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At the request of the Platform to Advocate Alternative Development in Haiti (PAPDA), Other Worlds has produced a new report, “From Disaster Aid to Solidarity: Best Practices in Meeting the Needs of Haiti’s Earthquake Survivors.” Written by Other Worlds Coordinator Beverly Bell, “From Disaster Aid to Solidarity” documents the problems with the international aid and reconstruction efforts in Haiti, and presents innovative alternative models of humanitarian relief.

From the executive summary:

The international response to Haiti’s earthquake, involving billions of dollars and led by the U.S. and U.N., comes with many problems. Notable ones are control of aid dollars, imposition of economic reconstruction plans, and militarism. Moreover, the Haitian state and grassroots have largely been denied formal opportunities to shape, or even engage in, the process. Nevertheless, ordinary Haitian citizens are engaged in their own humanitarian aid. With no more than their own hands, their slim resources, and their commitment to community, citizens have comprised the bulk of search-and-rescue teams, first responders, and ongoing aid providers. Behind the gestures are philosophies of solidarity, mutual aid, collective resilience, and resourcefulness.

Some grassroots groups have taken the same impulses and turned them into organized programs. They are offering shelter, medical care, community mental health care, food, water, children’s activities, leisure activities, and security. Some of the programs also offer education and a supportive social structure, while others provide a launching pad for community organizing to shape their country’s future. This report explores ten of these aid and support initiatives, which are only a small subset of those now underway throughout Haiti. Together, the efforts offer a different vision and practice of what ‘humanitarian’ means. And they serve as a guide to what a society which privileges mutual aid over profit, and democratic participation over domination, could look like.

http://www.otherworldsarepossible.org/another-haiti-possible/disaster-aid-report

Dear Congressional leaders:

As you consider the FY 2010 Haiti Supplemental for the Department of State and USAID, we urge you to allow for greater flexibility in how we deliver food aid, by permitting local or regional purchase of emergency food aid for Haiti, and the use of emergency non-food assistance, including vouchers, cash transfers, or safety-net programs.

The primary purpose of US food assistance to Haiti should be to address Haiti’s shocking nutrition and food security problems.  Nearly half the population is undernourished.  One-third of newborn babies are born underweight.  The World Food Program estimates that 2.4 million Haitians are food insecure.

Although Haiti has large urban areas, Haiti is predominately a rural and agricultural society.  More than two-thirds of Haitians rely on agriculture for their livelihood.  In past years, Haitian farmers produced most of the country’s food, and consumers ate a wider variety of staples and starches.  In the last 20 years, cheaply imported rice has overtaken other starches and cereals and undermined Haitian farmers.

There’s no reason that Haitian farmers shouldn’t feed Haiti again in the future.  And US food assistance can play a positive role, rather than contributing to the growing import dependence and declining rural sector.  But to play a more constructive role, US food assistance must be flexible.

The earthquake could exacerbate Haiti’s dependence on U.S. imports and foreign aid.  Or the assistance and reconstruction can assist with rural development, building a stronger agriculture sector and reducing food insecurity.  Imported rice from the United States has been a key part of the humanitarian aid response so far, and this food aid has been urgently needed in the short term to avert hunger.  But as Haiti rebuilds, Haitian farmers in the countryside could be the ones feeding the people in Port-au-Prince.  But they’re hampered by the absence of credit, antiquated tools, damaged irrigation systems, prohibitively high fertilizer prices, subsidized rice, and food aid that undercuts their sales.

Haitian President Rene Preval recently urged President Obama and other donors to stop providing food aid by the end of March in order to make room for purchase from national producers and help to let the Haitian people help themselves in the long-term.

As the world’s biggest food aid donor, our nation plays a vital role in responding to emergency food needs in Haiti and around the world. Developing a  more flexible approach to food aid for Haiti, including local and regional procurement of food, could help make our foreign assistance efforts even  more effective, more accountable, more efficient, and more likely to ensure that people who need assistance get it quickly, all while supporting Haitian farmers and citizens.

Signed,

ActionAid USA
American Jewish World Service
Bread for the World
CARE
Center for Economic and Policy Research
Church World Service
Columban Center for Advocacy and Outreach
Conference of Major Superiors of Men
Environmental Justice Initiative for Haiti
Food and Water Watch
Foreign Policy In Focus

Gender Action

Global Ministries of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ.
Groundswell International

Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti
Jesuit Refugee Service/USA
Lambi Fund of Haiti

Lutheran World Relief
Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
Mennonite Central Committee US Washington Office
Mercy Corps
Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, Justice Peace/Integrity of Creation Office
ONE

Outreach International
Oxfam America
Partners in Health
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Washington Office
Quixote Center/Haiti Reborn
Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights
TransAfrica Forum

