goals. Participants developed that in a legal marriage, there is a clear expectation for both partners to depose their incomes into the join household budget. However, in an informal situation that expectation is not clear or “enforceable.”

6. Agriculture Sector

Agriculture in Haiti accounts for 68% of employment and 25% of GDP,42and is primarily composed of smallholder farms, averaging 1.8 hectares43. A gendered division of labor exists in the sector, with men often responsible for land clearing, tilling, and using heavy machinery, and women responsible for weeding, harvesting, and marketing products.44Rural women are often full-time market traders in addition to agricultural laborers, and spend twice as much time as men on domestic chores (15 hours vs. 7 hours weekly),45 with up to 5 hours a day collecting firewood and several hours a day fetching water.46 However, a recent gender analysis for Kore Lavi indicated that some flexibility exists in household roles and responsibilities, with men willing to take on

41 Ibid, p. 338 42 Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Rural Development. “Haiti: National Agricultural Investment Plan

(NAIP)” (English Translation), May 2010 43 Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Rural Development (2011), Politique de développement agricole

2010 - 2025, p. 3.

44 Northeastern University, Haiti Net “Gender in Haiti”; Richard Haggerty (1989) Dominican Republic and Haiti :

country studies, Library of Congress, p. 337.

45 UNDP (2014), Rapport OMD 2013 Haïti : un nouveau regard, p. 90.

46 USAID Gender Assessment (September, 2016), p. 38.

https://agriculture.gouv.ht/view/01/IMG/pdf/Politique_de_developpement_agricole-Version_finale_mars_2011.pdf https://agriculture.gouv.ht/view/01/IMG/pdf/Politique_de_developpement_agricole-Version_finale_mars_2011.pdf https://cdn.loc.gov/master/frd/frdcstdy/do/dominicanrepubli00metz/dominicanrepubli00metz.pdf https://cdn.loc.gov/master/frd/frdcstdy/do/dominicanrepubli00metz/dominicanrepubli00metz.pdf https://www.undp.org/content/dam/haiti/docs/mdg/UNDP-HT-HaitiRapportOMD2013_20140611.pdf child care and other duties as needed.47 Women and men are estimated to be engaged in formal and informal productive work (including commercial and agricultural activities) at rates of 66% and 48% respectively.48

The 2008 The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women

(CEDAW) report notes that just over 10% of women in rural areas work on their own farms.