In Port-au-Prince, markets are not just economic engines that are crucial for the supply of basic products, they are spaces where people socialise in the Haitian capital. Even in the midst of multiple crises, all those involved in these markets are managing to carry out collective actions. Since 2019, GRET has been supporting a “commoning” dynamic around these spaces.
“Vivre dans un pays non viable[1]”: since 2018, Haiti has been experiencing yet another systemic crisis, marked by a drastic deterioration of living conditions and an unprecedented climate of insecurity. The functioning of the State has been strongly impacted, as have economic activities and free movement of goods and people.
As a result, society is becoming fractured, with isolation of territories and breakdown of the social fabric. A feeling of defiance, or in some cases abandonment, is prevalent among an increasingly vulnerable population.
Markets are symbolic spaces and central economic bodies in community life. They structure the urban space in Port-au-Prince, serving as “crisis mitigators”, providing daily access to basic foodstuffs for poor households and generating a number of informal jobs in neighbourhoods. As a sort of “city within the city”, they are also places where people socialise and engage in serious discussions – which can also lead to their manipulation during local political battles.
However, markets have not escaped the effects of the deteriorating economic and security context, which are limiting their role as a support for people with small and medium budgets during periods of multiple shocks. Traders’ (80% of whom are women) working conditions are becoming increasingly perilous: they have to cope with inflation, problems with supplies and access to basic essential services, and are being intimidated and pressurised by armed gangs.
As the sole organised element of civil society in markets and a germ of counter-power, traders’ associations are trying to protect their interests but finding it difficult to develop their advocacy.
For the past four years, GRET has been working with stakeholders in three markets in Port-au-Prince (Salomon, Canapé Vert and Ravine Pintade) to boost their skills and their capacity to take action. Having initially focused on improving waste management, the team rapidly extended the project to other issues of concern identified by the stakeholders during a diagnosis, such as access to water, sanitation, drainage and electricity.
The team adopted a position of social intermediation between key market stakeholders (traders’ associations, market directors, influential traders, people supporting sales, informal workers, municipal technical services) and supported the emergence of a form of shared governance within a framework for consultation and reflection. This approach makes it possible to (re)learn how to do things together around common issues, while enabling those normally excluded from decisions to express themselves (women, stigmatised informal workers), and encouraging empowerment of all those involved in managing market facilities and services.
Since 2022, in order to address these many challenges, a commons-based approach was taken to strengthen a shared vision and citizen participation. For GRET, the commons are a dynamic: the manner in which a group of individuals becomes organised to conserve the common goods on which they depend. GRET’s experience shows that this approach is relevant, including in a crisis context, and it is a powerful lever for the evolution of social and power relationships in markets. It strengthens links between stakeholders and enables them to regain confidence in their capacities for collective action.
This programme is part of the Haitian State’s Urbayiti programme, which is co-funded by the European Union.
[1] “Living in an unviable country” Title of an editorial by Haitian journalist Frantz Duval, published in the Haitian daily newspaper Le Nouvelliste, 7 July 2020.
