Paul E. Weisenfeld, Successes and Challenges of the Haiti Earthquake Response: the Experience of Usaid

• Jurisdiction: United States,Federal
• Citation: Vol. 25 No. 3
• Publication year: 2010

SUCCESSES AND CHALLENGES OF THE HAITI EARTHQUAKE RESPONSE: THE EXPERIENCE OF USAID

Paul E. Weisenfeld*

INTRODUCTION

Immediately after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti on January 12, 2010, the international community commenced an unprecedented relief effort for what was the worst recorded natural disaster in the Western Hemisphere.1 The U.S. Agency for International Development (“USAID”) led the American

response to the emergency, coordinating the efforts of multiple U.S. Government (“USG”) agencies and laying the groundwork for reconstruction and long-term development. The USG was part of a larger international response, which saw as many as 129 countries send personnel and supplies2 and the United Nations (“UN”) provide robust leadership. As was immediately apparent to those engaged in the response, post-earthquake Haiti was a

complicated working environment, requiring innovative approaches in both coordination and response mechanisms.

Haiti’s pre-earthquake conditions—principally, high levels of extreme poverty and weak institutions of governance—were contributing factors to the massive loss of life and wide-scale destruction of infrastructure.3 The

* Assistant to the Administrator, Bureau for Food Security, U.S. Agency for International Development,

and formerly Coordinator of USAID’s Haiti Task Team, where he was responsible for overseeing relief and reconstruction efforts from Washington following Haiti’s January 12, 2010 earthquake. This Article was prepared for the Emory International Law Review Symposium held on January 27, 2011, entitled, “A Worldwide Response: Examining International Law Frameworks in the Aftermath of Natural Disasters.” The Author would like to thank Sara Lockwood and Jayanthi Narain for their invaluable assistance in preparing this Article.

1. Ryan M. Walk et al., Three Phases of Disaster Relief in Haiti—Pediatric Surgical Care on Board the

   United States Naval Ship Comfort, 46 J. PEDIATRIC SURGERY 1978, 1978 (2011).

2. See FIN. TRACKING SERV., UNITED NATIONS OFFICE FOR THE COORDINATION OF HUMANITARIAN

   AFFAIRS, HAITI: EARTHQUAKES: JANUARY 2010 (2011), available at http://fts.unocha.org/reports/daily/ocha_ R10_E15797_asof-1103301306.pdf.

3. See Engineer: Tough Japanese Building Codes Worked, CBS NEWS (Mar. 12, 2011, 11:42 AM),

   http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/03/12/earlyshow/saturday/main20042459.shtml; Melissa Lafsky, The Power of Building Codes: Chile Death Toll Less than 1% That of Haiti, INFRASTRUCTURIST (Mar. 1, 2010), http://www.infrastructurist.com/2010/03/01/the-power-of-building-codes-chile-death-toll-less-than-1-that-of- haiti. Historical precedent has shown—most recently in Chile and Japan—that in nations where citizens can

   earthquake’s impact compounded Haiti’s preexisting conditions, making it nearly impossible in many cases to disaggregate the causes of immediate human suffering in and around the capital, Port-au-Prince. These conditions will continue to be major factors impeding recovery and long-term reconstruction efforts for many years to come.

   
   

   The unparalleled surge of civilian and military personnel from many nations saved an indeterminable number of lives and stabilized the situation in terms of health, security, and immediate protection of the displaced from the elements. This Article focuses on the U.S.-led response, which demonstrated how present laws and practices are effective in responding to highly complex and large-scale natural disasters and highlighted potential areas for improvement.

   
   

   This Article discusses areas where greater efficiencies can be achieved. There is a need for systems and procedures to clarify roles and responsibilities among the different agencies when a major disaster requires a significant surge of personnel in a whole-of-government approach. There is also a need to move toward standardization of data collection and analysis across the various humanitarian actors to facilitate rapid identification of gaps. This Article also discusses some of the critical challenges moving forward, as the USG works alongside the Government of Haiti (“GOH”) and the international community to help Haiti advance beyond its pre-earthquake development level. These include understanding the complexities of Haiti’s land tenure system, so that rubble can be removed and new construction can begin; addressing the urgent needs of vulnerable populations, particularly internally displaced persons (“IDPs”); understanding and programming resources to address gender-based violence (“GBV”); and working with the international community to ensure a smooth transition from relief to reconstruction.

   
   

   The Haiti relief and reconstruction effort continues to be complex, presenting the difficult task of allocating limited human and financial resources between immediate humanitarian needs and long-term sustainable development solutions, which are intended to address Haiti’s underlying problems. The ultimate measure of success for the relief and reconstruction effort will be the strength of Haitian institutions that the USG and international community leave behind.

   
   

   afford higher-quality housing and government can enforce stronger building codes, major disasters result in significantly less loss of life. See Engineer: Tough Japanese Building Codes Worked, supra; Lafsky, supra.

