(Source: World Food Program)

It’s only natural for people to want to help their fellow human beings when disaster strikes. But what good does this “help” really do to its supposed beneficiaries? In the case of Haiti, which was devastated by a magnitude 7 earthquake one month ago today, it may do more harm than good.

With starvation looming, you might think that Haitian earthquake victims need all the assistance they can get. And yet, as Bryan Schaaf from Haiti Innovation pointed out just before the January 12 earthquake, Haiti’s chronic nutrition crisis is not due to a lack of food but (among other problems) to a lack of cash. Swamping the decrepit Haitian market with donated foodstuffs actually damages the country’s food security even further by encouraging Haitians to keep planting specialty crops such as vanilla and coffee for export while allowing their own staple food production and natural environment to go to ruin.

If anything, when it comes to food the developed world has been “helping” Haiti far too much in recent decades, treating it as if it were still a white-owned colony. Schaaf notes: “While I lived in Haiti for two and a half years, it is plausible that I did not have a single bowl of Haitian rice. Haiti was once capable of meeting its own internal demand for rice, although now the markets have become flooded with (often heavily subsidized) rice from the United States, Japan, Argentina, Japan, and so on.” All it takes is a bad harvest, a spike in inflation, or – in this case – yet another natural disaster to send Haitians into starvation and total dependence on foreign handouts. Far better, Schaaf concludes, to donate cash to reputable foreign aid organizations such as the World Food Program and UNICEF, which can use part of the money to purchase immediate supplies and then invest the rest in long-term redevelopment programs such as infrastructure and soil conservation.

Food relief needs to be sustainable for it to do any good. Schaaf quotes the Three Pillars of Food Security set forward by the 1996 World Food Summit:

1) Food availability: sufficient quantities of food available on a consistent basis.

2) Food access: sufficient resources to obtain appropriate foods for a nutritious diet.

3) Food use: appropriate use based on knowledge of basic nutrition and care, as well as adequate water and sanitation.

Such an undertaking is all well and good in the long run, but what about the immediate assistance the Haitians so obviously require? Claire Durham from the British Red Cross debunks the idea that “anything is better than nothing.” “Trust me,” she says, “it’s not. Relieving suffering should be guided solely by need and not what people have to donate. Humanitarian aid should also ‘do no harm.’ Quite a lot of harm is done when unwanted and unneeded fresh food items rot in piles at the airports and seaports, stopping medicines and blankets getting through.” Unwanted medical supplies are even more of a problem. Durham goes on to say that “unwanted donations create chaos, waste and confusion for an already stricken country. The risks are spiraling costs or actual threats to its people, environment and industry.”

In other areas, too, less is frequently more. For example, the aid group CARE has asked not to be given tents to shelter Haitian quake victims. “Shipping in enough family tents for all the people in need would take months – too late to beat the rainy season [due to start late March],” the NGO warned in a statement on February 11. “By contrast, shipments of sturdy, reusable 6m-by-4m tarps (plastic sheeting) can arrive in Haiti in days or weeks. This will keep people dry while aid agencies start implementing a longer-term solution to the shelter crisis.”

WFA vehicles in the ruins of Port-au-Prince
(Source: World Food Program)

Other short-term measures can lead to serious problems farther down the line. Journalist Nathan Hodge from Wired has described the long-term risks associated with the local “cash-for-work” crews that international relief agencies have hired to dig Port-au-Prince and other towns out of the rubble. Their immediate impact is remarkable: “Cash-for-work gives communities an immediate infusion of money to help kick-start economic activity. Neighborhoods get a desperately-needed sprucing up; rotting trash gets collected; and rubble gets hauled away.” The danger is that such direct aid can lead to “relief bubbles” that will inevitably pop the moment the organizations turn off the tap:

The rapid influx of NGOs and international organizations creates a unique mini-economy, with surging demand for drivers, fixers, translators, security and other services. In the short term, that’s not a bad thing. It provides well-paying jobs for those with the right skills. [...] But it often draws desperately needed talent away from other critical sectors of the economy. And it’s a poor imitation of trickle-down economics: Some of the biggest beneficiaries of aid will be people with large, Western-standard properties they can rent to the international community.

The Haitian earthquake was hardly an isolated event. Disasters and misery are part of the country's reality. Although the current relief efforts are already underway, Haiti's rainy season appears to be starting early, and the hurricane season is looming as well. The earthquake will not be the country's last full-scale disaster, even if it never experiences another tremor. Nor will Haiti, whose economy is largely dependent on foreign remittances and fickle foreign investments, ever even approach self-sufficiency. But Haitians need a new perspective if they want to start finding their own solutions to their own stuctural problems.

Here too, the solution lies in micro-loans and long-term investments in education and infrastructure that directly involve the people being aided. It really goes back to the old saying: “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.” If that sounds like a cliché in America, in Haiti it's a prophecy. The Haitians need to learn “how to fish” - and to be given an opportunity to do so in the first place. If you want to help make this happen, then make sure your donation goes to an organization dedicated to sustainable development and not just to “quick fixes.”

