A woman digs with a machete as she builds a temporary home in a spontaneous camp for quake survivors being established in Croix-des-Bouguets, Haiti, north of the capital Port-au-Prince. Quake survivors continue to move as aftershocks continue, and reports of aid deliveries in one camp will provoke families from other camps to migrate there.
A woman digs with a machete as she builds a temporary home in a spontaneous camp for quake survivors being established in Croix-des-Bouguets, Haiti, north of the capital Port-au-Prince. Photo Credit: Paul Jeffrey

In the wake of the devastating January 2010 earthquake, the United States government pledged a total of U.S. $4 billion to Haiti for humanitarian relief assistance, reconstruction and development aid. Since its allocation, much of this aid has failed to reach the populations that need it the most. According to the Government Accountability Office, nearly 50% of allocated foreign aid remains unspent, and of the funds deployed, less than 1% of aid went directly to the Haitian government. Meanwhile, the U.S. government prioritized foreign contractors (60% of which were Washington DC-area firms) while less than 1.5% of contracts went to Haitian companies.

Since 2010, the HAWG has advocated for rigorous accountability and transparency in U.S. foreign aid to Haiti, as well as participatory mechanisms that measure the effectiveness of aid among vulnerable populations.   Following three years of Hill-focused advocacy in summer 2014, our coalition facilitated a major victory when the United States Congress passed the Assessing Progress in Haiti Act (APHA), a bill that increases oversight of USAID’s operations in Haiti. Since the passage of this legislation, the HAWG has worked with Congress and the Administration to ensure that APHA is thoroughly implemented.

The HAWG believes that consultation and coordination with domestic Haitian organizations and the Government of Haiti is critical to successful development, and advocates for systematic documentation of aid disbursement to ensure aid accountability and efficacy.

Recent News:

aid
Aid Accountability and Transparency, Gender & Human Rights, Good Governance, Security

U.S. FOREIGN POLICY ON HAITI: THE WAY FORWARD

A joint statement by HAWG members AJWS and UUSC:

U.S. FOREIGN POLICY ON HAITI: THE WAY FORWARD

As the United States and international community continue to discuss ways to support the Haitian people, American Jewish World Service and the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee have issued the following joint statement and recommendations: 

Over the past decade, the regime governing Haiti has stolen billions of dollars in public funds, dismantled democratic institutions, and funded and armed gangs. Read More

Aid Accountability and Transparency, Elections and Democracy, Good Governance

Are We Asking the Right Questions About Haiti

Our HAWG chair, Alan Yarborough, recently published “Are We Asking the Right Questions about Haiti?” in which he reemphasizes the need for all actors that want to help ameliorate Haiti’s crisis to reframe their questions. In the midst of the release of the executive summary of the 10-year Global Fragility Act plan for Haiti, it is imperative that the international community recognize the need to rethink the questions we are asking including:

  1. Why are we still talking about how bad conditions are in Haiti?
Read More
Access to land, Aid Accountability and Transparency, Caracol, Food Sovereignty, Labor Rights

Haitian Farmers Request Final Push to Receive Full Compensation

The Strength of a Community: Haitian Farmers Request Final Push to Receive Full Compensation

Check out this amazing new update from Accountability Counsel!

“In 2018, we shared groundbreaking news that communities we support in Haiti had reached an historic agreement to remedy harm. We are in year five of implementing that agreement, and while significant progress has been made, critical gaps require more time and a concerted push to see this agreement over the finish line. Read More

Aid Accountability and Transparency, Elections and Democracy, Good Governance, Security

Six Ways the US and the International Community Can Help Haiti Without Armed Intervention

As the discussion around armed intervention in Haiti continues to grow, Vélina Élysée Charlier, Alexandra Filippova, and Tom Ricker just published a piece on the Six Ways the US and the International Community Can Help Haiti Without Armed Intervention, which covers practical recommendations that Haitian civil society and U.S. based advocates have discussed and proposed multiple times over the past year or more. Read More

Aid Accountability and Transparency, Cholera Epidemic, Gender & Human Rights, Health

ICYMI: Report “Broken UN Promises Lead to Haiti Cholera Resurgence”

HAWG members IJDH and BAI recently released a press release stating that Broken UN Promises Lead to Haiti Cholera. In this piece, the two organizations call out the UN for their failure to keep their promise of investing $400 million to cover the cholera epidemic.

Read the report!

Since its outbreak in 2010, the UN-imported cholera has killed over 10,000 people and infected nearly 1 million between 2010 and 2019Read More

Aid Accountability and Transparency, Elections and Democracy, Gender & Human Rights

With New Global Fragility Act, US Must Avoid Past Mistakes and Let Haitians Control Their Own Democracy

HAWG members have been organizing and participating in consultations with the U.S. government surrounding the implementation process for the Global Fragility Act, a framework now called “Strategy to Prevent Conflict and Promote Stability” (SPCPS). This hopefully fruitful work will continue in coming months.

HAWG member IJDH staffer Sasha Filippova just published this op-ed on the hopes and cautions of this work. Read More

Aid Accountability and Transparency, Report

Report from CEPR: Twelve Years After Haiti’s Devastating Earthquake, New Report Recommends Key USAID Reforms

From HAWG member Center for Economic and Policy Research comes the public release of this critical report.

Washington, DC — Twelve years after the 2010 earthquake that devastated Haiti, a new report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) examines US aid failures in Haiti, identifies several core reasons why US aid has not resulted in measurable and lasting improvements, and proposes several reforms that could be made to how the US Agency for International Development (USAID) operates in Haiti. Read More

Aid Accountability and Transparency

Op-ed: International response to Haiti’s earthquake must avoid 2010 mistakes

International response to Haiti’s earthquake must avoid 2010 mistakes

From Brian Concannon and Kathleen Bergin, contributing to The Hill

Excerpt

As the death toll and displacement from Saturday’s earthquake in Haiti mounts, the United States must urgently mobilize to provide help. But we must, just as urgently, resolve to avoid mistakes we made following the 2010 earthquake that left Haiti even more dependent on foreign aid. Read More

Aid Accountability and Transparency, Food Crisis, Food Sovereignty, Gender & Human Rights

Can Haiti’s Peanut Value Chain Survive US Generosity?

Research by PAPDA (the Haitian Advocacy Platform for Alternative Development) and Oxfam found that peanut value chain actors in Haiti face a number of serious constraints, including nonexistence of state support; weak organization; use of traditional production methods; and lack of access to irrigation and inputs, including herbicides to control aflatoxin, all in a context of poverty and vulnerable livelihoods. Read More

Aid Accountability and Transparency, Food Sovereignty, Report

Oxfam publishes assessment of AVANSE

USAID’s AVANSE Project in Haiti: An assessment of its conformity with aid effectiveness principles.

In 2013, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) launched Appui à la Valorisation du Potentiel Agricole du Nord, pour la Sécurité Économique et Environnementale—Aid to Realize the Agricultural Potential of the North, for Economic and Environmental Security, or AVANSE—in northern Haiti. Read More