United Church of Christ, Justice and Witness Ministries
United Methodist Church, General Board of Church and Society
Washington Office on Latin America

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Summary

• Haiti’s January 12 earthquake left up to 300,000 people dead, an equal number injured, and more than a million displaced; overall damage and loss are valued at $7.9 billion, or about 120 percent of Haiti’s 2009 gross domestic product.
• The immediate international response focused on rescue, the provision of humanitarian relief and security, and cleanup.
• The March 31 Donors’ Conference in New York yielded both a Haitian-led recovery and br development plan supported by international donors and a mechanism for coordinating donor allocated resources.
• Donors pledged more than $5 billion over the next 18 months.
• Activities initiated over the next 18 months must support longer-term strategies to revitalize all of Haiti, including long neglected rural areas.
• Haiti’s decentralized recovery and development must address its debilitating inequality and poverty while strengthening the capacity of the government.

About This Brief

This report is based on a February 25 panel presentation sponsored by USIP’s Haiti Working Group to discuss “Haiti: Six Weeks Later.” The panel consisted of Reverend Tom Streit, director of the Haiti Program and research assistant professor of Biological Sciences, University of Notre Dame; Mary Beth Sheridan, diplomatic correspondent, The Washington Post; Tim Sullivan, manager of the Center for Defense Studies, American Enterprise Institute; and Dr. Robert Maguire, chairman of USIP’s Haiti Working Group and former Jennings Randolph Senior Fellow and associate professor, Trinity Washington University. Robert Perito, director of USIP’s Haiti Program, served as moderator.

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WASHINGTON — Overwhelmed by sadness, empathy and disbelief, the world’s eyes and hearts are focused on the rescue and relief efforts resulting from the earthquake in Haiti.

However, many who have worked in Haiti fear that a preventable and long-term disaster lies on the horizon if international interventions do not break with past patterns. As international aid pours into Haiti, we have a brief moment to avoid past mistakes and bring real change to Haiti.

During the eight years that the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights has partnered with the grassroots medical group Zanmi Lasante/Partners In Health in Haiti, we have witnessed U.S and international aid efforts that could be characterized, at best, as unsustainable and, at worst, deliberately harmful.

In 2000, the U.S. and the Inter-American Development Bank approved millions of dollars of what would have been lifesaving loans to improve water, health, education and road infrastructure. Later these funds were withheld because of the U.S. government’s opposition to then President Bertrand Aristide. While the loans were eventually released, 10 years later the communities where the very first water projects were to be financed still lack access to reliably clean drinking water, contributing to countless deaths due to waterborne illness.

In 2004, the international community pledged $1 billion to support Haiti. The RFK Center, along with Zanmi Lasante and the NYU Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, tried to track the fulfillment of those pledges, but never received clear and consistent answers from donor states on the status of the aid. With no transparency or coordinating body to turn to, the Haitian people had no hope of knowing if that money ever got to Haiti, much less where it was directed and how it could be used to improve their communities. Haitian government sources later confirmed that most of the pledges had never been fulfilled.

In 2008, after hurricanes ravaged the country, the international community convened another donor conference resulting in more than $324 million in pledges. Before the earthquake, most of those pledges had still not been fulfilled.

Historically, interventions in Haiti have been viewed through the lens of charity. The international community, NGOs, international organizations and donor states have gathered time and again to announce to the world pledges of support, only to quietly back away from these commitments.

The goodwill of the international community is certainly critical today to Haiti’s future but charity alone will not be enough to rebuild a safer and more sustainable Haiti. Only by forging a new path, guided by a commitment to the human rights of the Haitian people, can the international community help to create real, lasting change.

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Charity is a personal act of choice with no real repercussions. Human rights are legal obligations, grounded in our shared acknowledgement of human dignity — something that every government must respect and no government can take away.

In the aftermath of this disaster, every country and international organization working toward recovery in Haiti needs to ensure that their actions will promote the respect and dignity of the Haitian people based on constitutionally and internationally recognized rights to water, health and education.

By partnering with the Haitian government and local communities in assessing the nation’s recovery needs and making long-term pledges to support the government of Haiti in meeting these needs, donors can pave a sustainable path towards recovery. Additionally, the donor nations should commit to making their aid transparent so every Haitian knows where funds are going. Accountability mechanisms are needed to ensure that the government of Haiti, the international community and NGOs use these funds appropriately.

As the world looks for a way to help Haiti rebuild after the earthquakes, the international community has the opportunity to avert a second man-made disaster. The United States and other international donor states and institutions must act now to end a painful history of irresponsible aid policies in Haiti. In acting immediately, as recovery plans are developed, we can honor the survivors of this tragedy by supporting Haitians as they build a better Haiti.

Kerry Kennedy is President and founder of the RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights. Monika Kalra Varma is Director of the RFK Center for Human Rights.