The Haiti Earthquake Response: A view from the trenches

Completing my work in Haiti

I drove away from Haiti yesterday, having finally been relieved of my role as the Acting Country Director. I chose to make the five-hour drive to give myself time to reflect on the last four months. I am both wonderfully relieved to be done and sad to leave my team. In my farewell speech the day before, I had stressed how proud I was of everyone. It was the hardest four months of my life. We had great successes--reopening the office within days of the earthquake, developing a logistics chain that delivered 50 containers of supplies to our most needy partners, restarting and accelerating all our programs so that we could help as many people as quickly as possible. 

I also stressed how sorry I was for my failures. In an earlier post, I had said that I knew that I had to act quickly and to take decisions. I said that I figured if I was right 7 out of 10 times, then I was doing well. However, those wrong decisions have consequences. In many cases, someone helped me to catch the mistake and correct it. In others, it was too late. Those mistakes hurt.

The hardest are the failures where I didn't act. I busted my butt and worked as hard as I could. When I was in Haiti, I worked 12 to 14 hour days. I spent nearly half my weekends in Haiti since January 12th. Yet, I could not focus on every problem. Four people quit in my last week. They each quit because of different unresolved problems. I sometimes felt that my attention was like a searchlight. I could shine it on a problem and push that issue towards resolution. However, i couldn't do anything about what was in the dark on either side of the searchlight. If I moved my attention too soon, the problem would not be fixed.

What hurt most was the knowledge that so much of the impact of the disaster was avoidable. Many of the buildings that collapsed were poorly built or on unsafe land. The Haitian leaders should not have allowed people to build so poorly. The same lack of leadership can be seen throughout Haiti. decisions to avoid short term pain led to disastrous impacts.

I saw that within my own short tenure in Haiti. Overall, I was very blunt and honest--far more so than I have ever been in my life. However, I sometimes slipped up. I would skip over a problem because it seemed too hard or fail to comment on someone's behavior because it seemed too awkward. Those problems seemed inevitably to come back and bite me. 

As I drove home, I resolved that this is what I would strive to change. I would help other leaders to have the courage to confront problems honestly rather than to allow them to fester. I don't yet know how I will do this. I might stay with my current organization and continue working in Haiti. I might move to Missoula, Montana and start fresh. In any case, I still have a couple of months to wrap up our work along the Haitian-Dominican border. 

Signs of Progress in Haiti

 
I had a rare chance to get out today and see the good work that my team is doing. It is so easy to get caught up in the day-to-day hassles of managing that I lose sight of the great changes that are happening around me. 

Five weeks ago, I visited the Delmas 32 neighborhood. It was a tough visit. the area had been hard hit by the earthquake and still looked bad. Many of the roads were impassable and the area looked unlivable. I noticed a fire burning inside one of the buildings and made the mistake of asking what it was. I was told there was a body that they could not recover and were burning it. We put together a proposal to do demolish the buildings that were falling into the street and to remove the rubble from the roads. We were given a couple of grants to put 1,300 people to work in this neighborhood. We began working just over two weeks ago.

A month after the earthquake, the streets in Delmas 32 were still blocked by debris.

The change that I saw today was incredible. The streets were filled with yellow and green shirted workers that were working hard to remove the debris. many sections of the streets were already cleared and many of the partially collapsed buildings had already been demolished. However, the most impressive change was in the people. As the workers moved through the neighborhoods, street vendors set up stalls and life returned to the neighborhood. 

Today's visit reminded me that we are making progress. Sure, we might end up rebuilding the chaos, Haiti might not have elections this year, and no one knows what tomorrow will bring. But we are working hard to recover from the worst disaster to ever hit the Americas. We might not have the answers, we are making life better. Petit à petit l'oiseau fait son nid--Little by little, the bird builds its nest

The Haitian Election Question

 Should Haiti hold elections this year for the parliament, mayors, and president? Are elections a key step to ensuring honest, transparent governance or are they a dangerous distraction from the business of rebuilding the country? 

