Haiti

This Caribbean island of just over 10 million has suffered grievously through most of its life. Now it is suffering the devastating effects of the January earthquake that has destroyed most of its infrastructure, turning the entire capital into a scrap-heap of collapsed buildings.  Today’s Haiti is a shattered society with 200,000 dead, thousands more maimed and traumatised, and over a million rendered homeless.
Yet this is the same country that gained its independence in 1804, becoming the first slave society to successfully revolt, pushing out their French masters (for which act of defiance they paid over a century of reparations to a haughty France).  The 20th century bought no peace: this is also the country of Papa Doc and later his son who ran voodooism-driven regimes of terror and exploitation for decades. 
With their departure, the country was left a physical and institutional wreck, with shattered population and countryside.  A cycle of coups, gang violence and weak governments ravaged Haiti.  The international community (essentially the US, France and Canada) intervened finally to restore its only real popular leader, Father Aristide, but then found him too radical and ineffective for their taste and ‘facilitated’ his removal into his present exile in South Africa. 
The more pliant replacement Preval government that Canada co-sponsored has emerged as just as weak and maybe even more corrupt, unable to manage either the economy or domestic violence.  What had been the beginnings of a revival of local agriculture was halted by international action and imposed, unthinking free market policies.  Jobless Haitians were driven from their land by cheap food imports. Those who found new jobs, mainly less ‘troublesome’ women, find themselves with few options beyond sub-subsistence wages in mainly foreign-owned, export processing operations.  Some indeed are being smuggled across the border by local mafias to fill the same exploitative jobs in  richer Dominican Republic.
Western aid, despite its scale ($6.5b over period 1990-2008) has been frequently poor quality and paternalistic. Canada has been engaged in Haiti for decades now; it was the second largest bilateral donor in recent years.  Donors and Haitians alike have been frustrated  by corruption, bad administration, low skills, and especially violence through coup, mafia gang, as well as individual acts of terror and rape. While support for infrastructure, legal reform, education and health was all well-intentioned, there was no systemic effort to change the all-pervasive culture of corruption and dysfunctional governance. Massive food aid has just created an even greater sense of dependency.
Where does Haiti go next? What should be Canada’s role in supporting Haitians to rebuild their country?  What do we say in terms of our renewed commitment to neglected and abused kinsfolk of the many thousands of Haitian-Canadians?
Many hope that the earthquake will be a chance to rebuild… not just with new bricks,  but better governance and greater inclusiveness and transparency.  Canadians  as reflected in their $220m worth of individual generosity have shown they wish our aid to be focused --  not on our middle-income trading partners, but on the poorest  and most fragile of developing societies be they in Africa or  Haiti.  We hosted a first conference of donors in Montreal and delivered pledges of a new $400m in New York this spring.  However there is some  confusion as to how much of that ‘pledge’ is really  new  or just old commitments in new declaratory words.
But the core issue is not money. The real challenge is whether donors can find and adopt an approach that is truly locally-owned and led by Haitians, one focused on the needs and aspirations of its poor.  Canada should lead in encouraging its key donor partners, notably the UN, World Bank and US, to change the basic rules of the game.  Ordinary poor Haitians have shown they, as individuals, know how to struggle and survive.  But will we help fight for their rights in the form of open, inclusive government?  If not the old failed state will be soon back. What is needed is a 10-year commitment not just to spend more money, but to see that it reaches the poor, not the already rich and privileged.
There needs to be a basic ‘re-design’ of the country’s governance, creating a society driven by respect for individual human rights.  But is this something that our own government can lead when it is busy closing out human rights-orientated NGOs for supporting other underdogs such as the Palestinians?  Haiti needs a new economic model, one built around micro-finance and small-holder agriculture, not exploitative industrial labour. They need access for all to free basic education and health care; this probably means a decade of budget support.  Can a Canadian government that judges development ‘success’ by results measurable in months have the patience for this long haul? Yes, this country needs new buildings (hopefully in a decentralised mode, away from natural fault lines), but even more importantly it needs a new government committed to economic inclusivity and human security.  Poor Haitians need new skills and space for their dignity.
Can today’s weakened and demoralised CIDA provide this type of creative leadership?  Will it be allowed to play this longer-term role, without looking for flashy ‘flagship’ projects? Can Canadian NGOs build new partnerships with local civil society in a non-patronising manner? Can a re-vamped ‘whole of government’ approach turn around the gaols of our support towards using our peace-keeping military and police support capabilities to improve the lot of ordinary Haitians, to protect them from police brutality, to drive out the mafia gangs that rob the population, rape women? 
If we fail, the issue will not fade from sight.  Haiti is our backyard. The displaced with some skills will steadily flow into Montreal, rather than staying to help rebuild their own country.  A flood of refugees and illegal immigrants will flow into the USA causing human anguish and disruptive violence, especially if they finance their ‘travels’ through drug-trafficking. 
Haitians are our neighbours. They need our committed support to become a viable society as opposed to remaining one of  the most embarrassing symbol of our failed capacity to be good world citizens.