The January 2010 earthquake that
plunged Haiti deeper into poverty and the accompanying rush of nongovernmental
organizations to the Caribbean nation — a situation that further solidified
Haiti’s unflattering reputation as a “republic of
NGOs” — have become the dominant narrative surrounding the tiny
country, already one of the world’s poorest nations even before the earthquake
struck, in the past few years.
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10-year-old Mame Roudline sits
beside an American Red Cross vehicle
delivering first aid and supplies
to the General Hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
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That Haiti
has been viewed in such light is unfortunate, given the significant
strides it has achieved in certain education and health
indicators after the earthquake.
Still,
available numbers support the claim that Haiti is indeed teeming with NGOs. A
2010 study found
that Haiti had effectively substituted its weak state institutions with a
cottage industry of NGOs even before the earthquake hit: NGOs were running 70
percent of health care and 85 percent of national education services.
But the
ubiquity of NGOs became even more apparent after the earthquake. According to Haiti Aid Map,
a mapping initiative that monitors the Haiti projects of members of InterAction,
a network of international NGOs based in the United States, 42 groups are
currently reporting 171 active projects in Haiti. Members submit information to
NGO Aid Map on
a voluntary
basis so projects noted may only represent a portion of a
group's work.
For many of
these projects, the timelines are long, with some going beyond 2020. The
drawn-out end dates for these activities seem to suggest that Haiti has
progressed from relief to recovery — an extended process that could take years
to finish.
Weaning
itself off NGO dependence would be a difficult feat for Haiti, a complicated
task that would involve the committed participation of state and nonstate
actors. But in the meantime, global development groups in the Caribbean nation
could work toward this goal by strengthening governance — one of the areas
where current Haiti projects are focused.
Below, we
describe the activities of the organizations with the most projects according
to the Haiti Aid Map, as well as the work of a few groups with job openings
listed on Devex. While our previous
list focused on larger and more prominent agencies, the list
below includes lesser-known organizations that are nevertheless doing or at
least supporting important work — through on-the-ground operations or
partnerships — in Haiti.
AJWS, which
has supported grass-roots organizations in Haiti since 1999, used emergency
relief grants to provide food and water, among other necessities, immediately
after the 2010 earthquake. It also uses grants to mobilize democracy and
governance, economic development, and agriculture. Today, AJWS has 10 projects
in Haiti covering these same areas.
For more
than a decade, American Red Cross has been working on the ground in Haiti.
Today, it has 22 Haiti projects focusing on health, WASH, and shelter and
housing. Among these activities is a youth
development program for those aged 10 to 25 in both Cité Soleil
and Martissant, two of Haiti’s poorest neighborhoods.
Buddhist
Tzu Chi Foundation
While
arriving relatively late in Haiti — it started working in the country in 2008 —
the Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation is a small but significant organization that
has been involved in both relief and recovery work. Its food-for-work project
involves the participation of locals — more than 325 Haitians, according to the
organization — who receive food by cleaning the streets. More long-term
programs, meanwhile, include sending doctors to train abroad for better service
in Haiti hospitals.
An
international development firm, Creative is currently looking for a deputy
chief of party for an anticipated project that will be funded
by the U.S. Agency
for International Development. The project will help USAID provide
the training needed to improve reading and writing in Haitian Creole and French
among primary schoolchildren.
In 1991,
EDC started its work in Haiti by working to improve learning outcomes in Creole
and mathematics. More than a decade after it began its work, the organization
included civic education and environmental issues in the curriculum and
targeted at-risk and out-of-school youth. Currently, EDC has an opening for a senior education
and training specialist.
Food
for the Poor
Food for
the Poor has been in Haiti since 1986, also the year then-President Jean-Claude
Duvalier was overthrown. The organization’s longtime familiarity with Haiti
enabled it to quickly respond to the immediate needs of Haitians when the 2010
earthquake struck. Currently, Food for the Poor has 12 Haiti projects in
education, agriculture and WASH.
An online
fundraising platform that works with partner organizations in Haiti,
GlobalGiving has supported 50 Haiti projects that span health, education, and
economic recovery and development — including a deworming
initiative for children.
Life for
Relief and Development’s projects in Haiti are centered on providing food aid,
promoting WASH and improving safety nets. Much of the organization’s work is
concentrated in Cité Soleil, Delmas and Carrefour. In Ouest, it has also set up
small shops where Haitians can buy food at cheaper prices.
Operating
in Haiti for at least 30 years, MSH has a few but nevertheless major health
projects in the country. One of these is its supply chain
management system, which delivered medicine kits and other supplies
to 16 hospitals and 14 clinics in Port-au-Prince in the aftermath of the 2010
earthquake.
With more
than 2,000 nationals and just over 100 international staff working in Haiti as
of 2013, MSF has had a significant presence in the country. Since 1991, or the
year MSF started working in Haiti, the organization has assisted in bridging
the health gap by providing much-needed emergency care and health services to
Haitians. Health care in Haiti is largely privatized, putting those who can’t
afford to pay at a severe disadvantage.
Mennonite
Central Committee
MCC is busy
addressing the causes of the high death toll from the earthquake — unsafe
building practices and a densely populated Port-au-Prince. It also currently
has projects involving education, WASH, and democracy and governance. According
to the organization, around $2 million will be spent on Haiti this year and
beyond.
RTI is
currently looking for a monitoring
and evaluation manager for a large value chain and enterprise
development project in Haiti. The project aims to boost employment in Haiti by
supporting small businesses in construction, textiles and agribusiness.
Salvation
Army World Service Office
Economic
recovery, safety nets and humanitarian aid are the main priorities of the
Salvation Army’s projects, which are concentrated in Fonds-des-Nègres. Like
many groups in Haiti, TSA first focused on emergency response, but soon looked
toward more long-term programs. A pipeline project, for instance, aims to
provide permanent housing as well as training to families, whom TSA hopes will
be encouraged to rebuild and settle outside disaster-prone Port-au-Prince.
Save the
Children has been working in Haiti since 1978. An overview of its progress
report, released in time for the five-year anniversary of the Haiti
earthquake, shows that in the first year after the earthquake, Save the
Children reached around 348,000 people with WASH programs. Currently, it is
looking to fill a position for a field office
WASH manager who will oversee the day-to-day operations of an
urban sanitation project in Jacmel and work with local organization CRESFED.
The regions
in which World Vision operated in when the earthquake hit Haiti had already
been prone to food scarcity. Poor crops and dismal market conditions were the
culprit behind the persistent problem — an issue World Vision has been
addressing through its work. Economic recovery, WASH and education are the core
priorities of World Vision’s projects in Haiti.
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