   1. THE EARTHQUAKE: COMPOUNDING EXISTING DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGES

      
      

      Understanding Haiti’s pre-earthquake environment is critical to a full appreciation of the current reconstruction challenges. Haiti faced deep development challenges that were compounded when the country was hit by the second-most deadly earthquake on record.4 On the morning of January 12,

      2010, Haiti already was statistically the poorest in the Western Hemisphere, ranking 149 out of the 177 countries on the UN Human Development Index.5 This was well behind the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti but ranked 90 on the Human Development Index.6 The Haitian people endured poverty, malnourishment, and widespread unemployment: seventy-eight percent lived on less than $2 a day;7 more than one in five children were chronically undernourished;8 and up to eighty percent of the population was unemployed or working in the informal sector, which is not taxed or monitored by the government.9 In addition, fifty-two percent of the approximately 10 million Haitians lived in urban areas, which were overcrowded and lacked opportunity.10

      
      

      The earthquake was the strongest to hit the island in 200 years,11 causing a humanitarian crisis on a scale that had never been seen before in the Western Hemisphere: killing approximately 316,000 people;12 leaving more than 1.5

      
      

4. Earthquakes with 50,000 or More Deaths, U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURV., http://earthquake.usgs.gov/ earthquakes/world/most_destructive.php (last updated Apr. 14, 2011, 4:24 PM) (listing earthquakes by number of deaths).

5. UNITED NATIONS DEV. PROGRAMME, HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2009: OVERCOMING BARRIERS:

   HUMAN MOBILITY AND DEVELOPMENT 145 (2009), available at http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/HDR_2009_EN_ Complete.pdf (ranking countries by overall human development at the end of 2009).

6. Id. at 144.

7. DEV. DATA GRP., WORLD BANK, HAITI AT A GLANCE 1 (2006), available at http://siteresources. worldbank.org/INTHAITI/Resources/Haiti.AAG.pdf (estimates for the period 2000–2005).

8. 4 MICHEL CAYMITTES ET AL., MINISTERE DE LA SANTÉ PUBLIQUE ET DE LA POPULATION, INSTITUT HAÏTIAN DE L’ENFANCE & MACRO INT’L INC., ENQUÊTE MORTALITÉ, MORBIDITÉ ET UTILISATION DES SERVICES [SURVEY OF MORTALITY, MORBIDITY, AND UTILIZATION OF SERVICES] 264 (2007), available at

   http://www.measuredhs.com/pubs/pdf/FR192/FR192.pdf (data for the period 2005–2006).

9. U.S. AGENCY FOR INT’L DEV., HAITI COUNTRY PROFILE 1 (2009), available at http://pdf.usaid.gov/ pdf_docs/PDACN932.pdf.

10. See The World Factbook: Haiti, CIA, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/ geos/ha.html (last updated Nov. 10, 2011) (data for 2010).

11. Ker Than, Haiti Earthquake “Strange,” Strongest in 200 Years, NAT’L GEOGRAPHIC (Jan. 13, 2010), http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/01/100113-haiti-earthquake-red-cross.

12. Haiti Quake Death Toll Rises to 230,000, BBC, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8507531.stm (last updated Feb. 11, 2010, 2:25 PM). Death estimates vary. See, e.g., Earthquakes with 50,000 or More Deaths, supra note 4 (claiming 316,000 deaths).

    million Haitians to live in spontaneous settlements;13 destroying infrastructure; and generating about 10 million cubic meters of rubble.14 The scale of the devastation, which was in large part due to Haiti’s preexisting poverty, significantly exacerbated Haiti’s problems. In a real sense, the 2010 Haiti earthquake is an enormous tragedy layered upon an already existing tragedy, in

    many cases making it nearly impossible to disaggregate whether current suffering (e.g., morbidity, homelessness, unemployment) is due to the earthquake or pre-earthquake factors.

    
    

    1. USG RESPONSE: ASSESSING THE WHOLE-OF-GOVERNMENT EFFORT

       
       

       Recognizing the enormity of the earthquake’s impact, President Barack Obama ordered a “swift, coordinated, and aggressive” USG response, led by USAID.15 This response would align with the GOH’s plan for recovery and reconstruction and work alongside the international community to achieve

       lasting development gains. Now that more than a year has passed, observers have been engaged in a major analytical effort to take stock of the international response. The debate among many seems to focus on whether the glass is half full or half empty.16 Without question, an enormous effort lays ahead. It should

       not be a surprise, therefore, that in the poorest country in the hemisphere, hit by the most devastating disaster in the hemisphere’s history, it is easy enough to find numerous areas for improvement that would justify a glass-half-empty perspective. For those working in development, however, it is equally critical to identify successes that can serve to motivate efforts and that we can build upon. This Part sums up some of those USG...