Although the international consensus seems to be that Haiti needs to hold elections to maintain a credible government, I believe that the opposite is true. Holding elections will just maintain the status quo and contribute to rebuilding the chaos.

The Haitian government is based on the 1987 constitution which was written to ensure that another dictator like Duvalier could never dominate the country. The Constitution sets out a strongly decentralized government with numerous checks and balances. Unfortunately, the structure is so complicated that Haiti has never succeeded in electing all of the required officials. As per the 1987 Constitution, the government is composed of the following levels:

The nation is divided into ten departments which are divided into 133 municipalities (communes) and 533 rural sections (sections communales). Each rural section is to have an elected three-person council (Article 63) and an assembly (Article 65). The municipality is governed by a three-member council (Article 70) plus an assembly composed of representatives of each rural section assembly (Article 66-1). The department is governed by a council and an assembly composed of representatives from each municipal assembly (Article 80). 

With all the chaos in Haiti over the last 25 years, Haiti has never managed to elect all of these different levels. There have never been functioning rural section assemblies and therefore never municipal assemblies and never departmental assemblies. 

Unfortunately for Haiti, one of the responsibilities of the departmental assemblies is to propose the candidates for the Permanent Electoral Council. Without a permanent electoral council, each election is run by a provisional one created for that purpose. To make these councils "fair," they are normally composed of members of each political party. Just imagine how hard it would be to hold elections in the United States if they had to be organized by a board composed of an equal number of Democrats and Republicans with a few independents thrown in for good measure!

Another critical problem with the Haitian government system is the division of power between the President and Prime Minister. In theory, the President sets the overall vision and the Prime Minister manages the day-to-day affairs of the government. Although the President proposes the Prime Minister to the Parliament, the candidate must come from the majority party in Parliament. Additionally, the Parliament, not the President, has the power to revoke the Prime Minister. This split seems to inevitably result in conflicts and power struggles.

The Constitution was ratified in 1987 and Haiti has struggled unsuccessfully for over 23 years to implement the envisioned government. It is time to try a fresh approach. What if, instead of holding elections amid the current chaos in Haiti to elect officials to an unworkable form of government, Haiti started fresh. The government admitted the obvious--it is impossible to campaign for office during this reconstruction and the jockeying for power and position hampers this important work. Instead of holding yet another round of elections this year, a new national assembly would be called. This new assembly would begin meeting on January 12, 2011 to write a new Constitution. In 2011, Haiti would hold a national referendum to accept or reject the new constitution (which will hopefully provide for a more streamlined government) and then to hold whatever elections are called for in the new constitution.

I met with one of the UN consultants working on the Post Disaster Needs Assessment. He said that hardest question that their team faces is, "To what state do we rebuild Haiti?" If the goal is to put Haiti right back where it was on January 11th, then Haiti should go forward with its elections. However, if the goal is to build the foundation for sustainable growth, then Haiti needs a fresh start and a new constitution.

Will we just rebuild the chaos in Haiti?

 

I went to the Jacmel area last week and came back both very impressed with what is happening in the Southeast Department and even more worried about what is happening in Port-au-Prince. We had sponsored a two-day workshop to bring together the local authorities and the international organizations to discuss the next steps for rebuilding the Southeast. There was some squabbling about where to have the tent cities and what the priorities should be. However, the authorities also had a clear idea of the work that needed to be done and the reconstruction was straight forward. They knew how many houses needed to be fixed and how much support the rural areas needed to support the influx of the population. It is easy to imagine a large reconstruction program in the Southeast that succeeds in building back better.

I can't say the same for the Port-au-Prince area. Port-au-Prince was a chaotic nightmare before the earthquake hit. of the four main roads connecting Port-au-Prince and Petionville, only one is four-lane. All four are basically parking lots during the morning and evening commute. Poor housing are consisted of houses frequently built on top of each other. There were no roads between the houses and frequently no sanitation or running water. 

 
Google Earth images of a neighborhood just off of Canape Verte before and after the earthquake.

