Lessons Learned from Ineffective NGOs in Haiti

Port-au-Prince, Haiti – In 2010, Haiti was hit by a 7.0-magnitude earthquake in one of the most devastating natural disasters in recent history. More than 230,000 people died and buildings and infrastructure collapsed across the country, displacing 1.5 million more. The Haitian government was largely ill-equipped to provide relief or restore order in affected areas across the country.

The scale of the Haiti earthquake disaster led to an influx of humanitarian aid, and it was called the “NGO Republic”. Ten years later, their work and legacy contain valuable lessons.

Haiti at the time

In order to understand why the earthquake is so devastating, it is important to look at the situation in Haiti before 2010. Haiti was already one of the poorest countries in the world – out of 182 countries in the United Nations Human Development Index, ranked 149. More than half of the country’s population lived On less than two dollars a day and nearly 39% are illiterate. In this context, the Haitian government has been clearly struggling to provide basic services under normal circumstances.

It also failed to predict the extent of poverty. At the time of the earthquake – and until now – the Haitian Parliament had not approved any formal building law. For this reason, building with poor quality materials and poor building practices was common. This broad cost reduction has resulted in no earthquake resistance with devastating impacts.

In the aftermath of the earthquake, foreign governments and donors quickly pledged more than $ 5.3 billion to rebuild Haiti. They created the Interim Haitian Reconstruction Committee, headed by Bill Clinton, to coordinate aid to the country. Foreign donors have announced plans to provide emergency food and housing to those in need while giving Haiti the resources to “build back better” and address the country’s longstanding issues.

Relief after the earthquake

Several nongovernmental organizations, estimated in the thousands of Haitians, did a good job in the immediate aftermath of the disaster. They set up makeshift camps for hundreds of thousands of people and distributed emergency medical care, food and other supplies. Groups like the Red Cross and the United Nations have saved many lives with short-term relief measures.

But over the next decade, many Haitian NGOs failed to meet the lofty goals they set in 2010. One of the problems with transferring funds to short-term aid groups is that many of them are not equipped to participate in long-term development projects. A good example is the housing emergency in Haiti. Instead of repairing or building permanent homes, NGOs have focused on providing temporary shelters en masse. After a few years, these shelters began to deteriorate and the tent camp funding dried up. Many people once again found themselves homeless.

The United Nations has offered the residents of the tent shelters a stipend of $ 500 to transport them. Although this was more of a first aid than a solution. In 2020, Haiti’s infrastructure is still far from adequate, extreme poverty is still rife and 50% of children are unable to go to school.

Are NGOs blocking progress?

Observers wonder whether the proliferation of NGOs in Haiti is actually impeding the country from developing its own institutions. The Haitian government received less than 1% of emergency relief aid and only 23% of long-term recovery funds. While the government is weak and grapples with corruption problems, excluding local officials from the debate has proven unsustainable.

This is what is happening right now. Today, NGOs provide an estimated 80% of Haiti’s public services, including much of education and healthcare. This creates a parallel system of governance in which foreign NGOs, which lack accountability to the people they serve or a deep understanding of the local culture, are nevertheless able to exert a great deal of influence over the country. Instead of using aid money to empower and employ local residents, many NGOs have faced criticism for hiring high-paying employees. The vast majority of the faculty in these NGOs are also not from Haiti. Others, including the Red Cross, have been accused by charitable watchdogs of mismanaging or squandering money pledged for relief. The continuing prevalence of such cases underlines the scant recourse the Haitian government enjoys against poor NGO practices.

Hope for Haiti

Amid these failures, NGO success stories such as Hope for Haiti provide a blueprint for groups seeking to be more responsible and have a lasting impact. Hope for Haiti is a non-profit organization that works to support long-term development projects related to education, healthcare, infrastructure, clean water, and economic opportunity. Crucially, they work with Haitian employees and place great emphasis on relationships with local government officials.

Recently, Project Borgen spoke with Skyler Badnock, CEO of Hope for Haiti. In the interview, Badnock described his group’s process as “a team of Haitians working to improve the quality of life in their country.”

By maintaining a large number of Haitian employees, Badnock believes Hope for Haiti can ensure that its team understands Haitian culture and invests deeply in improving the country in the long term. He also stressed the importance of working with local governments. By cooperating with and listening to local leaders and community members, it is our hope that NGOs can avoid contributing to the problems caused by the parallel NGO management systems in Haiti.

Lessons for the future

The Haiti Hope Initiative offers a different path from short-term humanitarian aid by focusing instead on inclusive development. “Make sure that whatever you try to do within a country, you are empowering people,” Baddock advises. To do this, Hope for Haiti works with community members to invest in a range of projects. For example, they support more than 6,000 students and direct money toward school supplies and teacher salaries. The NGO has also improved the water systems of more than 39,090 students, which has led to improved public health. Due to its successes in combating poverty and high standards of accountability, Hope for Haiti has become one of the country’s most respected NGOs, receiving a 94.32 / 100 overall performance review from Charity Navigator.

Haiti’s story is tragic and has an important lesson: While short-term assistance is a crucial part of responding to humanitarian disasters, it is by no means a suitable solution for development. Alternatively, Haitian NGOs can follow Hope’s example in Haiti and work to empower local people by creating training, education, healthcare, and physical infrastructure as pathways to long-term change.

– Jack McMahon Photo: Flickr

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