McLeod Group Blog, January 19, 2015
January 12 marked five years since the earthquake that devastated Haiti, killed over 230,000 citizens and rendered over three million people homeless, almost 30% of the country’s population. Since 2010, Haiti has received a great deal of media attention, been the subject of many promises of help (some of which have been honoured). It also experienced two major hurricanes in 2012 as well as an outbreak of cholera, believed to have been introduced by a contingent of UN soldiers. Equally if not more turbulent has been the Haitian political scene, where under the supervision of President Michel Martelly, a revolving door has been installed in the office of the prime minister.
Through all of this Haiti remains the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, ranking 161st out of 187 countries on the United Nations Human Development Index in 2013, down from 121st in 2012.
After the 2010 earthquake the Canadian government, NGOs, and individual Canadians were generous in supporting humanitarian efforts to aid the Haitian people. Over $200 million was contributed from Canada to multilateral and bilateral relief efforts. As recently as 2012, Canada gave $11.2 million in further humanitarian aid out of $92.12 million in official development assistance to Haiti. It is not surprising that Haiti continues to need humanitarian aid, as it is vulnerable to violent weather events (notably hurricanes but also major rainstorms) and the poorest Haitians are the most vulnerable of all, given the precariousness of their lives and livelihoods.
The main themes of Canada’s cooperation program with Haiti, one of DFATD’s countries of focus since 2009, are children and youth, and sustainable economic growth. Cross-cutting elements are democratic governance, equality between men and women (previously called gender equality) and the environment. The Canadian government describes the approach of our aid program as working ‘with Canadian, international and local partners to create the necessary conditions for a more prosperous future for Haitians.’
In 2013, in a visit to Haiti (his first as the newly appointed International Development Minister), Christian Paradis announced that Canada was reviewing its engagement with Haiti in order to maximise aid effectiveness and support achievement of sustainable results. It is understood that this meant a freeze on new bilateral assistance projects. The results of the review have never been announced.
Weak governance notwithstanding, there does seem to be money somewhere for Haiti. Recently announced projects are: in January 2014, a $20 million project with the International Organization for Migration to resettle in permanent housing persons displaced by the earthquake; in February 2014, extension of a municipal cooperation project ($19.1 million) with a number of Haitian cities and towns to succeed a project which expired at the end of 2013; and in June 2014 the inclusion of Haiti in a Global human rights education project worth $8.9 million over five years (shared with Senegal, Tanzania and Colombia). There is no mention in any of the announcements of a Haitian partner. All of these projects are with international organizations, outside the scope of the direct Canada-Haiti cooperation program.
On the fifth anniversary of the earthquake, Paradis announced that the Harper Government will spend $2.64 million over the next two years to rebuild Port-au-Prince’s fire station, supply a truck and equipment and train up to 140 Haitian first responders. That’s nice: a new fire truck for a metropolitan area with more than three million people.
Meanwhile, as indications of Canadians’ on-going concern for Haiti, we read about individual private initiatives such as the Kielburger brothers’ project in Dos Palais, outside the capital city of Port-au-Prince, and the Broken Earth project by a group of Ottawa-based medical personnel who spend several weeks at a time working in Haitian hospitals and clinics. But what long-term, sustainable value will these efforts have when Haiti’s structural problems, its extreme poverty and terribly skewed distribution of wealth remain?
There is no question that Haiti is a difficult place to work, a situation that prevailed even before the 2010 earthquake. But Haiti deserves better from Canada. Canadian development cooperation should address poverty reduction explicitly, in line with our Official Development Assistance Accountability Act. What will Canadians think of their government’s efforts when the next earthquake or hurricane strikes and thousands, or tens of thousands, lose their lives? Lives that could have been saved if we and Haitian partners had invested more seriously in poverty reduction, together with disaster risk reduction and preparedness for the most vulnerable.
It isn’t too late to start.