Here are some organizations that Schaaf recommends (the descriptions are his):

The World Food Program (WFP):  WFP is the world’s foremost provided of emergency food assistance.  It receives agricultural surplus from governments around the world and to a certain extent (and hopefully more in the future), it purchases food locally and regionally – allowing it to feed vulnerable populations while supporting agricultural economies.  WFP excels at identifying and assisting the most vulnerable and can respond to food needs rapidly. First, read about WFP’s work in Haiti.  Play the Free Rice game – every correct answer will fund ten grains of rice for the poor.  Consider making a short video about hunger for WFP.  Play the Food Force game which lets you experience WFP’s role in emergency response. Then place your photo on the Wall Against Hunger.  Encourage friends to do the same.

United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF):  UNICEF works closely with the Government of Haiti, other UN agencies, as well as international and local organizations to protect and assist children, including those who are malnourished.  UNICEF also plays an important role in organizing immunization campaigns, deworming children, and providing micronutrients such as Vitamin A to bolster their immune systems.  UNICEF has highly developed expertise in expanding access to water, sanitation, and hygiene. UNICEF also protects children by protecting their mothers.  For example, the agency provides training and equipment to health centers in order to prevent maternal mortality.  You can read more about UNICEF's important work in Haiti here.

Organization for the Rehabilitation of the Environment (ORE): ORE is an NGO devoted to increasing farmer income, promoting nutritionally enhanced food staples, and improving the environment through the widespread planting of commercial fruit trees.  The fruit trees are ideal for reforestation efforts as they will not be cut down, they are seen as having value. In addition, ORE has been promoting the planting and use of bamboo.

Floresta: Floresta is a faith based environmental organization that is devoted to promoting sustainable agriculture, reforestation, and soil conservation. Floresta has empowered local communities to plant over 200,000 trees and create over 2,000 compost piles.  Floresta also works with farmers in 35 villages to establish banking cooperatives with credit and savings systems, with nearly 1,000 participants.  Floresta is also active in the Dominican Republic and facilitates trans-border projects and exchanges.

Project Medishare: Project Medishare has worked with community groups, Partners in Health, the Haitian Ministry of Health, and other partners to establish teams of community health workers, a clinic, and a hospital in the province of Thomonde on the Central Plateau. Project Medishare is in the process of building a Medical Complex and Training Center for Childhood Nutrition.  Part of this complex will be a production facility which will manufacture and distribute akamil (AKA1000) which is a mix of locally grown cereals (rice, corn, millet, wheat) and vegetables (beans) blended into a powder.  It is highly nutritious, culturally appropriate, affordable, and can be made entirely with local ingredients.  Project Medishare intends to  distribute akamil in Thomonde before expanding to the entire Central Plateau.  In this way, the nutritional needs of vulnerable children can be met while building the regional economy, which is largely agricultural.  

Med and Foods for Kids (MFK):  MFK is a small health and nutrition oriented organization operating in Cap Haitian.  Like Project Medishare, MFK treats severely malnourished children with a locally produced therapeutic food called Medika Mamba (Medical Peanut Butter).  Is the Haitian answer to Plumpynut and has shown promising results. Using locally purchased peanuts builds the agricultural economy around Cap Haitian while meeting the nutritional needs of vulnerable children.

Fondwa University:  In 2004, the very ambitious Peasant Association of Fondwa (APF) came together to establish Haiti’s first (and only) rural university. Fondwa provides full scholarships to students in agriculture, livestock and other areas provided that graduates serve in a rural community upon completion of their education.  This grass-roots and service learning oriented approach will help to cultivate a new generation of community leaders in Haiti’s rural areas – where most Haitians live.  This is an institution deserving of expansion and replication.

Lambi Fund: The Lambi Fund’s mission is to promote democracy by developing Haiti's civil society.  In order to do that, Lambi Fund helps establish sustainable agricultural projects in rural areas, with an emphasis on small farmers, most of whom are women.  Lambi Fund also has constructed community cisterns and irrigation networks. In addition, Lambi Fund has established micro-credit initiatives as well as self-sufficient pig and goat breeding programs.  Finally, Lambi Fund holds organizational and leadership training for peasant groups and women’s groups.

Heifer International: "Heifer's mission to work with communities to end hunger and poverty and care for the earth. By giving families a hand-up, not just a hand-out, we empower them to turn lives of hunger and poverty into self-reliance and hope. With gifts of livestock and training, we help families improve their nutrition and generate income in sustainable ways. We refer to the animals as “living loans” because in exchange for their livestock and training, families agree to give one of its animal’s offspring to another family in need. It’s called Passing on the Gift – a cornerstone of our mission that creates an ever-expanding network of hope and peace. "