Côte Sud Initiative: Structure and Scope
On the ground, the CSI will be visible through its sustainable development programmes and projects centered on natural resource management, economic development and infrastructure, social services, and governance.
The first goal of the CSI—the regeneration of the South Department over the period 2012-2032 — provides an additional level of detail to the existing nationally declared objectives of the Government of Haiti. The strategy of the CSI is to work to support the Government of Haiti in its efforts to achieve its stated goals for the region. It plans to achieve this through investing in the following areas:
- Coordination Support: Support the Government of Haiti to improve coordination of governmental, private sector and aid programmes and projects in the South Department.
- Planning Support: Support the development of annual and long-term government-sponsored plans enacted on the department level.
- Resource Mobilization: Proactively work to attract additional development aid and private sector investment into the South Department.
- Project Technical Support: Help CSI partner organizations develop and implement quality programs and projects through technical assistance.
- Quick wins: Simple and rapid activities that deliver practical benefits in less than 12 months.
- Thematic Programmes: Long term large scale multi-project investments in specific themes such as agriculture, energy, tourism, fisheries etc..
CSI Energy Programme: Improved charcoal cookstoves are for sale at the Enèji Pwop (Clean Energy) store in Les Anglais, South Department. Improved charcoal cookstoves offer up to 30% better fuel economy compared to basic stoves and so have a pay-back period of less than 3 months. The Enèji Pwop store is a social enterprise initiated by CSI partner organization EarthSpark.
CSI Agriculture and Forestry Programme: Local farmers create test plots of improved bean varieties and anti-erosion grass fences in Port-à-Piment, South Department. The collapse of the coffee market in Haiti forced hillside farmers to clear the coffee trees and plant subsistence food crops instead, resulting in massive soil erosion, reduced yields and deepening poverty. One part of the solution is to rapidly improve the yield of annual crops, such as beans, while gradually shifting back to more sustainable agroforestry systems. This trial on steep hillside combined new bean varieties, fertilizer and anti-erosion grass fences, designed to both quantify the increased yields and to educate and recruit farmers into a more sustainable approach to hillside farming.
CSI Infrastructure Programme There is an enormous need in the South Department for both new infrastructure and the continued maintenance and repair of existing structures. The deforested and mountainous watersheds of the South Department, combined with high level of seasonal precipitation, provoke frequent flash floods which threaten villages entire municipalities. Insufficiencies in road networks and health facilities are a grave combination, particularly in the face of the current cholera epidemic.
The second goal of the CSI is the demonstration of both thematic and integrated sustainable development solutions from the local to departmental scale, and will not entail any additional activities. Instead, it will be a theme throughought planning and program and project design: innovation will be encouraged at all levels and scales. Many of the Sustainable Development Solutions promoted by the Haiti Regeneration Initiative will be implemented in the South Department.
The CSI has started small and is designed to grow gradually in scope and scale over the next five years. Its structure matches this growth strategy. In the long term, the Initiative will consist of a number of inter-connected long term programmes, delivered by a partnership of over twenty organizations in the form of numerous projects. At present, the programmes are still in the development stage, with eleven organizations are involved in six initial projects. Extensive early investments are being made in support of improved coordination, design and planning.
The CSI structure has three main levels of structure: high level, and at the thematic and project levels.
THE CÔTE SUD INITIATIVE HIGH LEVEL STRUCTURE
 Côte Sud Initiative, High-level Structure diagram. Source: the Côte Sud Initiative, 2010. |
At the high level the CSI is coordinated by a management committee and a high-level oversight committee. Coordination and efficiencies of scale are encouraged by the provision of a pooled support service called the CSI Support Program, which provides practical support for transport, offices, logistics, communications, and resource mobilization. The CSI is designed to provide support for both thematic and integrated programs and projects. It will also aid both long-term development and shorter term recovery and relief projects. The CSI does not engage in emergency response activities, however some of CSI's partner organizations are highly active in this field.
THE CÔTE SUD INITIATIVE THEMATIC LEVEL STRUCTURE
 Côte Sud Initiative, Thematic-level Structure and Government Counterparts diagram. Source: the Côte Sud Initiative, 2010. |
At the working level, the CSI structure is designed as much as possible to support the existing thematic and administrative structure of the Haitian Government. Therefore, planning and coordination support is provided at the Department and Commune level; thematic support follows the current thematic structure of the different Ministries. A key goal is for the CSI to integrate with, thereby strengthening, the Department-level thematic Sector Tables to improve both the coordination and the quality of all investments in the South Department.
