Research for Haiti

Corruption – Daniel Kaufman and Mushtaq Khan Interviewed by Owen Barder on “Development Drums”

You can read the transcript or listen to the pod cast of Development Drums’ Episode 20: Corruption which features an interesting conversation with Daniel Kaufman and Mushtaq Khan (see also) about corruption in development. This has been a frequent topic in discussions about Haiti recently.

Sadly, discussions of corruption in Haiti often focus—to the neglect of the seriousness and nuance of the topic—just on Haitian officials. This is a real deficiency in the conversation. Any serious conversation about corruption in Haiti needs to include a recognition of the role that forces outside the country have played (e.g., drug smuggling, gun running, past support for paramilitary groups, past support of opposition leaders of questionable democratic credentials, etc.) in corruption and governance problems in the country. The U.S. has come clean recently about the role the U.S. market for narcotics plays in the violence and corruption that is causing havoc in Mexico; discussions of corruption in Haiti need to include similar recognition before there is too much finger pointing.

Discussions of corruption also need to go beyond discussions of bribes and diversions of public funds. Kaufman has an interesting discussion about this here.

For me, though, the most important take home message from the podcast is that corruption should be viewed as a symptom as often as a cause of development problems. This is something I have mentioned to several people about Haiti but the point seems to fall on deaf ears, so it is nice to see it mentioned in the podcast. In the case of Haiti, it is the lack of governance capacity as much as and likely more so than corruption per se that is the barrier to development in Haiti. 

Photos of Resettlement Camp at Corail Cesselesse, Haiti on Flickr

Oxfam has uploaded some photos on Flickr of development taking place at Corail Cesseleese, the large track of land the government has set aside for new housing and urban planning. Read more about Corail Cesseleese and see maps of this large area in this previous post. If you search flickr for the phrase Corail Cesseleese

Vietnam's Viettel Invests in Haiti's Telecom Market

South-South investments are an interesting phenomenon. Here’s an article that claims that the “largest foreign direct investment after the earthquake” in Haiti is coming from Vietnam.

­Vietnam's largest mobile network operator, Viettel has signed a deal to upgrade Haiti's fixed line network in the country's largest foreign direct investment after the earthquake. Under a public-private partnership structured by World Bank's IFC, Viettel will initially invest US$59 million, and an additional US$40 million over four years, to upgrade services offered by fixed line operator Télécommunications d'Haiti (Teleco), creating a new company in which Viettel will hold a 60 percent stake and Banque de la République d'Haiti (BRH), Teleco and their affiliates will control the remaining 40 percent.

If you do a Google search on Viettel and Haiti, the articles seem a bit old, so it would be interesting to know if this is working out. It wasn’t clear to me who owns Viettel.

An Introduction to Haiti’s Problems and the Search for Solutions from the Earth Institute at Columbia University

Arikia Millikan over at Haiti Rewired found this excellent video from the Earth Institute at Columbia University on the problems facing Haiti: A Future for Haiti: Science and Solutions for a Beleaguered Nation. The voice of the speakers are a little soft and sleepy at times, but for people wanting an introduction to Haiti’s problems and some discussion of basic guidelines for finding solutions, this is a great place to start.

White House Requests $2.8 Billion for Haiti

Here’s the request (PDF, 412kb). A large chunk ($749,311,000) is for “International Assistance Programs” and appears to be cash that will be available to the State Department and USAID until Sept 2012 for:

infrastructure rehabilitation and technical assistance to the Government of Haiti to improve its public outreach capacity and facilitate its short-to-medium term operations with basic infrastructure and supplies…needs to essential services including shelter and supporting water, sanitation, healthcare, and electricity infrastructure. Funding will also be provided for necessary investments in agriculture, financing, farm to market roads, and major roads, bridges, and ports. (p.23).

Up to $120 million of this may go to a donor trust fund (presumably this is what President Clinton would help manage) and $212 million for debt relief.

