ADELNEH, the first Local Economic Development Agency created in Haiti, is working to enhance the sustainable and human development of the North-east Department, located on the border with the Dominican Republic.

 

ADELNEH was created in February 2016 in the city of Ouanaminthe through the institution of its Board of Directors by the General Assembly of members. Its constitution has been the product of a year of work focused on the training of private sector organizations and socio-cultural associations of the territory, and the involvement of the local public sector bodies.

 

From its constitution, ADELNEH carries out a set of initiatives aimed at the producers of the territory, to governments and local administrations (forums of local development), to the actors of the socio-cultural sector. It also operates within the framework of the Cross-Border Inter-Municipal Committee (CIT).

 

ADELNEH is working in collaboration with the local institutions in the Northeast Department. Recently the first Forum of Local Development has been organized in the city of Ouanaminthe with the aim of strengthening the capacity of 130 elected local authorities to intervene in their respective community. Since then, ADELNEH keeps working with them for local development, looking to reinforce the relationship between local people and their authorities.

 

Simultaneously, ADELNEH is working jointly with its partner’s organizations providing them capacity building aimed at expanding their influence in the community where they work. With this objective, periodically, a joint meeting of all the partner organizations is set in the headquarter of one of them, for a direct support to the activities this partner is implementing in its territory. So far, plenary meetings have been held in nine Municipalities of the Department where ADELNEH works. Furthermore, apart from the LEDA’s local partner organizations, local authorities and other organizations are usually invited to these meetings to inform them about the LEDAs in general and ADELNEH in particular.

 

One of the initiatives of great impact of the Steering Committee of ADELNEH is the creation of the Caja SolidariaBANKADEL.

BANKADEL is an ethics bank that aims to support the productive activities of the actors of the territory and the local economy as a whole, while ensuring the financial sustainability of the LEDA. BANKADEL operates in the headquarters of ADELNEH in the city of Ouanaminthe, supporting both the informal sector and the formal sector of small entrepreneurs, and strengthening the formalization of the informal sector.

 

BANKADEL offers small loans to the individual actors and the LEDA members, to a very low interest rate for up to six months renewable with upwards rewards, savings and money exchange among others. The goal of this project is to offer access to credit and accompaniment to the neediest of the population whilst working the financial autonomy of the LEDA. The immediate goals are to increase the amount of credits and the amount credited over a longer repayment period in favour especially of the small farmers and mothers head of household, to include school credit in order to support kids in age who cannot go to school.

 

The ADELNEH Agency has been implemented with the support of the UNDP Binational Program (Haiti - Dominican Republic) funded by the European Union. Since September 2016 ADELNEH is also supported by Oxfam.

 

Strategies for the future developed in a participatory manner within the framework of the Agency ADELNEH foresee to continue strengthening the territorial development of the North East Department uniting the efforts of the different local sectors. They also plan to continue implementing and expanding cross-border cooperation with the territories of the Dominican Republic. In this framework, it is important to underline the close alliance established between ADELNEH and the other LEDAs operating in the Dominican Republic, both in the implementation phase and in their current development activities. Since 2016, ADELNEH is a member of the ILS LEDA Network.