GPPi publishes commentary on humanitarian assistance in Haiti

In an essay responding to a critique by Médecines Sans Frontières’ (MSF) Jean-Marc Biquet on the ​“inadequate response” to the 2010 Haiti earthquake and subsequent cholera outbreak, GPPi Associate Director Andrea Binder pushes back on the widely shared assessment that the emergency response in Haiti proved a failure of the international humanitarian system. Both texts were published in August 2013 by the journal International Development Policy (Revue international de politique de développement).

The original commentary that Binder has responded to is consistent with a long list of publications that denounce the international system’s shortcomings following the 2010 earthquake and cholera outbreak. Binder zooms in on two of Biquet’s main arguments, and questions both.

First, Biquet claims that the emergency response was inadequate because it did not match the expectations of Haitians, whose hopes had been raised high based on promises from donors. Binder takes this notion further. She argues that expectation management is an important responsibility often neglected by the humanitarian community. Success and failure, she says, are not solely objective measures, but a matter of perceived results. In Haiti, promises ​“to build back better” made the actual results seem minimal. Haiti proves that humanitarian response must prioritize expectation management, not that it failed entirely.

Second, Biquet argues that the mainstream international humanitarian system itself hampers effective emergency response. MSF has made this assertion since the inception in 2005 of the humanitarian reform agenda. It is one of the reasons that MSF does not officially participate in the cluster approach to coordinate humanitarian responses. Weary that many in MSF and others use the Haiti disasters to prove this point, Binder writes that Haiti as a single case cannot be used to condemn an entire system that works more smoothly in different contexts. Instead of a cursory critique, the system needs suggestions and ideas that help long-term improvements. MSF itself delivers high-quality work in Haiti and is well placed to offer criticism. In addition, MSF should start constructively contributing to the future of collective humanitarianism.

Read the full article Is the Humanitarian Failure in Haiti a System Failure?