There is a huge risk that years from now people will ask what happened to the billions “spent to rebuild Haiti” without realizing that much of that money was NOT on rebuilding. It was for rescue and relief efforts. As important as rescue and relief is, it does not “rebuild” the country. In addition, many other policy areas are addressed with this funding request that are or may be important (nearly quarter billion for narcotic control and for embassy reconstruction), but that are not, directly, rebuilding. This needs to be kept clear in journalists’ and commentators’ mind.

The total request is for $2.8 billion, but not all of this will translate into money for Haiti as some is to cover what has already been spent. It is also important to note that large chunks are for “logistics and security,” not for reconstruction. The breakdown:

• Dept of Agriculture:  $155,000,000. This is entirely for Food for Peace programs and includes reimbursement of funds already spent. Not clear how much is for reimbursement.
• Dept of Defense: $133,300,000 for the Army; $114,600,000 for the Navy; $18,700,000 for the Marines; $113,400,000 for the Air Force; $255,000,000 for Overseas Humanitarian, Disaster, and Civic Aid. This appears to be entirely reimbursement, but it is possible some of the funds being reimbursed are funds transferred to a disaster account but not spent. That DOD was one of the largest chunks of money listed in the OCHA spreadsheets means that this may not be substantially new money (but this is just a guess). The funds to OHDCA seems more likely to be for continuing programs. However, the funds appear to largely be for transport, salaries, support, and security. Little mention of the funds being used for more concrete programs.
• Dept of Health and Human Services: $220,000,000 for Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund. Note: This is the first part of the request to mention reconstruction (outside of requests for DOD to cover security for reconstruction).
• Dept of Homeland Security: $15,000,000 for Citizenship and Immigration Services. This is to help cover the Temporary Protected Status effort for Haitians in the United States, as well as other refugee programs (resettlement).
• Dept of Homeland Security: $45,000,000 for Coast Guard. People often assume that the US Coast Guard is in the DOD, but it is part of DHS. This is for “maintenance” as well as reimbursements, so some funds appear to be for ongoing efforts in Haiti.
• Dept of State: $65,000,000 for Diplomatic and Consular Programs; $84,500,000 for Embassy Security, Construction, and Maintenance (“replace U.S. Embassy housing damaged in the earthquake and meet requirements for safe and secure housing for 150 permanent United States Government direct hire staff in Haiti,” p.18); $96,500,000 for Contributions to International Peacekeeping Activities (United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH)); $143,489,000 for International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement.
• Dept of Treasury: $690,000 for additional staff.
• (US Agency for International Development) International Assistance Program, Economic Support Fund: $749,311,000 of which $120 million can go to a multi-donor fund. See also opening paragraphs of this post.
• (US Agency for International Development) International Assistance Program, International Affairs Technical Assistance Program: $7,100,000 for costs incurred before this request was made and for advisors to Haiti’s Finance Ministry and Central Bank.
• (US Agency for International Development) International Assistance Program, International Disaster Assistance: $350,700,000 “for, among other activities, search and rescue efforts to locate victims, medical supplies and care, food, water, and sanitation needs, shelter, livelihoods support, and communications and logistical support” (p.25).
• (US Agency for International Development) International Assistance Program, Office of Inspector General: $1,500,000 for oversight.
• (US Agency for International Development) International Assistance Program: $212,000,000 for  “the Inter-American Development Bank, International Development Association, and the International Fund for Agricultural Development as a grant, as part of a multi-donor deal in which the United States has agreed to participate, for the purpose of cancelling debts owed by Haiti to those institutions” (p.28). Note: This section of the request is rather confusing as it also refers to funds already discussed elsewhere in the request and a potential additional $40 million for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Trust Fund, which seems to be about something other than this $212,000,000.
• Voice of America: $5,220,000

Relief: Utilizing Local Talent and Subsidizing Local Markets

Instead of throwing huge bags of rice at crowds, now might be the right time  for the government and donor nations to emphasize facilitating the rebirth of food markets in Haiti.

This can be done and prices kept low by building temporary market spaces and subsidizing the transport of a variety of food from the countryside, the Dominican Republic, and other nations to be sold at greatly reduced prices to timachann (literally, “little merchants”) who then sell them at the neighborhood markets. (See this wonderfully colorful and well written post by Bev Bell on successful community organizing with timachann in Carrefour-Feuilles, Haiti.)

