Det humanitære kavalleri, der rykkede ind i den caribiske ø-nation efter det ødelæggende jordskælv i 2010, fik stor kritik for sin indsats – men hvordan er det i dag fire år efter, hvor donorerne fortsat kun overlader få procent af deres bistand til landets egne statslige myndigheder?
PORT-AU-PRINCE/, 21 February 2014 (IRIN): Globally, humanitarian agencies are stressing the need for better partnerships during response, with local NGOs, the private sector, and government administrations.
Following the 2010 Haiti earthquake, aid agencies were criticized for not doing enough to include or empower local authorities in emergency responses and recovery efforts. Four years later, IRIN has spoken to Haitians, government officials and aid agencies, to see whether this had changed.
In the aftermath of the quake, many government ministries or departments were crippled by the loss of personnel and infrastructure. As a result, much of the effort was led by foreign aid workers, who had knowledge of disaster management, but not necessarily of Haiti.
Government officials were not always invited to meetings. And meetings of the 12 clusters – groups of humanitarian organizations managing the response – were often held in English, effectively barring the participation of Creole- and French-speaking Haitians.
Since then, eight of the original 12 sectors have been dissolved, and their responsibilities have been handed over to the government.
The four clusters that remain active – camp management, sanitation, protection and health – reveal which sectors are still in the emergency relief phase.
Only one sector is government-led
Today, one of these clusters, water, sanitation and health, is government-led, and the government has assumed an increasing amount of responsibility in the others.
But it will likely require continued support, and in some cases leadership, from aid agencies for some time, said aid workers and government officials in Port-au-Prince.
“The capacity of the Haitian authorities has evolved, but it remains weak,” said Fools-Gen Sanon, the communal coordinator of Port-au-Prince’s Pétion-Ville Commune, which works closely with international actors.
“We know how to deal with the [Haitian] people, but we do not have the means to meet their needs. Our capacity has evolved, but that does not mean we no longer need help and funding from NGOs,” he told IRIN.
Empowering Haiti’s water authorities
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