Haitian journalist attending a course of investigative reporting. Photo: John Bougher

As the reconstruction of Haiti continues two years after the country's devastating earthquake, a group of journalist students highlight the need and value of investigative reporting

Foreign investments and businesses are increasingly present in Haiti, aiming to rebuild the country and its economy. Through months of in-depth investigation the IMS-supported project Haiti Grassroots Watch (HGW) found that some of the new business ventures help the Haitian government and foreign corporations more than the people of Haiti.

Sweatshop level salaries

With minimum wage for factory workers as low as US$3.75 per day, HGW compares the working conditions in many of the new foreign financed factories, to sweatshops.

- Haiti's government, the private sector - and their international supervisors - are pitching sweatshop level salaries as a key "comparative advantage.", says the investigation

New factories are, despite their promise of creating jobs, also endangering the country's already devastated environment. The journalism students found that the Korean garment manufacturer Sae-A's factories would pollute a nearby river, otherwise a source of clean water for Haitians:

- As part of the reconstruction work, the Haitian government has chosen a piece of fertile farmland for a giant US-financed industrial park. Sae-A's factories will use a river that runs into the nearby fragile Caracol Bay as its waste waterway. 

Two years after the earthquake, sanitation is still a major source of health problems for Haiti, underlined by a cholera outbreak killing over 5,000 since October 2010.

More investigations in the making

The findings of the IMS-supported Haiti Grassroots Watch, available in full from their website, highlight the need and value of investigative journalism in Haiti. To strengthen the opportunity for local journalists to conduct in-depth investigations like this one, IMS together with the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) recently launched Haiti's first Fund for Investigative Journalism in Haiti (FIJH).

Although launched only in December last year, the fund has already selected a group of seven journalists who will receive funding to conduct more in-depth investigations in Haiti.

Five of the seven journalists have previously conducted student investigations at Haiti Grassroots Watch, making it a space for the creation of growth opportunities for young and aspiring journalists, who seek to uncover poor practice in the reconstruction process, corruption and abuse of power in Haiti.

Click here for more information about the Fund for Investigative Journalism in Haiti (FIJH), and visit the website of Haiti Grassroots Watch to learn more about their investigations.