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#WhistblowingWednesday: Where Did The Haiti Earthquake Funds Really Go?

Haiti, a close neighbor of the US with over nine million people, was devastated by earthquake on January 12, 2010. Hundreds of thousands were killed and many more wounded.

The UN estimated international donors gave Haiti over $1.6 billion in relief aid since the earthquake (about $155 per Haitian) and over $2 billion in recovery aid (about $173 per Haitian) over the last two years.

It turns out that almost none of the money that the general public thought was going to Haiti actually went directly to Haiti. 

 

One. The largest single recipient of US earthquake money was the US government. The same holds true for donations by other countries.

Right after the earthquake, the US allocated $379 million in aid and sent in 5000 troops. The Associated Press discovered that of the $379 million in initial US money promised for Haiti, most was not really money going directly, or in some cases even indirectly, to Haiti.

They documented in January 2010 that thirty three cents of each of these US dollars for Haiti was actually given directly back to the US to reimburse ourselves for sending in our military. Forty two cents of each dollar went to private and public non-governmental organizations like Save the Children, the UN World Food Program and the Pan American Health Organization. Hardly any went directly to Haitians or their government.

The overall $1.6 billion allocated for relief by the US was spent much the same way according to an August 2010 report by the US Congressional Research Office:

• $655 million was reimbursed to the Department of Defense
• $220 million to Department of Health and Human Services to provide grants to individual US states to cover services for Haitian evacuees
• $350 million to USAID disaster assistance
• $150 million to the US Department of Agriculture for emergency food assistance
• $15 million to the Department of Homeland Security for immigration fees, and so on.

International assistance followed the same pattern. The UN Special Envoy for Haiti reported that of the $2.4 billion in humanitarian funding

• 34% was provided back to the donor’s own civil and military entities for disaster response
• 28%  was given to UN agencies and non-governmental agencies (NGOs) for specific UN projects
• 26%  was given to private contractors and other NGOs
• 6%  was provided as in-kind services to recipients
• 5% to the international and national Red Cross societies
• 1% was provided to the government of Haiti
• 4/10 of 1% of the funds went to Haitian NGOs

Only 1 percent of the money went to the Haitian government.

Less than a penny of each dollar of US aid went to the government of Haiti, according to the Associated Press. 

The same is true with other international donors. The Haitian government was completely bypassed in the relief effort by the US and the international community.

Overall the US had awarded $194 million to contractors, $4.8 million to the 23 Haitian companies, about 2.5 percent of the total.

On the other hand, contractors from the Washington DC area received $76 million or 39.4 percent of the total.

As noted above, the UN documented that only four tenths of one percent of international aid went to Haitian NGOs.

Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton announced a fundraising venture for Haiti on January 16, 2010. As of October 2011, the fund had received $54 million in donations.

Though most of its work appears to be admirable, it has donated $2 million to the construction of a Haitian $29 million for-profit luxury hotel.

In March 2010, UN countries pledged $5.3 billion over two years and a total of $9.9 billion over three years in a conference March 2010. The money was to be deposited with the World Bank and distributed by the IHRC. The IHRC was co-chaired by Bill Clinton and the Haitian Prime Minister. By July 2010, Bill Clinton reported only 10 percent of the pledges had been given to the IHRC.

Two years after the quake, less than 1 percent of the $412 million in US funds specifically allocated for infrastructure reconstruction activities in Haiti had been spent by USAID and the US State Department and only 12 percent has even been obligated according to a November 2011 report by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO).

 The performance of the two international commissions, the IHRC and the HRF has also been poor. The Miami Herald noted that as of July 2011, the $3.2 billion in projects approved by the IHRC only five had been completed for a total of $84 million.

Respect, transparency and accountability are the building blocks for human rights. Haitians deserve to know where the money has gone, what the plans are for the money still left, and to be partners in the decision-making for what is to come.

Credit

I was gonna post this. U beat me to it. This is why I’m hesitant to donate money to these kinds of things. Id rather take a trip down there myself and help with my hands and spirit.

(via feministrobot)