Goats tend to thrive in the lush, mountainous landscape of rural Haiti. Nevertheless, many smallholder farmers there rarely eat goat meat, and goats are only sold at market to pay a large bill such as for medical services or school tuition. Haiti seems well-positioned to take advantage of the strong market for goat meat in the Caribbean, yet they export virtually none. My first impression when visiting Haiti was: why are more small farmers in rural Haiti not making a living by raising and selling goats for meat?

There are numerous mission groups and non-governmental organizations that supply rural communities with animals. In lieu of payment for the animals, they require the recipients to give one of the offspring to another community member. The problem with this model is that rural Haitian farms are widely dispersed, and access to high-quality breeding stock or veterinary services for an emergency is difficult. The timelines for producing additional offspring from the original gifted animal are long. With this inefficient model, it can be years before the recipients realize any financial gain from the original gift.

While these organizations produce admirable metrics for their donors on the number of animals distributed to poor families, their long-term success at improving the economic standing of these families appears lacking. Rather than focusing on how to turn these farmers into small businesses by transferring knowledge of how to increase productivity and connect to viable markets, they simply focus on the number of animals they have given away.

In my opinion, a better approach to improving the living standards of rural Haitians is to help them capitalize on resources they already have: land that is suitable for raising goats and knowledge of goat husbandry. Guidance and assistance on how to turn this into a small business seems like a better use of donated resources than continuously distributing animals one at a time.

I highly recommend the documentary "Poverty Inc." for a brilliant summary of how well-intentioned aid efforts have gone awry in countries such as Haiti. See the trailer here.