ABSTRACT BEYOND FEEDING THE MULTITUDE: INTERNATIONAL NONGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS AND LOCAL FOOD SYSTEMS IN SOUTHWESTERN HAITI Heather Marie Prentice-Walz, MA Department of Anthropology Northern Illinois University, 2017 Mark Schuller, Thesis Director This thesis explores the ways that international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) interface with the community and its local food system in a rural coastal town in southwestern Haiti. The thesis argues that, especially in light of Hurricane Matthew, it is essential that INGOs in the region consider input from local residents as the food system is rebuilt. NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY DE KALB, ILLINOIS MAY 2017 BEYOND FEEDING THE MULTITUDE: INTERNATIONAL NONGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS AND LOCAL FOOD SYSTEMS IN SOUTHWESTERN HAITI BY HEATHER MARIE PRENTICE-WALZ ©2017 Heather Marie Prentice-Walz A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE MASTER OF ARTS DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY Thesis Director: Mark Schuller ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my thesis advisor, Professor Mark Schuller, for his support and guidance in this process, as well as as Professor Kristen Borre and Professor Emily McKee, who served on my thesis committee. I would also like to thank the Department of Anthropology at Northern Illinois University, the National Science Foundation, and my colleagues in the U.S. and Haiti for making this research possible. Above all, I thank my family. Mama, Dad, and Shane-- you mean the world to me. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF TABLES………………………………………………………………………..vi LIST OF APPENDICES………………………………………………………………...vii PREFACE……………………………………………………………………………….viii Chapter INTRODUCTION: A FRAGILE PARADISE……………………………………1 Overview of Thesis ……………………………………………………….4 Methodology and Research Questions…………………………………….7 1. HAITIAN EXCEPTIONALISM AND THE LOGIC OF FOREIGN INTERVENTIONS……………………………………………………………15 Haitian Exceptionalism and the Silencing of History……………………17 Foreign Intervention and the Exceptionalization of Haiti………………..25 Questioning the Exceptionalist Paradigm in Beaux Arbres……………...33 “Materially Poor and the Poor in Spirit”…………………………………38 2. LOAVES AND FISHES OR BREADFRUIT AND PWASON?.....................41 Food Systems and INGO Interventions in Beaux Arbres……………..…41 Food Systems and Interventions in Haiti………………………………...48 Case Study: Feeding the World’s Hungry and the Asosyasyon Pechè……………………………………………….56 Hunger in Beaux Arbres: Proposed Causes and Solutions…………...….64 3. BETWEEN THEORY AND PRACTICE: NGOS IN BEAUX ARBRES……69 What Is an NGO?.......................................................................................69 Theoretical Orientation: Foucault and Power……………………………72 How Are NGOs Studied?...........................................................................75 Haunting and the (In)Visibility of NGOs in Beaux Arbres…………...…82 NGOs in Haiti: Republic of NGOs? Invasion of NGOs?..........................87 NGOs in Beaux Arbres…………………………………………………..91 Perceptions of NGOs Within the Community……...…………………..101 CONCLUSION: GRAPPLING WITH GHOSTS, LOOKING TO THE FUTURE………………………………………………………………….115 Hurricane Matthew……………………………………………………..115 Evaluation Processes and NGOs: Evaluating What, and for Whom?.....120 iv Page REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………………125 APPENDICES………………………………………………………………………….132 LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1.1 Departments of Haiti by Variable …………………………………...……….8 2.1 How Do People in Beaux Arbres Live?...........................................................43 2.2 What Does Beaux Arbres Produce? ………………………………...…...…..45 2.3 Have You Heard of Feeding the World’s Hungry? ………………..………..61 2.4 What Is Feeding the World’s Hungry? ………………...……...…………… 62 2.5 What Does Feeding the World’s Hungry do in Beaux Arbres? ……………..62 2.6 What Explains Hunger in Beaux Arbres? ………………………………...…65 3.1 Groups Described as “NGOs” in Collaborative Survey…………………. …94 3.2 INGOs We Believed Worked in Beaux Arbres………………….……..……96 3.3 INGOs We Learned About Through Ethnographic Work in Beaux Arbres………………………………………….……………98 3.4 Words to Describe NGOs Grouped by Common Theme………..…………103 3.5 Responses by Theme: What Role Should NGOs Play? Do NGOs Do This? ……………………………………………………..…106 3.6 Community Needs in Beaux Arbres………………………………………. 108 3.7 Comparing Community Priorities and the Perceived Priorities of NGOs in Beaux Arbres …………………………………………..……..109 3.8 Perception of INGOs’ Role in Beaux Arbres………………………..……. 110 3.9 Perceptions of INGOs’ Role in Beaux Arbres by Gender……………..…...111 LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix Page A. SURVEY FOR COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH PROJECT…….