March 17, 2014
It is now more than four years since a devastating earthquake struck Haiti, killing over 200,000 and leaving over 3 million homeless. The poorest country in the Western hemisphere, at that point still recovering from hurricanes in 2008, saw the poorest segment of its population affected by an even more severe natural disaster.
The outpouring of sympathy and support from countries in the hemisphere, and beyond, was swift and massive. Governments pledged large amounts and sent relief teams, the multilateral humanitarian system mobilised its resources, and private citizens around the world made their own, personal gifts to civil society organisations in reaction to the images of suffering and destruction communicated by the media.
Canada and Canadians were among the leaders in the humanitarian response, committing almost $200 million to relief efforts as part of a response, which also included the deployment of the DND DART medical team/hospital and special visa arrangements allowing over 4,000 Haitians entry into Canada.
As well, though of dubious value to Haitians, many Canadian political leaders trooped off to Haiti in solidarity and for photo-ops, including the Governor General, Michaëlle Jean, Prime Minister Harper, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon, Development Minister Bev Oda, and Defence Minister Peter McKay.
Many pronouncements and commitments were made during these visits, though little has been said by the Harper government since about what has been achieved. There have, however, been interesting statements by the last two Canadian ministers of international cooperation, Julian Fantino and Christian Paradis. Mr Fantino travelled to Haiti in November 2012 to advise the Haitian authorities that “…the Government of Canada and Canadians expect transparency and accountability from the Government of Haiti, given Canadians significant level of generosity.”
This was a few weeks after Hurricane Sandy had struck Haiti, smashing up public buildings such as clinics and schools and leaving 27,000 more families with damaged homes. During his visit to Haiti in August 2013, Mr Paradis told government leaders that Canada expected to see improvements in political processes in that country, including elections for the senate and at the municipal level. The Minister did not comment on reports that Canadian assistance to Haiti was being scaled down and would admit only that a review was underway. As of mid-February, 2014, the review is still ongoing.
In a document prepared by CIDA in early 2013, assessing Canada’s “countries of focus” and obtained by The Globe and Mail, in heavily redacted form, Haiti is described as being key to Canada’s regional interests such as mitigating organised crime, advancing democratic values and reducing poverty.
According to the CIDA paper, Haiti has the highest rate of infant and maternal mortality in the Americas, ranks 158 out of 187 countries on the Human Development Index, is highly dependent on aid flows and remittances and has an unfavourable business environment as well as weak government and services.
The “Bottom line” section of this paper notes that Haiti is of long-term foreign policy interest to Canada, citing the large Haitian diaspora in Canada. Mention is also made of the “significant” commitments Canada has made in political and development capital over the past decades. Unfortunately the rest of the text is redacted, so the conclusion and recommendation(s) are not known.
Currently, more than 150,000 Haitians are living in camps for displaced persons. The country accounted for one-half of the world’s cases of cholera in 2013. Approximately one million Haitians live in a condition of food insecurity. The country is highly vulnerable to natural disasters, especially violent weather events such as hurricanes which are likely to increase in frequency and intensity as a consequence of climate change.
In the view of Concertation pour Haiti (CPH), a Québec coalition working on human rights, much of Canada’s aid is spent on band-aid activities and not on tackling systemic issues related to poverty, gender inequality and environmental deterioration. In the view of this organisation, the Canadian government’s priorities in Haiti appear to favour assisting Canadian mining companies to obtain local authorities’ approval for projects which are highly disadvantageous regarding royalty payments, employment of Haitians and environmental protection.
Announcements of Canadian initiatives in Haiti posted on the DFATD website give prominence to one-off, humanitarian assistance-related activities such as an emergency field hospital in Gonaives, school feeding programs (a World Food Program activity), relocation of families displaced by the earthquake and hurricanes to camps with better conditions, and through the UN Population Fund improvements in displaced persons camps to make them safer for women.
There is no mention of local partners, whether governmental or civil society, leading Haitians to conclude, as the country’s ambassador to Canada, Frantz Liautaud, said in September last year, “The reality is that you cannot be held accountable for programs that you don’t run.”
Canadians need answers to questions about how much of our assistance is going to build Haitian institutions in order to reduce Haiti’s vulnerability to natural disasters and economic shocks. There is little if any evidence that the Canada-Haiti relationship is a shared partnership, which recognizes Haitian ownership of development activities in that country.
The true value of the development cooperation relationship for Canadian taxpayers lies in proof that we are contributing to sustainable development, stability, poverty reduction and equity in Haiti. We need more transparency in Ottawa regarding the substance of our assistance, in keeping with Canada’s membership in the International Aid transparency Initiative. After all, transparency should be a two-way street.
Four years after the earthquake, we don’t really know where the money has gone.