No comment on Haiti

I find it hard to believe that there’s anybody that can can seriously ask:

Are aid donors now running Haiti?

Were you expecting anything else? If you were, you are frankly deluded. This is the Political Economy of Aid 101, and if you didn’t pick that up within the first 3 months of working in development, then – wow.

What I said before, I’ll say again:

My thoughts go out to the people of Haiti; first suffering the earthquake, and now the international community.

Perhaps I wasn’t explicit enough – snarky enough? – the first time around. This is simultaneously how aid works and why aid doesn’t work. Everything else is just detail.

Related posts:

1. On not caring about Haiti
2. Haiti: Just Say No to Build Back Better
3. Talking smack about reinventing Haiti
4. Reinventing Haiti
5. How international NGOs killed civil society in developing countries