The Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), a member of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Group, and the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund have signed an agreement transferring its remaining grants and loans to the MIF, once the Fund ceases formal operations on December 31, 2012.
The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund was founded after the earthquake in January 2010 by former United States Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, at the request of President Barack Obama, to support the Haitian people through projects promoting job creation and sustainable economic development. With nearly $55 million in contributions from more than 200,000 individuals, businesses, and organizations, the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund supported over 50 organizations from agricultural cooperatives to micro enterprises to small businesses.
The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund selected the MIF to assume responsibility for its remaining portfolio because of the MIF’s focus on private sector-led development benefiting poor and excluded populations, and its successful track record with innovative development projects in Haiti and throughout the Latin American and Caribbean region. The MIF has been active in Haiti for almost two decades, and has greatly increased its work over the last three years, tripling its project portfolio since the 2010 earthquake.
The MIF reaches some of the poorest in Haiti; 75 percent of its projects are outside Port-au-Prince. MIF projects have helped build Haiti’s microfinance sector, reduced the cost of remittance transfers, helped small farmers raise their incomes, and expanded access to renewable energy technology in rural areas. At the present time, the MIF is testing new forms of small and medium enterprise finance and investment. A number of the MIF’s projects in Haiti have been co-financed with the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund.
Said MIF General Manager Nancy Lee, “We are honored to have the trust and support of the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund. We share a common vision and approach to empowering Haiti’s people through access to finance, to markets and skills, and to basic services and green growth. We welcome this chance both to increase our presence in the country and to work with new partners.”
Said Clinton Bush Haiti Fund CEO Gary Edson, “We appreciate the MIF’s leadership as they step in to manage our programs and investments. We have a high degree of confidence in the strong teams they have both here and on the ground in Haiti, having worked closely on several projects, including YouthBuild, which is providing vocational training in construction for 5,300 at-risk youth in partnership with the Haitian NGO, IDEJEN. Now it is time to bear witness as our projects mature and prepare Haitians to chart their own course.”
The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund has committed both cash and repayments from its remaining loans to the MIF, which the MIF will use to invest in programs and activities in Haiti consistent with the shared mission of economic opportunity.
About the Multilateral Investment Fund
The Multilateral Investment Fund, a member of the IDB Group, supports private sector-led development benefitting the poor—their businesses, their farms, and their households. The MIF aims to give low-income populations tools to boost their incomes: access to markets and skills to compete in those markets, access to finance, and access to basic services, including green technologies. To learn more, visit www.fomin.org.
About the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund
The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded after Haiti’s January 12, 2010 earthquake, when President Barack Obama asked former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush to assist the Haitian people in building their own country back better. The Fund used these donations to make grants, loans, and equity investments in organizations promoting job growth and smart, sustainable economic development. Now, having served as a bridge from post-disaster relief to longer-term reconstruction, the Fund is stepping back, empowering Haiti to chart its own successful future. To learn more visit www.ClintonBushHaitiFund.org.