20 January 2010

Financial Times Deutschland publishes GPPi article on Haiti Earthquake

On 20 January 2010 the Financial Times Deutschland published an article by Andrea Binder, Project Manager at the Global Public Policy Institute, entitled "Five Grand Delusions about Haiti." The piece argues that the current international analysis about the earthquake that recently struck Haiti is based on five collective delusions of the industrialized world towards the Haitian drama. The analysis portrays a false image about the causes of the catastrophe and thus hinders an effective disaster response.

The fist delusion is that the Haitian drama is a natural disaster of a biblical dimension. The article argues that the earthquake was rather a natural phenomenon that caused widespread suffering because of man-made factors, such as ineffective national governance and international policies that focus too much on the provision of domestic security and disaster response than on disaster preparedness and mitigation strategies. 

The second delusion is that Haiti is a country without a state. While state structures are weak, with the help of the United Nations Haiti has built in the past years a civil protection department and a national office for water and sanitation. Ignoring and sidelining these governmental structures in the context of the emergency will lead to a further weakening of state structures and undermines Haiti’s capability to help itself.

The third delusion is the talk about Haiti as a “forgotten crises”. While the country has not enjoyed a lot of recognition and media attention in the past years, there is a UN stabilization mission and about 10,000 private humanitarian organizations that support the Haitians. At the same time, the history of Haiti shows that external interventions are not always in the best interest of the country. What Haiti needs now is not more, but rather better aid.

The fourth and the fifth delusions critically illustrate the behavior of the citizens of the industrialized world. First, their demand that every Euro spent should go directly to the affected population limits the humanitarian organization’s ability to build institutional structures that allow for analysis and professional help. Second, their solidarity with the people of Haiti is limited to giving money and unfortunately does not include longer-term gestures. For example, they do not push their governments to develop efficient disaster response policies, building on disaster preparedness and mitigation strategies.

The piece concludes by suggesting that the Haitian tragedy would be the right moment to confront these delusions. They could be overcome if the current aid efforts were implemented in the spirit of the 2005 Humanitarian Reform. That is, help should be coordinated, financed through common funds and implemented on the basis of partnership with national civil society organizations and the Haitian government.

To read the full article (in German), please click here.

For more information, please contact Andrea Binder.

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