Relief Efforts in Haiti: Good or Bad?

Wednesday, August 04, 2010

Relief Efforts in Haiti: Good or Bad?

Photo by John Carroll


Posted on Sat, Jul. 31, 2010
Haiti relief efforts: Doing good, or doing harm?
BY TRENTON DANIEL
tdaniel@MiamiHerald.com


PORT-AU-PRINCE -- In the weeks and months of desperation that came after the January quake in Haiti, hundreds of do-gooders -- from emergency doctors and disaster specialists to animal lovers, movie stars, and even clowns -- have poured into the flattened capital.
More than six months later, Haitians say the outpouring of charity in the relief effort from organizations both big and small was welcomed. It was critical to helping save lives and feeding the hungry.

Under debate, though, is who is best qualified to respond to natural disasters. Now, as Haiti enters the height of the hurricane season and its potential for flash floods and landslides, that question takes on more urgency. Last Tuesday, the precarious situation became evident once again when two children died after rain caused a wall to collapse on top of their tarp home in one of the 1,000-plus camps that still house many left homeless by the earthquake.

Small groups argue that their nimbleness allows them to move much more swiftly to the location of a disaster than some large, more established humanitarian groups. They count common sense and eagerness to pitch in as their best assets, and some of them have spent years here.

Global health experts counter that while the relief efforts of grass-roots charities are appreciated, sometimes these groups lack experience and get in the way.

``There's a lot of good that can be done, but there's also a great deal of harm that can be done,'' said Jeff Wright, a disaster response specialist with World Vision, a Christian humanitarian organization. ``Who should respond are those with competence.''

Wright and other public health professionals found some do-gooder groups seeking to help -- only to find they hampered urgent relief efforts and sometimes competed with Haitians for scarce resources.

As aid workers try to shelter and relocate 1.5 million displaced people, nongovernmental organizations, or NGOs, also have come under fire for working at cross purposes. A property owner in the city of Delmas, for example, wanted to evict several hundred squatters, but NGOs kept delivering aid to the site -- not exactly an incentive for people to pack up.

`FREE-FOR-ALL'

One disaster response expert recalls how after Katrina, New Orleans received a flurry of do-gooders -- not all of whom were qualified to assist.

``People showed up in New Orleans, saying, `I'm a doctor, I have a stethoscope around my neck.' It was unclear if they really were,'' said Irwin Redlener, a physician and director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. ``It was a free-for-all. One can only imagine what happens unfettered in places like Haiti.''

The compulsion to help quake-battered Haiti was immense. Many opened their wallets, but others opted to fly in on private planes and drive in from the neighboring Dominican Republic.

Haiti's proximity to the United States influenced many to come, experts say. Few natural disasters in recent years have generated such intense interest.

Some of that has to do with the magnitude of the disaster: An estimated 300,000 people were killed, and the world responded.

Americans donated more than $1 billion, and 120 countries have pledged more than $9 billion to help rebuild.

Much of the donated money supplied critical services in the immediate aftermath of the temblor, but it also supported foreign NGOs, some of which undermined local institutions by diverting resources from their coffers. The lion's share of aid has long steered clear of the Haitian government because of a history of graft.

The donations to NGOs ``made for certain that the Haitian institutions -- and some of them were very good -- ended up being without any capital,'' said Jocelyn McCalla, senior advisor to the Haitian special envoy to the United Nations. ``The Haitian medical facilities could not compete with the NGOs because of their foreign base. They had to lay off their staff.''

FLIGHTS ON HOLD

Right after the quake, so many flights with aid workers tried to land at the severely damaged airport that they were locked in holding patterns over the capital; others were directed to the Dominican Republic or sent back home.

Animal lovers from the Humane Society International swooped in. So did Clowns Without Borders. And as Haiti transitioned from an emergency phase to a reconstruction effort, college spring breakers and pest control exterminators joined the fold. First-timers were plentiful.

NGO-rented SUVs still knot traffic in Port-au-Prince's already too few streets.

The U.S. State Department's most recent travel advisory, issued on June 24, ``strongly'' urged U.S. citizens not to visit Haiti. But it also took into consideration the downside of too much benevolence.

``Those wishing to assist in Haiti relief efforts should be aware that despite their good intentions, travel to Haiti will increase the burden on a system already struggling to support those in need on the ground,'' the statement said.

Thomas Kirsch, a Johns Hopkins emergency physician, noted how young Scientology ``Volunteer Ministers'' did little to create job opportunities for Haitians.

``Rather than have college kids from California come down, it would be better to hire a bunch of Haitians to hand out bottled water,'' said Kirsch, who led a team of doctors and nurses to Haiti shortly after the quake. ``All that does is undercut the local population.''

One Scientologist volunteer who traveled to Haiti said her colleagues' work was more substantial than merely distributing water. Besides, she added, the desperation in Haiti was great, as was the demand for help.

``Our feeling is you can't have too many volunteers,'' said the Rev. Susan Taylor, national director of the Churches of Scientology disaster response. ``Millions of people need help, and there are so many volunteers. You can't just throw money at a situation. You need people.''

HELPING THE HELPERS

Public health experts note that many people arrived in Haiti wanting to help but needed help themselves. Wright, of World Vision, said several groups of volunteers showed up ill-prepared.

``They hadn't thought about where they would stay or how they would get a ride from the airport,'' said Wright, who made two post-quake trips to Haiti and has worked in disasters since 1991. ``They needed help helping. They themselves became victims.''

Though the United Nations also took a serious hit and lost high-ranking officials who worked in Haiti in the quake, it drew widespread criticism for its slow response in coordinating relief efforts.

