Haiti: Summing all Fears about Haiti’s Humanitarian Assistance

“Of course, there is a lot of resistance to change, especially when some of the largest recipients of contracts in Haiti are the for-profit development companies that hired a lobbyist to push back on these reforms,” declared Research Associate Jake Johnston, who co-authored “Breaking Open the Black Box: Increasing Aid Transparency and Accountability in Haiti” with Senior Associate for International policy Alexander Main, a report the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) published earlier this month, which uncovered an opaque black hole that swallowed “Build Haiti Back Better.”

Main and Johnston’s alarming report confirmed the nightmare scenario Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck produced in his recent documentary, “Fatal Assistance,” was real, and perhaps, even worse than imagined. Peck coined the phrase “business as usual,” drawing attention to what he called monstrous chaos and a human fiasco. Highlighting how the international community neglected dialoguing with the natives, often ignoring their real needs and omitted their government from any meaningful reconstruction projects, Peck’s documentary painted NGOs as enemies of the state, rather than friends of Haiti. “NGOs are becoming institutions that depend more and more on public funds, while their logic is not to be there permanently,” said former President Jean Bertrand Aristide’s Minister of Culture. “That’s exactly what happens in Haiti,” he added. “They gradually acquire more responsibilities from the state in areas, such as healthcare, education, and agriculture.”

CEPR’s report pointed out that while traces of concrete reconstruction efforts were elusive, leaders manifestly excluded Haitian businesses and organizations, and worse, U.S. for-profit companies, the disproportionate recipients of reconstruction contracts and/or grants, sabotaged rebuilding initiatives, lobbying against pertinent reforms. Johnston’s interview with the International Press Service (IPS) left little doubt about United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) abhorrent obstructionist behavior, going to great lengths to prevent public disclosure. As Joe Hitchon reported for IPS, “Johnston says he personally was blocked by USAID while doing research for the new report, in both the United States and in Haiti, where he says agency officials refused to meet with him during a recent month of research in the country.” Even invoking the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) did not suffice, as USAID wrapped a “proprietary” red tape around any disclosed information.

This lack of transparency, explained the researcher, eroded trust both in Haitian beneficiaries and U.S. taxpayers, which, according to the report, obligated $3.6 billion for assistance to Haiti, $2.5 billion of which disbursed primarily through USAID by September 2012. “I estimated that three billion dollars in U.S. public funds has been distributed to various NGOs and private contractors around the world,” said Johnston. “And we just don’t know what has happened afterward,” concerns that Vijaya Ramachandran, senior fellow at the Centre for Global Development (CGD) echoed during an interview with Hitchon. “I am very much in agreement,” she said. “We just don’t know where this money has gone.”

Rejecting USAID’s notion that the competitive nature of international contract bidding required certain information remained secret, “It is important that the citizens of Haiti be actually helped by these funds, and we can only know that if we can see how the money was spent,” she said to Hitchon. “So I think this information is important also to the recipient side.” For his part, Johnston agreed that transparency and accountability were instrumental, “It’s also important and U.S. taxpayers, who are funding these operations, have faith they are being carried out efficiently.”

Asked if he were not worried his powerful indictment against donors and NGOs would cause a backlash that would alienate them, “From an Haitian perspective, it doesn’t even matter,” answered Peck. “When less than, 2.5 percent of the contracts were signed by local entrepreneurs, 97.5 percent of the contracts were awarded to foreign companies, the vast majority of which from donor countries,” he added. In fact, CEPR’s report found that USAID awarded only 0.7 percent of its contract to Haitian business and organizations. “It’s business as usual,” decried Peck. “Aid funding contractors from donor countries.”