Hope in Haiti

This blog is frequently littered with reports of suffering, continued inaction and overall bad news, but today I am excited to write of a hopeful message for human rights in Haiti. This country now has special meaning to students of the Center for the Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights due to the recent visit of Anne Hastings, the commander of the largest micro finance institution in Haiti. Through her visit, we heard a optimistic message of how non-profits are improving the lives of Haitians. Now, there is reason to dream big for Haiti. After the HOPE II Act passed last year in the House of Representatives, Haiti has begun to show improvements. Furthermore next month, international donors will meet in Washington to talk of increasing aid to Haiti.

As many of you know, Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and has long been suffering from famine, corrupt governments and disease. Last year, America proclaimed their commitment to the country by passing a 9 year act that offers Haiti duty-free, quota-free access to U.S. markets (HOPE II). Though this has had an important effect on Haiti, according to Ban Ki-Moon (the Secretary General of the United Nations) with additional aid at this moment in time, there could be a substantial increase in economic development. I found his argument in the New York Times to be quite persuasive. Here is the heart of it:

“HOPE II, as the act is known, offers Haiti duty-free, quota-free access to U.S. markets for the next nine years. No other nation enjoys a similar advantage. This is a foundation to build on. It is a chance to consolidate the progress Haiti has made in winning a measure of political stability, with the help of the U.N. peacekeeping mission, and move beyond aid to genuine economic development. Given the country’s massive unemployment, particularly among youth, that means one thing above all else: jobs.

My special adviser on Haiti, the Oxford University development economist Paul Collier, has worked with the government to devise a strategy. It identifies specific steps and policies to create those jobs, with particular emphasis on the country’s traditional strengths — the garment industry and agriculture. Among them: enacting new regulations lowering port fees (among the highest in the Caribbean) and creating the sort of industrial “clusters” that have come to dominate global trade.

In practical terms, this means dramatically expanding the country’s export zones, so that a new generation of textile firms can invest and do business in one place. By creating a market sufficiently large to generate economies of scale, they can drive down production costs and, once a certain threshold is crossed, spark potentially explosive growth constrained only by the size of the labor pool.

That may seem ambitious in a country of 9 million people, where 80 percent of the population lives on less than $2 a day and half of the food is imported. Yet we know it can work. We have seen it happen in Bangladesh, which boasts a garment industry supporting 2.5 million jobs. We have seen it happen in Uganda and Rwanda.”

For further reading, following this link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/31/opinion/31iht-edmoon.html?_r=1&ref=global

I hope that the international donor committee heeds this advice in Washington and capitalizes on this moment to significantly impact the lives of the Haitian people. Haiti has suffered for too long.

Support Human Rights from Campus

There are a couple of events on campus that are giving students an opportunity to help support human rights. Take a study break from finals and come help out. Amnesty International's Claremont Colleges chapter is participating in a global write-a-thon, and the Student Advisory Committee from the Center here is selling goodie bags to raise money for Fonkoze. See more information for both events below:

Global Write-a-Thon
Amnesty International is hosting a short talk from Prof. Crowley on the definition of human rights, followed by question answer session and letter writing session. AI will provide resources to write a letter for human rights. The event will be at the Motley from 7 PM to 10 PM tomorrow, Wednesday, December 10. More info can be found on the Facebook event.

Fonkoze Goodie Bags
Taken from an e-mail sent out by Jim Nauls:

FINALS GOOD LUCK GOODIE BAGS!

Send finals luck to your friends while giving to people in Haiti!

Bags include edible essentials for finals week survival!

SOLD DURING SNACK on

December 8^th, 9^th, and 10^th

All proceeds go to Fonkoze, the largest microfinance institution, in Haiti. (for more information, go to fonkoze.org)

Only $3 dollars each!

Sponsored by Student Advisory Board of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Center.
Send any questions to tmino11@cmc.edu.

Aid to Developing Countries: the Failure and the Promise

A recent article from BBC (N.B. For balance, one should also consult the Ugandan Health Ministry response) focuses on the negative effects foreign aid can have on developing countries. Many of the aid programs create disincentives for developing skills, industry, or agriculture. They "reward failure."

Some look at the corrupt people who take most of the aid and wrongly conclude that aid simply does not work. Such an assumption, however, blanket labels all aid programs and assumes they all work the same. Rather, what these examples highlight is that poorly structured aid programs do not work. Aid programs should give needy people incentives for their work where they live and help them learn skills for the future. In turn, the people helped by such aid programs will be more likely to stay in their communities and then give back to that community, reducing need for aid in the future.

Effective aid is exactly what the Center is encouraging in its work on microfinance. In fact, the article specifically addresses the types of benefits microfinance could bring:

"So you see," Mr Mwenda said. "If aid were to offer this young man support in the form of low interest credit he could not only expand his business offering employment opportunities and a valuable service to his community, he could also eventually pay the money back."

Microfinance loans are making opportunities a reality rather than a dream right now in places across the globe, inbcluding Haiti, where Fonkoze is focusing its efforts. Unlike other types of aid, there is an incentive because the aid is expected to be paid back and is given to people who are working and creating opportunities for themselves and others in their community.

Our work with Fonkoze is helping to build awareness of this issue on campus. In my experience, CMC has been a campus more aware of the ineffectiveness of poorly structured aid programs than the effectiveness of programs like microfinance. Building a base of support for these types of programs will help students focus their efforts on more constructive paths in the future.

Claude Alexandre Speaks at the Athenaeum

Little coverage is given to the humanitarian crisis going on in Haiti right now. Hurricane Gustav, earlier this summer, killed many, but destroyed the livelihoods and communities of a countless number of more people. Micro-finance institutions had been operating in these areas for a few years assisting in development programs. However, Gustav destroyed the businesses of many of those receiving micro-finance loans. Claude Alexander, from Fonkoze, the largest Haitian micro-finance NGO, will be speaking on the topic at the Ath on Monday night. Here's the description from the Athenaeum's Fortnightly:

Microfinance, NGO's, and the Emergency in Haiti

CLAUDE ALEXANDRE

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2008

Claude Alexandre is a member of the board of Fonkoze, one of Haiti's largest and most influential micro-finance NGOs and a consultant and business adviser to non-profit organizations and NGOs. He will discuss the world of micro-finanace through the prism of Haiti and its attempts to recover from severe damage suffered in a hurricane this summer. More than 18,000 of Fonkoze's clients lost their businesses entirely.

CMC's Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights has begun a Haiti Initiative to aid Fonkoze and its clients in recovery and reconstruction.