Research for Haiti

Cash grants after a natural disaster and for development? Exciting evidence from Oxfam Great Britain projects in Zambia and Viet Nam

Duncan Green of Oxfam Great Britain has posted a blog summarizing and commenting on evidence from Zambia that cash grants can be very efficient and effective ways to provide assistance following a disaster. More details can be found in this report (PDF, 305kb; page three of that course lists the way to get an extended evaluation). The report and Duncan’s blog comment in particular on women’s experiences with the program and with a “complaint box” system that was used. Details on how the grants were spent are in the report, too. Overall, I think this is very exciting, especially as it reduces the need for expensive staff consultants (although oversight is, of course, needed).

On March 15th, the International Herald Tribune also had an opinion piece by Floyd Whaley on Oxfam Great Britain using cash grants in Viet Nam in 2006.  Of course, people are often highly critical of cash grants in welfare states. Responding to this Whaley adds:

“Welfare payments in the U.S. and Europe are long-term, small payments,” he [Steve Price-Thomas, the Vietnam country director of Oxfam Great Britain] said. “This was a large, one-off transfer, which households knew was coming for months in advance so they could plan for it and avoid the windfall effect.”

He also notes the Oxfam program is not meant to replace existing development initiatives. “In the particular case of this program, the lives of a significant number of households have changed for the better and that change is still apparent three years later,” he says. “That doesn’t mean we should stop worrying about education services and women’s political participation and the many other aspects of development assistance. This is a useful tool, but not the only one.”

It’s unlikely that the billions of dollars in development aid that is spent annually will ever be turned over to the poor without conditions, but the Oxfam program deserves a closer look by traditional development organizations.

Here's a guide from Oxfam on cash grants, the link takes you to a page where you can get the guide as a PDF or order it from the UK: Cash-Transfer Programming in Emergencies : A Practical Guide.

There are several organizations in Haiti that could facilitate such a program which could be targeted to families that are housing relatives from the earthquake-damaged areas and which could help ensure that Haiti’s harvest this year excels. It sounds as if the largest grants in the Vietnam case were for just under $400; so while small they were substantial grants to the families, many of the grants were relatively small interventions.

More once I get the full evaluation. Thoughts?

People of Haitian Ancestry in the US by State: 2006-2008 American Community Survey Data

While talking with some people the other night at a showing of the movie Poto Mitana Haitian-American woman mentioned how surprised she was at the number of Haitians she ran into while traveling through Georgia. So, using the American Community Survey, I created an Excel file of the Haitian population by state (2006-2008) (28kb). Note that this is based on self-reported data, so it certainly undercounts the numbers. Also, the data is a few years old. However, since the "undercounting" is likely fairly even across states, the relative sizes by state are interesting to see.

I was surprised to see the population in FL double that of NY and NY, in turn, double that of MA. Also, due to the margins of error, you could say that MA and NJ nearly tie for third. GA, PA, and CT all tie for fourth. Given the number of Haitians in Maryland, I was surprised that VA has so much fewer, and that it lost out to both IL and CA!  Again, it is unknown what number of Haitians do not report ancestry. I will see if I can ring up somebody at Census to get their thoughts on estimating that number.

Here's a summary table of the top states (the file linked above has all states) :

Geography	Universe: TOTAL ANCESTRY CATEGORIES TALLIED FOR PEOPLE WITH ONE OR MORE ANCESTRY CATEGORIES REPORTED: Haitian (Estimate)	Margin of Error (+/-)
Florida	359,197	9,766
New York	181,808	7,121
Massachusetts	60,210	4,121
New Jersey	56,816	4,650
Georgia	19,642	2,651
Pennsylvania	18,455	2,608
Connecticut	16,864	2,483
Maryland	10,626	2,253
Illinois	8,938	1,932
California	8,355	1,422
Virginia	5,010	1,191

Update: Tracking the $3 Billion and Now Private Funds

A prior post provided some early thoughts on where the money is going and where it is coming from. I know see an interesting "make a table" function at Relief Web that presents data from the Financial Tracking System (FTS) of the UN. The page and the instructions are a little confusing, but here's the table I produced (I move to the second tab some text the table generates, sorted by recipient (called "appealing agency" awkwardly fy FTS, and I hid some columns to make the table tidier, but not date was removed). The figures are updated from the prior post and it has more details (as well as fewer acronyms). Please try out the make a table function and let me know if you get something different.

I think it is urgent that larger recipient groups begin re-granting to small NGOs in Haiti, especially in the countryside, to jump start relief efforts that are focused on the planting season, on decentralizing population, and on putting people to work. This should be tracked, too, so the grants are transparent and that we know where the money is finally going and for what.

The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) has a Haiti Relief and Reconstruction Watch blog set up. They note that the Federal Procurement Data System has set up a special page for accessing data on US government contracts in Haiti (note: you have to set up a free account to access the data). I have not had a chance to play with it yet, but CEPR discusses what they have learned on their page. Press and advoactes will be making lots of heat around for-profit contractors (especially those that have parent companies with financial interests in Haiti, or that have had scandals in their past) receiving money for work in Haiti.

Where is the $3 Billion to Haiti Going?

Relief Web has posted some tables on the amounts INGOS and donor nations are giving to Haiti. I had an analysis posted here, but the formatting was going haywire for some reason. The observations I made are now in this file.

Data: Statistical Profiles of Haitians and Haitian-Americans in the US

The Census Bureau has a statistical profile on Haitians and Haitian-Americans living in the US. The data come from the American Community Survey which includes questions about ethnicity and nativity of respondents. The ACS essentially, asks the questions that are on the "long form" of the decennial Census; however, it surveys a small sample of people each year so that estimates on can be generated on a rolling basis instead of just every ten years. The ACS, which began just a few years ago, is a big boon to data users. Sample questionnaire here.

Some observations from or about this profile:

•  About 785,000 people identified as Haitian or Haitian-American. NOTE: This is very likely an undercount as the surveys were from 2006 to 2008 and many people may not respond to questions about ancestry. Also, children of parents of differing ethnicities may only select one or the other.
  
• Of the 785,000, 306,000 were born in the US, and  479,000 were born outside the US.  
  
• Of these 479,000 born outside the US, 222,000 are US citizens (i.e., have naturalized), and 257,000 are non US citizens.
    
• About 18 percent report that they speak only English at home and 38 percent speak English "less than well" (note: this is self reported, so caveat lector).

While the Haitian population is younger than the population as a whole (median age 29 compared to 38 for the entire nation), 70 percent are 18 years old or older. Roughly then, there are over 500,000 citizens of Haitian descent of which 350,000 are of voting age. Even if highly concentrated geographically, this is a substantial number for organizing to influence US policy towards Haiti, Haitian immigrants, and Haitian-American interests.

UPDATE (Feb. 8, 2010):  I also checked another Census survey, the Current Population Survey (Nov. 2008), to see how many people said they were either born in Haiti or one parent or both were born in Haiti. Again, this data is self-reported and obviously misses some people. The numbers, however, are higher than the ACS sited above. Here's a quick snapshop (rounded):

• Native US citizen born in the US with one or more parents born in Haiti:  377,500
• Native US citizen born overseas with one or more parents born in Haiti:  9,800
• Naturalized US Citizen born in Haiti or with one or more parents born in Haiti:  254,700
• Non-US Citizen born in Haiti or with one or more parents born in Haiti: 243,500
• Total:  885,400