Today, I see people rebuilding their houses right where they collapsed. Some argue that it is too early to talk about longer term issues. I fear instead that the window of opportunity is closing. Yes, we need to focus on relief and temporary housing. However, if Port-au_prince is to be rebuilt better, drastic action is needed. Haiti needs strong leadership to clearly state that a new urbanization plan will be imposed on Port-au-Prince. Any houses that do not conform to that plan will be demolished. In the Southeast, people can rebuild where they lived. In Port-au-Prince, they should not. that change will require strong leadership and the order needs to come soon.

In terms of basic reorganization, I would love to see the following:

• A commitment to widen the other three main arteries connecting Petionville and Port-au-Prince: Panamerican, Canape Vert, and Route Frere. This would involve demolishing houses on either side of the road.
• Rehabilitation of the main artery through downtown (Blvd Harry Truman) including limiting access to the road.
• Completion of the bypass through Carrefour (currently blocked since the road passes through the country's fuel depot.
• Widening of the Grand Rue to allow it to take the local traffic that can no longer pass through Blvd. Harry Truman.
• Standardization of the roads through town to allow for parking on the sides of the road and for trucks to pass in Carrefour, Cite Soliel, and the other areas that have grown rapidly.

This would require relocating tens of thousands of people--not an easy or cheap decision. To make this work, neighborhoods would need to be more dense than they are today. Currently, most neighborhoods are still single-family homes (or shacks). Instead, Port-au-Prince needs low rise apartment buildings--five to eight stories. This is a far more efficient way to house city populations and is the solution in nearly every city in the world. I realize that people will not be eager to move into apartments and that it will be critical to build the apartments well. However, the two most seismically active cities in the world are Tokyo and San Fransisco. How many poor people in these cities live in single family houses?

At the same time, there should be a large program to improve the infrastructure in the other main towns in Haiti. We don't want to suck everyone back into Port-au-Prince.

It will take strong leadership to bring about these changes. I believe that it is easier to force changes through during a crisis, as President Obama did, than to wait for the dust to settle and calmly talk about it. I worry that by the time the leadership in Haiti is ready to talk about these changes, it will be too late and we will have rebuilt the chaos.

A month after the earthquake

 

It has been a month since the earthquake destroyed Port-au-Prince. Tomorrow was declared as the start of a week of mourning by the Haitian government. As I look back on the month, I am amazed at the changes, proud of some of my accomplishments, and saddened by my mistakes. Following are some of the main points:

• Instant Response: As soon as I heard about the earthquake, I began mobilizing to respond. We were fortunate to have a good relationship with the American Chamber of Commerce in the Dominican Republic. Their Executive Director called me the night of the earthquake and promised the first of the funds. The next morning, we loaded two of our vehicles with supplies and crossed the border. We were in Haiti within 24 hours of the earthquake. That was the hardest visit. Collecting the dead was the highest priority. Many people were trapped in buildings. There were no telephones and very little information.
• Quick Relief: For the next five days, I drove back and forth between Port-au-Prince and Santo Domingo. I escorted trucks into Haiti and brought people out. It was a hard, stressful time as we tried to rush whatever supplies we could find into Haiti. For the first week, there was very little available and very little organized.
• Organized Relief: One week after the earthquake hit, I was given responsibility for running our Haiti office. Up to that point, I had been trying to support the existing office, but with no clear authority. I spent the next two weeks full time in Haiti. I struggled to reorganize our office to allow us to focus on the immediate response while still providing support to our staff--half of them had their houses badly damaged in the quake. It was an exciting time as we tried to figure out how to maximize our impact.
• Moving from Relief to Reconstruction: Three weeks after the earthquake, I slowed down a bit and began focusing on the medium-term tasks of running the two country offices and preparing for the reconstruction work. I have gone back to working with our project managers, helping them to restart or accelerate their projects. Our earthquake response continues quite nicely--we have a very active warehouse and are doing regular food distributions. However, it is one of several proejcts we manage rather than my sole focus (our other work includes a child protection program, community-driven development work in the slums of Port-au-Prince and another in rural Haiti, and some potable water projects plus my cross-border program).

