How we can REALLY Help Haiti

By Asoka Ranaweera

The writer is the founder and CEO of a company that advises investors on structuring investments and developing projects in West, East and Central Africa

America’s response to what happened in Haiti is more than generous and given the circumstances entirely appropriate. Whenever there is a crisis Americans give and do so without reservation. While we focus our attention on meeting the most immediate of needs in Haiti, we also should bear in mind that the process of rebuilding and healing will take a lot of time and resources.

What is happening now takes me back 5 years to the Tsunami that struck Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and many other countries. At that time America’s response was robust and private contributions alone exceed more than a $ 1 billion dollars. In the aftermath of the Tsunami, international non-governmental agencies (INGOs), local NGOs, relief and humanitarian groups were flush with cash and with promises to rebuild for the long term.

However, the fruits of our collective generosity were often misused. And for years after the Tsunami the poorest of the poor, the supposed beneficiaries of our empathy, had yet to see a single house rebuilt, a school refurbished, a road paved and/or even a cent directed towards them.

In some countries, INGOs set up shop, accommodating themselves in the most expensive hotels and importing luxury SUVs, to enable them to move amidst the devastation. In Sri Lanka INGOs were in some instances asked to demolish and rebuild houses because they did not meet local building standards.

As reconstruction delays mounted in key Tsunami affected areas Sri Lanka was forced to ask INGOS to either do the job that they had promised to do or to leave the country altogether. And it appears that in some instances funds that were collected and designated for Tsunami reconstruction ended up as part of the general operating budgets of INGOs and relief agencies.

Domestic NGOs meanwhile, displayed much finesse for copying some of the more unsavory practices of their international counterparts, and more than once there were numerous allegations of outright fraud committed by them. And almost inevitably these large sums of money that were supposed to benefit the people instead became catalysts for government corruption. Recently it was alleged that the government of one of the most affected countries was unable to account for $470 million in Tsunami reconstruction funds. An account that I must point out, this country has vigorously denied internationally, on the basis of these allegations being politically motivated.

After Hurricane Katrina, rebuilding New Orleans, with so many resources available to us in America, proved to be an on-going challenge. We can only ponder and imagine what it will take to do the job in Haiti given that it is one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere. The one thing that I think we would all want for Haiti is to ensure that our contributions are genuinely utilized on behalf of its people.

In order to really help Haiti let’s begin by setting some basic boundaries that international and domestic NGOS as well as relief agencies should follow:

1. Demand complete transparency in how funds are collected and are spent including itemizing each major expenditure and evaluating its impact locally project by project.

2. Ensure that as much local expertise both technical and non-technical is used during reconstruction and that we lessen our dependence on expensive overseas advisers and consultants.

3. Similarly that local inputs and resources are used as often as possible once rebuilding gets underway, and proper checks and balances are put in place to ensure that ‘cost’ inflation does cause the price of ordinary raw materials and equipment to sky rocket.

4. And importantly that we consult all Haitian’s as equal stakeholders in their future about how we can assist them in rebuilding their country and when I say ‘all’ I mean everyone affected including people that are going to be destitute for a long time to come.

For our part as caring Americans many of whom are giving generously out of genuine empathy and of concern for Haiti, we should become critical monitors of the NGOs and relief agencies. We should carefully scrutinize each NGO and relief agency to make sure that our contributions are in fact being directed towards Haiti and its people.

The writer served as a volunteer at the Embassy of Sri Lanka in Washington DC during the Tsunami crisis assisting and advising the Ambassador and staff on a variety of issues from the complex to the routine.