Haiti receives billions in emergency aid, but it is short-term aid

After the earthquake in 2010, aid organizations queued up in Haiti. There are many horror stories about the helpers making the situation more difficult.

So far this year, life for Haitians has gone from bad to worse.

Heavily armed gangs have long controlled the capital area. Now they are in the process of taking control in other parts of the country. The aid organizations focus on health care. But few believe that the system that creates the distress can be changed.

From 2011 to 2021, Haiti received $13 billion in development aid, according to The New York Times. This corresponds to almost NOK 140 billion.

Norad’s statistics show that Norway has contributed NOK 890 million in the same period.

So far in the 2000s, aid has accounted for approximately 8 percent of Haiti’s national income, writes The Economist. Critics call the country an “aid republic”, because of all the aid projects. But Haiti is still one of the world’s poorest countries.

The experts The New York Times spoke to believe that it is the elite who have enjoyed the aid money the most. For the government, the cash flow means it can delay necessary reforms.

The money disappears

Earlier this year, Jake Johnston published the book “Aid State” about Haiti. He is a senior researcher at the American Center for Policy Research and an expert on Haiti.

He directs the main accusations against Haiti’s government. The US government’s aid agency USAID is also heavily criticized, along with other governments and NGOs.

Johnston believes that much of the aid is primarily for the benefit of the donors and the elite in Haiti.

An example of such “help” is that the USA bought 130 tonnes of genetically modified seed from the industrial giant Monsanto. If the farmers in Haiti had received cash, they could buy seed for a fraction of the price locally. It would also bring money into the local economy.

Stability above all

Johnston believes that American aid in particular is aimed at stability rather than economic development. The United States is doing what it can to stop the flow of refugees across the sea.

The UN had a force in Haiti from 2004 to 2017. It ended with revelations of how young girls were subjected to sexual abuse. And soldiers from Nepal brought cholera with them, which led to a major epidemic.

That is why there is great skepticism about new, armed help from abroad.

Can’t solve the big problems

For a quarter of a century, Johan Hindahl has visited Haiti almost annually. He is a country adviser in the Norwegian Church Aid.

At times, such as after the powerful earthquake in 2010, Haiti has been said to have the world’s highest concentration of international aid workers. Critics believe that the aid organizations tried to do the government’s job.

Hindahl understands that criticism, and says that not all aid contributes to giving the population a state that takes care of them. At the same time, he believes it is necessary to provide aid in a country where the government is obviously unable to take care of the population.

– The Church’s Aid and those we work with cannot solve the major problems in Haiti, but we can help some people, he says.

Efforts are now directed towards villages in the south-west of the island. The main emphasis is on drilling wells and providing the population with clean water.

Reopened hospital

Lindis Hurum is secretary general of Doctors Without Borders and has worked in Haiti for many years. She was also there after the earthquake in 2010, when hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives.

– The situation has changed in recent years. Now there aren’t that many aid organizations left, she says.

The situation for those who work there has simply become too dangerous. Recently, Doctors Without Borders had to temporarily close a hospital in Port-au-Prince. But Hurum clarifies that they still have active work on the island. The hospital has now reopened.

She says they have to negotiate with the gangs to be able to get equipment from the neighboring Dominican Republic.

– They are really heavily armed with automatic weapons, which is why they manage to paralyze large parts of the capital and all access roads, she says.

Hurum says that many of the gang members were young when the earthquake struck.

– After the earthquake, a lot of help came in and for several years it gave hope to the population that the disaster could lead to a recovery in the long term. But now hope has turned to despair and anger. Then it is easy for the gangs to recruit because they offer money, solidarity and drugs, she says.

Short-term help

Håvard Mokleiv Nygård is director of the “Department for Knowledge” at Norad. His department is responsible for analyzing how the Norwegian aid money is used.

He says that much of the Norwegian support for Haiti has been emergency aid after natural disasters.

– The aim is to save lives and alleviate distress here and there. The answer to whether it helps is that it would be even worse without the effort. Aid is not supposed to produce economic growth.

Nygård says that longer-term aid usually depends on authorities who actually want the best for their own population, and don’t just want to put the money in their own pockets.

Haiti is an example of a country where it is very difficult to contribute to the population getting better in the long term.

– I don’t think it is controversial to say that Haiti has not been blessed with good leaders in recent years, he says.

Haiti can in many ways resemble the countries south of the Sahara, which are characterized by weak governments and strong warlords.

– What you can do in such countries is to look at the possibility of strengthening civil society, he says.

You can also have vaccination programmes, schools and well drilling, which help the population.

Nygård understands the criticism that the aid organizations can take over the work the government should be doing. It is not easy when the aid organizations come in to help after a natural disaster. After the first effort, it is natural to leave the follow-up to the government. But then perhaps there is no government that is ready.