I know that I have risen well to this challenge. I have always been an avid reader of management books and these skills helped me well. Two books stand out in particular. One is What Got you Here Won't Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith. Marshall's main point is that the behaviors that we normally credit with our success are not the ones that help us rise to a higher position. In my case, I consider myself to be a very participatory decision maker. I prefer to discuss decisions with my staff and to come to a consensus. However, this disaster required us to move quickly. I have become a very direct person who rarely discusses decisions--I don't hesitate to reverse a decision when someone points out a mistake, but I rarely debate what we need to do. 

 

The second one is Linchpin by Seth Godin. Ironically, I had received an advance copy of the book and was set to go to the launch in New York City. Seth stresses that in today's difficult environment, we need to rise up and become indispensable linchpins in our organizations--to be willing to go out on a limb and create the changes that are needed. I have never been as indispensable as I am today. Having the role of a linchpin described so clearly has given me the courage to push harder than I would otherwise have dared.

My mistakes have been in trying to move to fast--pushing people into changes that they were not ready to accept and overlooking details that were then mismanaged. Someone said that if 7 out of 10 decisions are good, then you are doing well. That is probably my success rate. I hope that those around me help me catch and correct the 3 bad ones.

I don't know what will happen next and where we will go. I am both proud of what we have accomplished and sad that we could not do more. I can't keep up my current pace for much longer, but I do know that this experience has changed me. I hope for the better.

It all changed in an instant

Last Monday, my job was to run a small cross-border conflict program. Today, I am running a relief program for the largest disaster to hit the Americas. Last week, I was actively looking for a non-profit that I could direct.  Now I don't know what I want to do. It is hard to remember life before the earthquake.

I have worked a number of disasters, but mainly floods and hurricanes. Earthquakes are much harder. They come without warning and change everything. I'm not ready to write about the impact on people. It is just amazing that everyone's life was changed in an instant.

I don't know where we will go from here. I don't know how Haiti will change. I don't know what will happen next. I do know that everything can change in an instant.

 

A personal account of the response to the earthquake in Haiti.

Every now and then, life hands you a chance to make a difference. I am fortunate to be in the right place at the right time  I used to run the Pan American Development's Haiti disaster program before I moved to the Dominican Republic to run the border program. Therefore, when the earthquake hit, I was already in place to respond. With all telephone communication cut off in Haiti, we had no idea what had happened to our staff. Wednesday morning, I was able to get some cash and supplies together and drove from Santo Domingo to Haiti.

It is a seven hour drive and I spent the whole drive talking on the phone and getting updates on the situation. We received a message from our office that our staff was safe, but we were unable to talk directly with anyone. I crossed the border around 6pm and made to the outskirts of Port-au-Prince around 7pm. As I drove into town, I began seeing the first impacts--a cinder block wall that fell here or a damaged wall there. A bit further in, I saw whole walls down, then began seeing collapsed roofs. We made it to our safe house around 7:30pm and settled in for the night.

Everyone in the area was still very shaken. Even though the house was completely intact, the Haitians were sleeping outside in fear of another quake. During the night I felt two strong aftershocks.

In the morning, we headed into town. The damage was amazing. I didn't go near the epicenter, but the damage was everywhere. Many of the buildings that were damaged had been badly built, but others seemed quite solid. We touched base with the Direction de Protection Civile (the Haitian government agency charged with managing the disaster). They had no resources and were beyond swamped. We found some of our staff and began organizing our office again. By this point, I had distributed all of the resources that I had brought and used up a third a tank of gas--their is little fuel available and I knew I could not run out. With no means of communication, I headed back to the Dominican Republic to get more supplies and to get back in touch with my Dominican and Washington offices.

It is a crazy time. We are getting lots of support (www.panamericanrelief.org) both in cash and in supplies. However logistics are such a mess that it is hard to do much. Tomorrow I hope to get our office in Haiti up and running to make it easier to provide supplies. There is so much to be done that the little that we can do seems insignificant. Yet, everyone needs to do their part.

I try to avoid thinking of reconstruction. So little was done after the four hurricanes hit Haiti in 2007. So little was done after the hurricane hit Gonaives in 2005. How will Haiti ever get back on its feet.