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33.3%Haiti: The Black Hole of International Cooperation.
April 1, 2010By Jude Teleau
The January 2010 earthquake that ravaged the Haitian capital and its peripheries has shed an unprecedented light on the extreme poverty of the island nation. For decades, Haiti’s inhabitants have been living in abject poverty with no running water, no adequate sanitation and housing, all that topped by a crippling unemployment rate.
Within a stone’s throw of the richest country in the world, the poorest country in the western hemisphere vegetates in a hellish quagmire of ostracism. Many thinkers and researchers have pondered development plans for Haiti, the international community through many agencies has been implementing a plethora of development programs in the country; but the fact remains that Haiti is still poor and maybe even poorer. After hundreds of millions of dollar spent and interminable international meetings and summits; the Haitian problem seems to have eluded everyone.
Since no agency (USAID, ACDI, and PNUD) can claim any form of success in their operation in Haiti, they have at times invested their effort to denounce the main reasons why their plans have failed. The number one reason evoked has always been and is still today: corruption-the unstoppable sleazy embezzlement of public funds by government officials. Corruption runs so deep in Haiti, it is almost safe to say that it is indelibly engraved in the DNA of the Haitian political system.
Nevertheless we can not help but wonder about other reasons why aid to development has resoundingly failed in Haiti. One can not overemphasize the inadequacy of the Haitian society as a whole to conduct a sound, well-drafted development plan for the country but on a deeper level I found it very important to question the outcome and the ways and means of more than fifty years of international cooperation in Haiti. As an advised observer of the Haitian tragedy over a generation, I believe it is fair and just that the operations of all the international agencies and their thousands affiliated NGOs, be brought under scrutiny. The public opinion of all interested countries whose tax dollars are being spent in Haiti needs some closure on why there is a gap between the Good Samaritan’s conscience these organizations claim for themselves and the expansion of poverty in Haiti.
The hordes of development scientists and consultants engaged on the ground in Haiti need firstly to clarify whether their agencies’ programs fall under humanitarian or developmental operations; and while they’re at it, to explain in clear and succinct terms how the multitude of projects they have carried out in Haiti has positively influenced this country’s human development index. Secondly it would be edifying if they could share with the common citizens what they have learned from half a century of international cooperation with Haiti and how these practical lessons have been used to recalibrate their development approach over the years.
The latter preoccupation is justified by the fact that it is very hard to comprehend why the aid money keeps on going through the same corrupt channel while it is a foregone conclusion that the target population won’t see a cent of it. If we all agree that government corruption is a problem, perhaps the most persisting obstacle to the country’s development; we should, in the same vein; agree that this problem or obstacle should be solved, bridged or overcome if the international community wants to see some convincing results.
The reality of government corruption in Haiti should not obscure the fact that for almost a decade, a tremendous amount of aid money has been channeled through incumbent NGOs without any form of scrutiny. The reality on the ground is far different from the noble causes these organizations claim to pursue; the Haitian population has not moved a notch up away from the poverty line. As a matter of fact, the statistics have shown a different tendency: a widespread pauperization of the Haitian society.
The lack of coordination among development agencies can not be overlooked either. The armada of Ngos in Haiti creates a chaos out of which development will never spring. The absence of a unified or an integrated plan that could serve as an organizational pivot for these different organizations; leaves the place for duplicated and antagonistic projects with very low impact. A few years ago the Haitian government in tandem with several United Nations agencies drafted a referential document that lays out a national strategy for economic growth and poverty reduction (DSNCRP). This document was meant to be the referential guide for development operations in the country, but surprisingly most of these organizations’ operations are still not in harmony with that strategic plan. On still can not tell how an artesian wells being dug by some mysterious Ngo in a remote place in the Haitian countryside, relates to that strategic document.
If the master word to define the inefficiency of the Haitian government in the fight against poverty is corruption; lack of coordination pretty much fits the movers and shakers of international cooperation in Haiti.
While I firmly believe that the center role in Haiti’s development lies on the shoulder of the Haitian State, development agencies on the ground should be held accountable for what they do and what they fail to do in Haiti because it wont be long until public opinion starts seeing them as part of the problem instead of part of the solution. It is unacceptable that all this time and all this money are being spent for the meager results that we came to observe on the ground.
To really address the issue of poverty in Haiti, a total overhaul of development approaches implemented by international development agencies, may it be bilateral or multilateral; is recommended. Agencies need to realize that the lack of coordination seriously hampers the outcome of their operations on the ground and at the same time casts a veil of shadow on their real motivation. Local government accountability must be stressed and international legal mechanisms must be put in place to criminalize embezzlement of aid money. If it is agreed that corruption weighs heavily on international cooperation for development, the international community should not shy away from using every tool in their possession to fight it. On the other hand, development approach needs to be revamped and centered on economic growth rather than on constant humanitarian operations that unfortunately have perpetuated Haiti’s cycle of dependence.