T
here is no shortage of recommendations for
rebuilding Haiti. Key themes have emerged:
Lane Harthill/CRS
• Recovery must be Haitian-led.
• Efforts should build rather than undermine the capacity
of the Haitian government.
• Aid must be accountable, transparent, predictable, and
better coordinated.
• Haitian civil society, including members of the diaspora,
must have a seat at the table.
In a swift response to the January 2010 earthquake
in Haiti—one of the most catastrophic natural disasters
in modern history—the United States led a massive
humanitarian relief effort. A U.S. government interagency
taskforce, led by the Agency for International Development
(USAID), directed the early response, which deployed
search-and-rescue teams and military resources focused on
meeting basic needs such as clean water, medical assistance,
and food.
Nearly half of all Americans donated to Haiti relief. Haiti
captured the hearts and minds of top administration officials,
including Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. There
was a strong show of congressional support, including
hearings and the passage of debt cancellation legislation.
Months later, there is still a sense that Haiti is a top
priority. Strong momentum to rebuild the agriculture sector
and ongoing U.S. engagement with the government are part
of this.
Exeline Belcombe, 23, cares for her 4-month-old daughter Christline in a makeshift shelter with 12 members of her family at the
Petionville Club golf course.
With unprecedented levels of goodwill, focus, and
commitment to Haiti, there are still enormous hurdles in
laying the groundwork for a country-led recovery. Haiti’s
10-year national reconstruction plan includes a multi-donor
trust fund and an interim reconstruction authority to
oversee rebuilding. Over the next 18 months, these bodies
2 Briefing Paper, August 2010
will administer $5.5 billion in pledged funds. The actions
they take, combined with U.S. programs on the ground, will
chart the next decade of Haiti’s development. How can we
ensure better outcomes for Haiti’s people?
This paper outlines key challenges in moving Haiti from
relief to development. The mechanisms steering Haiti’s
recovery must prioritize meaningful civil society participation
and promote real transparency. They must not compromise
broader goals for quick short-term results. The United States
must lead by example. Our policies and programs should
be more cohesive, focused on building Haitian capacity, and
oriented toward long-term development.
Table 1: Earthquake Statistics at a Glance
Estimated Deaths: 230,000
Estimated Number of Displaced Individuals in
Haiti: More than 2 million
Estimated Number of Displaced Individuals in
Settlements: 1.69 million
Estimated Affected Population: 3 million
Source: USAID/OFDA, Haith-Earthquake, Fact Sheet #63, July 2010.
Relief, Recovery, and Development
More than $3 billion in relief aid has been raised; the
post-disaster surge of goodwill and concern meant wide-scale
delivery of food aid, emergency shelter, and medical care.
But enormous challenges remain.1 With an acute lack of
government capacity and a sordid history of foreign military
and humanitarian interventions, Haiti’s path to recovery is
proving frustratingly slow and uncertain.
In many respects, the country is still in the urgent relief
phase. An assessment of relief and recovery efforts to date,
released June 22, 2010, by the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, concludes that the rebuilding process has
essentially stalled. Key decisions—such as how to resettle
hundreds of thousands of people living in temporary
settlements—have not been made. In fact, after six months,
more than 1 million Haitians remain in hundreds of hastily
established, poorly managed camps, many of which lack basic
sanitation, adequate shelter, and predictable access to food.2
The committee report and other assessments point to the
need for greater donor coordination to distribute relief efforts
more evenly and improve living conditions more quickly.
Humanitarian and civil society organizations (CSOs) warn
of increasing crime, violence, and gender-based attacks in
internally displaced persons camps in Port-au-Prince.3 There
is little margin for error with the threat of disease outbreaks
and further environmental disasters looming.
The committee report reaffirms the need for a Haitianled recovery but notes the lack of a clear implementation