Research for Haiti

Groups Issue Letter to Key Congressional Staffers Urging a More Flexible Approach to Food Aid

More than two dozen organizations have signed a letter to Congress asking the US to purchase food aid in Haiti in order to play “a more constructive role” in food security policy. This echoes comments President Preval made earlier about food aid. They also mention the importance of identifying and tackling barriers to increased agricultural productivity, including:

the absence of credit, anti­quated tools, dam­aged irri­ga­tion sys­tems, pro­hib­i­tively high fer­til­izer prices, sub­si­dized rice, and food aid that under­cuts their sales.

An earlier post pointed to a hortatory essay by development expert John Mellor on the vital importance of agricultural development in poverty reduction.

In a quote in Haiti Liberte, President Clinton referred to the dumping of rice in nations like Haiti as a “devil’s bargain”:

[There was an economic theory that] you would free [the poorest nations by giving food aid] to skip agricultural development and go straight into an industrial era. And it’s failed everywhere it’s been tried. And you just can’t take the food chain out of production … it also undermines a lot of the culture, the fabric of life, the sense of self-determination... And we made this devil’s bargain on rice. And it wasn’t the right thing to do. We should have continued to work to help them be self-sufficient in agriculture. (April 13, 2010; English language version)

 

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

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

News: US Senate Hearings on Haiti (Jan 28, 2010)

Haiti: From Rescue to Recovery and Reconstruction was the title of a hearing yesterday held by the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee. On the link you can watch the video of the hearing (as of today the first 32 minutes of the on-line video is just silence, so if you move the slider over about one-quarter of the way, the hearing starts).

Paul Farmer continues to be the most prominent voice on Haiti that does not seem to fear telling truth to power. While many commentators blame the Haitian government for everything and anything (indeed one feels that many commentators seem to think that the Duvaliers are still in power), Farmer points out the intricate relation of the the US and Haiti and how that affects the ability of Haiti to have a sound public administration. For instance, Dr. Farmer wrote in his testimony:

Many of us worry that, if past is prologue, Haitians themselves will be blamed for this torpor. But as we have argued before, there are serious problems in the aid machinery, and these have contributed to the "delivery challenges" on the ground. The aid machinery currently at work in Haiti keeps too much overhead for its operations and still relies overmuch on NGOs or contractors who do not observe the ground rules we would need to follow to build Haiti back better. The fact that there are more NGOs per capita in Haiti than in any other country in the hemisphere is in part a reflection of need, but also in part a reflection of overreliance on NGOs divorced from the public health and education sectors.

Haiti will continue to need the contractors, and the NGOs and mission groups, but more importantly we will need to create new ground rules—including a focus on creating local jobs for Haitians, and on building the infrastructure that is crucial to creating sustainable economic growth and ultimately reducing Haiti's dependence on aid.

Dr. Rony Francois, a Haitian American and the Director of Public Health in Georgia, emphasized in his testimony that long term development focus on reducing the population concentration in P-a-P by developing the outlying cities.