.
To estimate how often extreme rains occur in Haiti, the team used data collected by the National Water Resource Service (Service National des Ressources d’Eau – SNRE) and the National Center for Meteorology (Centre National de Météorologie – CNM).
Despite avoiding annual economic losses in the Cavaillon watershed, which were estimated to be around US$500,000, the analysis found that the flood mitigation infrastructure yielded a negative net present value of US$2.2 million.
This means that the costs of this portion of the project exceeded the benefits. The construction of the Berlin and gabion walls yielded a positive net present value.
What Did We Learn from the Evaluation?
The two methodologies that were developed and used to measure ex-post the impact of the downstream riverbank protection works built as part of PMDN I were then used ex-ante to identify and objectively prioritize the best opportunities to mitigate flooding and erosion in Haiti in the project’s second phase (PMDN II).
This marks a significant improvement in the design of natural disaster and risk management programs in Haiti, where cost-benefit analyses in the past were typically conducted only after the infrastructure in which to invest had already been selected.
The evaluation of PMDN I thus contributed to the IDB’s goal to improve policymaking in natural disaster risk management in Haiti.
This story is one of the project stories included in the Development Effectiveness Overview, an annual publication that highlights the lessons learned from IDB projects and evaluations.
About the Authors:
Sebastien Gachot is an impact evaluation consultant in the Environment, Rural Development and Disaster Risk Management Division in the IDB office in Port au Prince, Haiti.
Gines Suárez is a disaster risk specialist in the Environment, Rural Development and Disaster Risk Management Division in the IDB office in El Salvador.
Bruno Jacquet is a rural development specialist in the Environment, Rural Development and Disaster Risk Management Division in the IDB office in Port au Prince, Haiti.
Carmine Paolo De Salvo is a rural development specialist in the Environment, Rural Development and Disaster Risk Management Division in the IDB headquarters in Washington, DC.