At the same time, a campaign to provide farmers with seeds and tools, should be launched immediately as planting season is coming up so. Sadly, donors are far behind on raising funds for agriculture and food projects in Haiti. Hopefully, with all the money that has been raised by rescue and relief operations some of these millions can be re-granted to organizations on the ground and in the countryside that can help ensure Haiti has the best 2010 harvest possible.

Aid for Haiti: What kind? Planned by whom? For Whom?

The editor of Wired shares on their popular new blog Haiti Rewired some honest reflections on how hard it is for people to assess what it is Haiti will need:

Perhaps naturally, as the editor of Wired.com, I've been consciously and unconsciously framing the reconstruction in terms of delivering telecom service over mesh networks, bootstrapping data mashups to bring a Web 3.0 layer to the relief, delivering green tech and so on. Sexy.

Here's what the Lambi Funds wants: Electric grain mills for grinding corn and millet, a portable irrigation pump, ox ploughs, a goat breeding program, a fishing boat and reforestation.

Bad aid starts with ignorance and condescension.

(As an aside: technophiles may wish to take a look at this list of cautionary tips by the people at Catapult Design.) In addition to the plan from Lambi Fund, one can look at this rough plan that a priest in the rural community Fondwa made. Fondwa's agriculture school (one of only a few in the countryside in Haiti) and other community buildings suffered damage from the earthquake. Note that these plans, general as they are, focus on very concrete and immediate needs rooted in the experience of projects under the control of local leaders.

On a completely different scale then the mistakes that some individual donors or observers may make, International Organizations (IOs) and International NGOs (INGOs) run the risk of selecting goals that favor their own organizational needs (the literature on this is mixed but the concern is certainly fair). As I have posted before, albeit regarding peacekeeping operations, large international programs can have economic impacts that are not easy to discern from the outset. Moreover, there are important questions about the transparency and accountability of the planning process for the expenditure of hundreds of millionsof dollars that have been raised by INGOs or committed by donor nations (pledges which often never materialize). Who will be selecting the values and outcomes the projects aim for? Who will evaluate them and manage them? Will they improve or reduce self-determination in Haiti? (see Paul Farmer's testimony to the US Senate on this last point.)

On a related note, I want to get off my chest a pet peeve: It has been popular in the press recently to complain about the billions in international aid funds that "Haiti wasted." But for decades aid to Haiti was controlled by donors not Haitians, or at least not many Haitians. (I swear some journalists make it sound like they think all of Haiti got together in a soccer stadium and voted to spend aid money on lottery tickets.) While it is true that the Haitian government (at all levels) has grave weaknesses, the opportunity in Haiti now,it seems to me, calls for strengthening and developing Haitian government, not acting like the Duvaliers are still hanging around. The fact is there is an associational life in Haiti that is very rich, indicating democratic skills rivaling those at which US citizens are famously believed to excel. (For examples: See this article by Media Global for also about Fondwa. And, to finish off your dose on the interesting work that has been going on in Fondwa see this documentary; the portion on development begins about half way through).

 

 

Direct Giving and Microloans: Fonkoze Launches New Organization

Fonkoze and others are about to launch a new program named Zafen that will offer "a secure, easy and reliable online tool for making loans or donations to specific, viable projects in Haiti that has not before been available to those who wish to invest there."

Zafen will focus on donations and/or loans to groups, not individuals. Moreover, in contrast to some other microloan groups, Zafen says donors' gifts or loans will fund projects in "real time," meaning they will not gather funds in the name of an individual or group but really use the donation to backfill prior loans.

It is not clear yet how this all will work, but given Fonkoze's past great work, it will be something to watch (read about their general anti-poverty strategy here). Here are some photos from Jan. 25th showing Fonkoze staff working in open-air makeshift offices to help Haitians access their banking services. That their staff, in the midst of all that is going on around them in Haiti, can pull their organization out of the rubble (literally!) and put it back together so quickly is very heartening.