The American Red Cross also took a drubbing over the whereabouts of millions of dollars in aid after the agency's efforts weren't apparent to some on the ground in Haiti. The Red Cross responded by saying it has shifted tactics to a three- to five-year recovery plan. Rather than using the money to distribute bottled water, for example, the group plans to fund water sanitation programs.

But other ad hoc groups wanted immediacy. Hours after the quake, Dirk DeSouza of Miami Beach found himself stirred by the ghastly images. Though he had never visited Haiti, he urged his circle of Facebook friends and their friends to drop off food, water and medical supplies at a triangle-shaped lot in South Beach.

After sorting the goods, DeSouza and his pals shipped them off to Port-au-Prince on donated aircraft. They named themselves 1st and Alton for the lot on which they gathered donations and dubbed their Facebook-driven response ``Flashmob relief.''

``It's wholesale misery going on down there,'' DeSouza said. ``When you see somebody dying on the side of the road, when you see somebody in need of water, you don't need to be seasoned.''

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My Comments in 2021--

This article explains the quandry which the earthquake illustrated. 

Progressives believe that charity funds should go to the Haitian government so the government can do things the right way for the 12 million people on the bottom of Haitian society. But we all know that the Haitian government redirects funds also. 

If I would have believed that the Haitian government was going to help my Haitian Hearts patients for the past 25 years, I would have been seriously mistaken. 

Now don't get me wrong. I would have LOVED it if the Haitian government would have helped my Haitian Hearts patients because it would have helped them and me greatly. But my patients were only going to get one chance and that was not going to be with the Haitian government. 

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Saturday, August 14, 2010

Rebuilding Haiti

Rebuilding Haiti Requires New State-Building Strategy

(Rand Corp. report – Friday, August 13)

Haiti's future prosperity and peace depend on its ability to build a more resilient state, one capable of providing public services like education and health care as well as responding effectively to natural disasters, according to a new study from the RAND Corporation.

Even before a 7.0 magnitude earthquake battered the Caribbean country in January, its state institutions were riddled with weaknesses in human resources, organization, procedures and policies. Now, with the international community having pledged nearly $10 billion in aid, priorities need to be set and state building should be at the forefront of earthquake recovery efforts, according to RAND researchers.

“Many studies have identified Haiti's most-pressing problems, but what haven't been focused on are the state institutions themselves: how to make them stronger and more resilient,” said James Dobbins, a co-author of the study and a senior fellow at the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit research organization. “Haiti will remain vulnerable to natural disasters, political turbulence, and civil unrest until it develops effective institutions.”

The RAND study finds that most plans and proposals for rebuilding Haiti are too broad in scope, too ambitious in their objective, and fail to set priorities or lay out a sequence for introducing changes. The study identifies the main challenges to a better government and proposes a realistic set of actions. Specifically, it recommends the Haitian state and international donors focus on public administration, justice, security, economic policy, infrastructure, education and health care.

In preparing the report, RAND researchers spoke to representatives of the Haitian government, international organizations, key donor agencies, people in the Haitian private sector, foreign investors and nonprofit organizations that work in Haiti. Dobbins, director of RAND's International Security and Defense Policy Center, previously served as the Clinton administration's special envoy to Haiti.

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, with a per-capita income less than a quarter of the average for Latin America and the Caribbean. The country has no coherent public education or health care system, its judicial system is a shambles and the state has created a hostile environment for business, according to researchers.

Nevertheless, the situation is not hopeless. Following a change of government in 2004, Haiti enjoyed five consecutive years of economic growth and made tentative progress toward better governance. With the right institutions and incentives, the country can not only recover from the earthquake that killed more than 300,000 people, but embark on a period of improved public security, social well-being and sustained economic growth, according to the study.

“State-building may not have the same appeal to international donors as erecting new buildings, but it's got to be done if Haiti is to successfully rebuild itself,” said Keith Crane, a study co-author and a senior economist at RAND. “International donors have poured billions into Haiti, but they have not focused on creating sustainable institutions to provide a payoff from those investments. For example, roads have been constructed, but until recently donors failed to ensure that the Haitian state would maintain those roads. Donors have invested in new power plants, but some power plants have ceased operations because not enough money was charged and collected to pay for fuel.”

Identifying the state's core functions — with a focus on those that promote security, stability, and economic growth — should be the first step of any state-building strategy, researchers say. Next, Haiti needs to establish what actions are top priority, and create a set of deadlines and responsibilities.

Laurel Miller, co-author of the study and a senior policy analyst with RAND, identifies judicial and corrections reform as critical. She recommends that the Haitian government and the United Nations continue to maintain an international military and police force in Haiti for at least the next five years, while reforms to judicial and penal systems are put in place.

The study also recommends:

· International donors should work with the Haitian government to create a modern civil service replete with job descriptions, pre-determined qualifications for positions and a competitive process for recruitment, hiring and promotion.
· To make reconstruction possible, the Haitian government and the donor community should make rubble removal the most important priority. The Haitian government should make immediate arrangements for depositing rubble; the international community should provide funds and equipment as quickly as possible.
· To accelerate economic growth, the Haitian government should quickly eliminate unnecessary procedures involved in registering businesses and property, and reduce the cost and length of time needed for those actions.
· The Haitian state should focus on monitoring and regulating the delivery of education and health services, not providing those services itself.
· Major donors — including the United States — should submit all project and program concepts to the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission for coordination, to achieve more coherence among the various reconstruction and reform programs.
The study, “Building a More Resilient Haitian State,” can be found at www.rand.org.

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My Comments in 2021--

Really?

Who would have thought that the Haitian State was the right entity to help millions of Haitians with jobs, roads, health care, clean water, etc. 

But during the last 10 years since the quake, Haiti is still mired in crumbling infrastructure and corruption. Is that the fault of NGOs also?  

And Haitian people have no trust in their own government, with very few even voting in national elections. 

Why should NGOs trust the Haitian State?