Daniel O'Neil

A Sad 10th Anniversary of the Haiti Earthquake

A first responder stands near the rubble that was a children's hospital in Pétion -Ville. The Royal Oasis Hotel is in the background.

I am sadden that so many of the articles on the 10^th anniversary of the Haiti earthquake seem to blame the mess in Haiti today on the earthquake response. Sometimes I feel that Haiti is like a drug addict. You can provide them with all the help in the world, but in the end, they have to take responsibility for the choices that they make.

I’m a civil engineer and had worked on disaster management in Haiti before the earthquake. The engineering community knew that Haiti’s building code was not only decades out of date, but never being enforced. A couple of years earlier, a school had collapsed killing scores of children. There were plenty of warning, but nothing was done.

During the earthquake response, I was overwhelmed by the outpouring of generosity. The US was just coming out of its financial crisis, but both private and public donations were incredibly generous. Of course the response was messy and inefficient. But the response to a large disaster is always messy and inefficient. The goal is to move quickly, not to carefully consider each decision. As I wrote earlier, I thought that the Haiti earthquake response was just as effective as the response to the Ebola in West Africa. Yet, the Ebola responders were hailed as heroes and the earthquake responders were scorned.

During the years after the earthquake, Haiti continued to grow quickly. All the major hotels expanded, the Marriott and Best Western built hotels. The streets were paved not only in Port-au-Prince, but in every major town. By 2015, Haiti looked better than it had before the earthquake.I felt that the earthquake response was a success.

Then Haiti flubbed its national elections. The government was forced to cancel the second round of the presidential elections and President Martelly handed over power to a caretaker government. The scandal broke over the handling of the Venezuelan government’s program that allowed Haiti to obtain fuel on credit (the Petro-Caribe Program) which provided the government with around $1.7 billion for projects, many of which were never completed. On top of all of this, Haiti was hit by a Category 5 hurricane.

I returned to Haiti in May and have been sadden by what I see. The economy is in shambles and the government’s attempts to remove a fuel subsidy resulted in wide spread protests. There is little investment happening and little hope that Haiti can pull itself out of this crisis. There seems to be such deep mistrust between the government and the opposition that no comprise appears possible. The international community seems to be adopting a policy of tough love: “We won’t bail you out of this one.”

When I left Haiti in May 2010, I figured that I was done with Haiti. I knew that if I stuck around, it would break my heart. I love Haiti and love the work that I am doing. But when I lift my head and look around, my heart breaks. In the end, outsiders can only do so much. For Haiti to move forward, the Haitian politicians need to figure out how to work together. Without political stability, there we will be stuck in this viscous circle of no private investments, a declining economy, and growing civil unrest.This time it is up to Haiti to solve this crisis.

If only the American Red Cross was as efficient as the US Government...

Inspectors assessing the earthquake damage in a house in Port-au-Prince, Haiti

"I still have a lot more questions for the Red Cross," said Sen. Charles Grassley in a statement. "I have other questions about the spending numbers and how they add up and the overhead costs for both the Red Cross and the grantee organizations. Also, I'd like to see more details of the results achieved from each of the partner organizations."

Propublica and NPR have done an admirable job of trying to figure out what the American Red Cross (ARC) has done with the nearly half a billion dollars that they raised for the Haiti earthquake. However, I fear that Senator Charles Grassley will lead this in the wrong direction. The ARC should be encouraged to give out the money that it raises rather than trying to do it all themselves.

As we’ve seen with nearly every disaster, the ARC does a great job of raising money and a lousy job of using it. Even in domestic disasters like Katrina or Sandy, the ARC seems poor at delivering results. Imagine how much harder it is to set up a large organization in a foreign country in the middle of a disaster response. It is just a recipe for failure.

Instead, the ARC should follow the example of the US Government’s disaster response agency: the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA). As soon as a disaster hits, OFDA sends a small team of experts to help assess the situation and to review funding requests. They focus on working with organizations that are already on the ground with a solid track record of success. Because they are on the ground, they understand the situation and can work with their grantees to ensure that proposals make sense. The field team is senior enough that they can frequently review proposals on the spot.