……..132 B. OPEN-ENDED INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH PROJECT ……………………………………………...138 A. SURVEY FOR INDEPENDENT RESEARCH PROJECT…………………………………..………….….………..…143 B. OPEN-ENDED INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR INDEPENDENT RESEARCH PROJECT ……………………………………………....145 PREFACE: WE SHARE: CONDUCTING ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH IN BEAUX ARBRES, HAITI Èske w konn pataje? (Do you share?) Wi! (Yes!) Kisa w konn pataje? (What do you share?) Mwen konn pataje manje, dlo, enfòmasyon… (I share food, water, information…) Èske w konn pataje flach w? (Are you accustomed to sharing your flashlight?) Anbe ok- w ka prete flash mwen (Sure, you can borrow the flashlight.) It was nighttime in Beaux Arbres,1 Haiti, in July of 2016, and the solar-powered battery we relied on to power the lights had long since lost its charge. I needed to borrow my research partner Roseline’s flashlight and made this request by employing what had become a standing joke. We had spent the day surveying locals about life in this provincial fishing and farming town in southwestern Haiti, and our work included asking a series of questions about whether people are in the habit of sharing with their neighbors. This question was intended to gauge relationships between members of the community and to see how (and if) these relationships change over time. Although we joked, the truth is that Roseline and I did share. Constantly. We shared a bedroom, we ate meals together, we shared toiletries and clothes, we shared research tools. And we were able to tease about our shared experiences as ethnographic researchers. We spent seven weeks in the Grand’Anse department of Haiti engaging in ethnographic research. Our work represents a cross-section of an NSF-funded, longitudinal study that investigates the research question What long-term changes to local socio-cultural institutions remain following the end of an international nongovernmental organization (INGO) project? To answer this question, Northern Illinois University Professor Mark Schuller paired students from 1 The name of the town has been changed to protect residents’ identities. ix Université d’Etat d’Haiti (Haiti’s state university), where he has been an affiliate professor since 2003, with graduate students from around the U.S. to create international research teams. Adopting a mixed-methods approach, each of our teams was responsible for administering surveys, conducting open-ended interviews with local leaders, and compiling observational field notes for the communities within which we worked. The data we gathered focuses on the perceived presence and impacts of INGOs and local associations and organizations, local authorities, and the state. We also studied the communities themselves to understand the local socio-cultural institutions. Sharing, collaboration, and participation in local groups proved to be integral to the community of Beaux Arbres. At the same time, I was working on an independent research project, in partial fulfillment of a master’s degree in cultural anthropology at Northern Illinois University. In this project I looked at the faith-based INGO Feeding the World’s Hungry2 (which works with a local fishers’ organization in Beaux Arbres) as a case study to explore the impacts of NGOs on local food systems.3 I also adopted a mixed-methods approach to research, and compiled data from a small survey, semi-structured interviews with local fishers, and ethnographic observations. Roseline worked on her own independent research project on deforestation in the region. Although the projects on deforestation and NGOs and food systems are separate, Roseline and I found that we helped one another with our independent research. I primarily helped Roseline by documenting deforestation and charcoal production through photographs and ethnographic notes. She helped 2 “Feeding the World’s Hungry” is a pseudonym for the INGO. 3 According to public health and food systems expert Roni Neff, “The food system is a system encompassing all the activities and resources that go into producing, distributing, and consuming food; the drivers and outcomes of those processes; and, the extensive and complex relationships between system participants and components.” (Ronie Neff, Introduction to the US Food System: Public Health, Environment, and Equity (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2015), 1). x me by making casual inquiries about Feeding the World’s Hungry and by introducing me to acquaintances in the local fishing community. The collaborative research model implicitly asks what it means to truly collaborate in the context of ethnographic fieldwork. How do we equally share the responsibility and accountability of our work with another person? This project is methodologically unique because the international student research teams are working as academic and professional equals. In addition to exploring the overarching question of the long-term impact of INGOs in Haitian