Although the UN Mission was present in the region and tried to ensure a safe passage from a regime which lacked all regard for democracy, human rights, or economic development, the perspectives and the time frame instituted for these were not optimistic. Indeed, the UN aims to secure a strong, coherent, and secure form of government through its missions and interventions. However, the most important element for a state is to provide a strong central government that would deal with organization matters, with management of aid relief in situations such as the one in Haiti. Still, given the political turmoil experienced by the country it is difficult to be able to manage such an operation. Therefore, from this point-of-view, it is fair to say that an important element in the failure of the aid relief actions was the lack of a strong government organization.
Another crucial issue to be taken into account when discussing the matter of aid relief and the way in which the Haitian problem was dealt with, is the failure of donors to assist in the relief. However this is not an issue solely related to the events that took place in January 2010, but an aspect which is the result of previous actions taken for support of the Haitian government and people. In this sense, the research will take into account the way in which all donors intervened in Haiti financially from 2004 and even earlier.
The literature in this regard is rather comprehensive because it was a subject of great debate. For instance, F De Terry and Adam Gardner Buss write an interesting book on the way in which the donors failed to assist Haiti in its problems. However, the authors point out that in fact it was not necessarily the problem of the way in which donors acted but rather the matter of the way in which Haiti adapted to change and of its political history. In this sense they argue that "even if foreign assistance had been well conceived, well financed, and well executed, it would have been difficult to realize unqualified successes in Haiti, given the magnitude of the problems to be overcome. Haiti's political history was too in part responsible for creating and perpetuating poverty and for encouraging a legacy of poor public administration" (De Terry and Gardner, 2008). This is a good source for information and analysis concerning the history of foreign aid to Haiti. Yet another source of information regarding the way in which foreign aid failed or not in Haiti in the last decade is the report from the Academy of International Affairs which in its conclusions also offers advice and possible new paths of development.
Also, donors failed because there was no prior organization of the state, an organization which was supported with billon of dollars in the past to be constructed. The United States offered for several years aid to reconstruct a functional judicial system, a proper public administration, investments which also related to the infrastructure of these areas of assistance. However, at the moment of the earthquake, the situation in the country was chaotic, with thieves running on the streets, with looting, and crime. For a country which is supposed to have benefited from such an important help from the U.S., France, or Canada, there are serious questions on the way in which these donors were effective.
At the same time however, a proper analysis will have to also consider the response of donors to the current situation in Haiti. From this point-of-view, it is important to take into account the almost 3 billion dollars in aid given or promised to Haiti following the earthquake (CNN, 2010). An interesting question is what happened to this money and how they will be spent.
Donors failed because there was no organization, on the one hand. According to Reuters, "world leaders have pledged massive assistance to rebuild Haiti after the earthquake killed as many as 200,000 people, but five days into the crisis aid distribution was still random, chaotic and minimal." (Cawthorne and Bremer, 2010).
It is important to stress that donors failed in their actions also because there was no immediate plan for reconstruction. Better said, even if the interventions on the site were or were not satisfying, a plan to ensure people decent way of life and supplies was essential. In this sense, it is difficult to consider, after months from the disaster, that financial aid will be ensured for plans...
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now