SOIL at CGI Annual Meeting This Week to Address What’s Working in Haiti
Dr. Sasha Kramer and colleagues at the "Getting Ahead of the Next Humanitarian Crisis" session / CGI 2024 Annual Meeting
About the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI)
SOIL is in New York this week attending the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) 2024 Annual Meeting, participating as a Commitment Maker under the theme “What’s Working.” The Clinton Global Initiative, founded by President Bill Clinton in 2005, is dedicated to the idea that changemakers can accomplish more together than apart. Through CGI’s platform, more than 10,000 organizations have launched more than 4,000 Commitments to Action.
This year, SOIL is launching a Commitment to Action, calling for development banks to reimagine how they finance small-scale service providers in vulnerable country contexts. SOIL is pledging that if the funding is secured, the work to expand access to safe sanitation will be delivered. As a member of the Haiti Action Network, SOIL will also be engaging in discussions and roundtables at CGI, joining other organizations dedicated to promoting long-term development in Haiti.
What Role Does Results-Based Finance Play in Haiti’s Development?
For decades, foreign aid has played a pivotal role in addressing Haiti's critical social and environmental challenges. From 2000 to 2019, Foreign Direct Aid accounted for nearly 8% of Haiti’s GDP. Despite this, nearly 60% of Haitians still live on less than $3.65 per day, and 4.6 million people face severe food insecurity (World Bank).
To drive real change, innovative financing solutions are essential. A funding tool that SOIL has implemented is Results-Based Financing (RBF), which ties funding to specific outcomes. By using an RBF mechanism, development banks can unlock larger funding streams for locally-based service providers like SOIL, enabling local scaling of basic services, reducing unit costs, and providing a model for eventual public sector adoption.
Unlike traditional grant-based models, RBF shifts the focus from lengthy application processes and exhaustive reporting to a results-driven approach, much like a government contract or private sector partnership. This allows small-scale service providers to focus on delivering critical services, while streamlining administrative efforts.
SOIL’s Commitment at the Clinton Global Initiative 2024 Annual Meeting
SOIL is committing to raise $3.3 million in results-based financing over the next two years to expand sanitation services in Cap-Haitien and surrounding areas in partnership with local stakeholders.
These funds will allow SOIL to extend safely-managed household sanitation to an additional 5% of Cap-Haitien’s population, reducing the number of families without access to sanitation by 50%. The demand is there—the only barrier is the resources to meet it. Working alongside the private sector and the Haitian government, SOIL will also develop strategies to replicate these efforts in other cities across Haiti.
Together with our partners Acceso, C2C, and the Haiti Food Systems Alliance, SOIL aims to improve public health, livelihoods, and living conditions for over 309,000 people over the next 2 years.
What’s exciting is that this commitment has the potential to revolutionize how development aid is distributed in Haiti. By fostering accountability, increasing local ownership, and ensuring critical services reach the most vulnerable households, SOIL is paving the way for a scalable, results-based model that can be replicated globally while supporting local businesses and improving livelihoods in Haiti.