Irish businessmen are helping Haitians to improve their lives. Ciarán Hancock, Business Affairs Correspondent, reports.

At about 8.45am last Monday, the small airstrip in the nondescript town of Les Cayes in southern Haiti received its first international flight. On board the aircraft from the Dominican Republic were 11 Irish entrepreneurs and a handful of senior personnel from Ernst & Young and Ulster Bank.

They had arrived into town to lend their expertise to half a dozen projects in the area that badly need some outside expertise and financial help as the poorest country in the western world seeks to build a strong future for itself after decades of political unrest.

It was all part of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award that organises trips abroad for current and former finalists to explore some aspect of corporate life.

This year's theme was corporate social responsibility (CSR) - how companies or wealthy individuals can give something back to society in a gesture not driven by desire to make profits. With a bit of prompting from telecoms entrepreneur Denis O'Brien, who won the E&Y gong in 1998, they flew to the Caribbean for this retreat, literally pitching up tent near Port Salou in the southern part of the island.

O'Brien's Digicel mobile phone operation has 1.5 million subscribers in Haiti and he spent some time with the projects, along with other members of his board.

Haiti is something of a basket case. It is widely regarded as being the poorest country in the western world. Electricity and clean water are not widely available, only 53 per cent of the population is considered literate and people generally don't live beyond the age of 58. It also has a high incidence of HIV/Aids.

James Kilbane, founder and chief executive of Grafton Recruitment, said he had doubts before arriving in Haiti about what could be achieved by the 48-hour trip. "I don't mind admitting that I was sceptical coming here about what could be done, especially in the time available to us."

By the end of the 48 hours, however, he had changed his mind.

"They are not without hope. They have been downtrodden for so long that if we can't make some difference, we shouldn't call ourselves entrepreneurs. I'm really glad I came."

Kilbane, who is a finalist in the international category, was part of a group that looked at two projects. One involved the production of cashew nuts by five local people. It is painstaking work involving outdated practices. In addition, the local producers had never sat down together before to discuss how they could co-operate to make their production processes leaner, even though they live within a stone's throw of each other.

By the end of the two days, Stephen Grant, owner of Birr-based Grant Engineering, had identified a way of insulating the roasting ovens in a way that would cut their energy output by more than 30 per cent.

Grant, whose company makes energy-efficient boilers and has an annual turnover of €40 million, has agreed to fund the cost of insulating the ovens. "I'll pay for it," he said. "It's only a couple of hundred euro an oven, it's a small job. They're hardly making a profit on the cashew nuts at the moment; this could tip them into making a small profit."

Grant and his fellow entrepreneurs have also agreed to support financially the purchase of two fibreglass boats for a 20-strong co-operative of fishermen in Jean de Sud, a remote village. Years of deforestation have caused soil erosion to such an extent that fish which normally swim close to the shore have been forced out an additional two or three kilometres.

"The small wooden dugout boats that the fishermen have just aren't good enough to take them out that far, so we've agreed to buy them two new boats [ costing about €5,000 each]," Grant said. "We'll monitor how these are used and if things go well, we'll probably buy another two boats with the fisherman, contributing maybe 25 per cent of the cost, and then maybe another two boats after that, with the fishermen contributing 50 per cent, and so on. They need 10 boats. I'd be very confident that this will work."

Elsewhere in Haiti, separate groups were busy devising ways to help other communities. A team including Oliver Tattan, chief executive of Vivas Health, successful builder John Bowen, and Daryl Ismail, head of the travel industry software provider Chase International, have agreed to set up a foundation to help fund education programmes on the impoverished island of Île à Vache.

Most parts of this beautiful island, situated off the southern coast of Haiti, have no electricity or running water. Typhoid kills hundreds there each year from a population of 12,000. Young people generally move to the mainland to get jobs and there are no roads or hospitals, just dirt tracks and scrawny animals.

Tattan believes the best help they could offer was to focus on education.

"It's a long-term project but we all feel it's probably the best way we can help them," he said.

They have linked up with Robert Dietrich, a 35-year-old born in Detroit, who has established a small, 15-room hotel on the island along with his Haiti-born wife's parents. The hotel project is costing $2 million to get off the ground.

Dietrich, who splits his time between the US and Haiti and owns a valet parking business in his native city, is also keen to promote primary education on the island.

The Île à Vache Foundation has agreed to put up about $25,000 to either build a small primary school or fund scholarships to the existing fee-paying schools. There are no state schools in Haiti.

Dietrich has agreed to go away and draw up a business plan within a short timeframe. "Robert will be our executor on the ground and we'll also have a Digicel person on the ground visiting the project three or four times a year to check on progress."

Farther north at Camp Perrin, a group including Jacob Fruitfield chairman Michael Carey, John Rice of Jam Media, Sammy Leslie of Castle Leslie Estates and Dominic Walsh of Belfast-based packaging group MSO, have agreed to make substantial funding available to a mango farm.

The farm is backed by the Organisation for the Rehabilitation of the Environment (ORE) and has a big farm and processing plant. What it lacks is branding, packaging, exporting know-how and financial management skills.

Carey said they would help ORE to develop a brand, probably called Spirit of Haiti. This is likely to cost €100,000.

Carey was behind the successful Heart of Africa brand launch in 2005, which sells tea, coffee and nuts from Uganda, Kenya and Malawi.

They would also support them to develop export markets in other parts of the Americas.

The Irish businessmen have also agreed to give €50,000 to build two new depots for storing the fruit. "This will require a lot of work but the model can be applied to initiatives like this," Carey said.

Other projects were also agreed on the whistle-stop tour. But are they sustainable?

Is this the best way to tackle Haiti's economic and social difficulties? And is there a tangible benefit to Irish business from this type of CSR work?

Jean Maurice Buteau was born in Haiti but educated in the United States. He has a range of business interests on the island and is also heavily involved in community projects there. Buteau was closely involved in bringing the Irish businessmen to Haiti and believes the trip will have a significant spin-off for his country.

"This is the first time that a group of foreigners has come to Haiti on this kind of trip," he said. "This was about giving people opportunities and to build from there. It's not about donations; it's about giving us the tools to be entrepreneurs. Otherwise, we will remain the same way. The results I have to say were beyond my expectations."

Buteau is no slouch as an entrepreneur. In a casual conversation with Jacob Fruitfield boss Michael Carey, he persuaded the Irishman to give mango ketchup a trial.

Whether CSR is something meaningful for these businesses or mere window-dressing is a moot point.

One of the entrepreneurs admitted that 12 months ago, he would have shown the door to anyone who started preaching the benefits of CSR.

"I have to say I've changed my mind now. This has been a real eye-opener for me," he said.

Tattan is in no doubt about the benefits that accrue for Vivas Health from CSR projects like Haiti. "It's something that we can put in as part of our presentations when pitching for corporate business," he said. "It's something that could bring us great kudos."

At a dinner on Wednesday night in Port Salou, Haiti's prime minister Jacques-Edward Alexis said the CSR initiative could be "a win-win situation" for both his country and the Irish entrepreneurs.

Time will tell - but the early signs are promising.