Haiti Earthquake, 2010

Abstract

AbstractChapter 9 examines the international humanitarian response to the earthquake that hit Haiti in January 2010 and the subsequent cholera outbreak. It argues that this response was problematic in many respects. Humanitarian funding reached USD 3.5 billion in 2010 alone, making the international humanitarian response in Haiti the highest funded since the 2004 tsunami. However, the international response largely sidelined Haitian contextual knowledge and capacities, which significantly limited its impact. While the emergency response was generally considered a success, international aid agencies failed to fulfil the promise to ‘build back better’, either in terms of building better physical infrastructure or in terms of building better public institutions. Worse, UN peacekeepers who arrived as part of the international response inadvertently (but avoidably) brought cholera to Haiti, and both peacekeepers and international aid workers were involved in the sexual exploitation of Haitians. Overall, the chapter highlights not only the limitations of recovery and rehabilitation efforts by humanitarian agencies but also the power that international intervenors wield, the scope for them to abuse this, and the inadequacy of mechanisms through which affected populations can hold them to account.