U.S. must monitor its giving to Haiti

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The hearts of tens of millions of Americans have gone out to Haitians who have suffered so much because of an earthquake that struck their poverty-stricken nation earlier this month. And when we open our hearts, we also open our checkbooks; charitable giving to help the Haitians has been incredible in both its volume and speed.

As long as we Americans can provide the money to save lives in Haiti, we will do so eagerly. That is who we are as a people.

Talk of how to rebuild Haiti began soon after the earthquake. That will require massive foreign aid, because Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere.

Hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. aid has flowed to Haiti — but it has made little difference. In terms of what we think of as “welfare” assistance, Haitians were major beneficiaries of U.S. taxpayer spending before the earthquake. Half of the country’s residents relied on U.S. aid for basic health care.

When Haitian President Rene Preval took office in 2006, his country’s economic growth rate was 2.5 percent. By 2008 it had dropped to 1.3 percent.

Clearly, simply pouring massive amounts of money into Haiti with little or no regard for how it is spent is not helping the people there. Any U.S. assistance in rebuilding after the earthquake must be monitored carefully to ensure that it gets results. Otherwise, we will be doing Haitians no long-term favors.

Tags: opinion, editorial, haiti, disaster