This model allows OFDA to quickly get funds injected into where they are needed the most. They keep their overhead low by focusing on channeling money to those who can use it effectively. Their field teams are able to work with their partners to keep projects moving. By channeling money through other organizations, they build local capacity and make it easy to wrap up their work as quickly as possible.

The ARC’s problem is that it establishes a large bureaucracy that is unable to implement projects directly and very slow to issue subgrants. I did succeed in getting a large grant funded through the ARC, but it took nearly 10 months to get it worked out. Once awarded, we were micromanaged from beginning to end. I have worked with funding from a wide range of donors and found the ARC to be the most difficult. We did succeed in repairing 4,000 houses for the ARC and the work was of higher quality than what he had done for OFDA and others, but it was a soul-sucking process that left all of us exhausted.

I would love to be able to support the American Red Cross. With their incredible name recognition, they have enormous potential to help. Instead, their repeated and very public failures make it that much harder for everybody else to raise money and help out.

 

Why is the Ebola Response considered a success and the Haiti Earthquake Response considered a failure?

The International Response to the Ebola Outbreak was a huge success. Back in September, it seemed as if the Ebola outbreak was spinning out of control. When the death toll didn't seem high enough, the stories became that the toll was under reported and stories that the outbreak could plunge Liberia back into civil war.Remember the September 23 New York Times headline: Ebola Cases Could Reach 1.4 Million in Four Months, CDC Estimates?

 

Instead, the number of new cases began to decline in late November. By late December, they had slowed to a trickle. Liberia has only had 12 cases in the last 21 days. Guinea and Sierra Leone are down to less than 200 new cases a week. The total case load will likely not exceed 25,000. This dramatic turnaround was a direct result of the strong international response.

Three activities were key to stopping the spread of the Ebola:

1. Community Awareness: Ebola was spread through contact with the bodies of those that it had killed or were dying. Funeral rites had to change. People had to be convinced to give their loved ones over to foreign doctors draped in protective gear. Physical contact had to be limited. Changing attitudes is hard, but this was key to slowing the spread of Ebola. Some organizations took this on as a primary mission through radio messages and posters that still blanked Liberia. Others added this component to their work such as distributing Ebola awareness information to the farmers with whom they work.
2. Safe Burials: An Ebola victim is hardly contagious until he is so sick that he can hardly move. His body remains highly contagious long after he has died. Touching the body of an Ebola victim is one of the easiest ways to contract Ebola. Traditionally, mourners would hug the corpse of their loved one to say goodbye. Stopping that practice was a key component of the community awareness. But bodies still had to be disposed of. In Liberia, the US government funded a large program to provide safe burials for all Ebola victims. This was very dangerous work and done very effectively by Global Communities. It is probably the reason that Ebola disappeared first in Liberia even though it had been hit the hardest.
3. Constructing the Ebola Treatment Units: As the Ebola outbreak was growing, there was not enough room to treat the victims. The few treatment units were overwhelmed and the centers were forced to turn away people who were clearly very sick. Building more treatment units became an international priority. Once there were enough treatment units to house those who needed care, it was possible to isolate those sick with Ebola and prevent them from contaminating others. It also became easier to trace their contacts and seek out others that might become sick.

I believe that a decade from now, we will talk about the Ebola response as one of the great victories of foreign assistance. The international response was critical in turning the tide on the epidemic. Those people who went to Liberia to help and those who stayed in country are the heroes that saved West Africa and the rest of the world from a terrible disease.

The response to the Haiti Earthquake was also a great success and yet is frequently portrayed as a failure. Five years after the earthquake, Haiti’s economy is stronger than it has been in decades. There is more electricity, government services function better, and there are even twice as many international-standard hotel rooms. Does the International Community not get any credit for helping to rebuild Haiti?

In both cases, there was great chaos in the response. In Haiti, one of the biggest wastes of money was building camps and temporary shelters that ended up housing people who had never lost their home in the first place and became very difficult to close. In Liberia, one of the biggest wastes was the construction of the Ebola Treatment Units—although desperately needed in the beginning, construction of new ones continued long after the need for the units had disappeared. There were still units being built in January when there were only a handful of cases of Ebola. In both cases, once a need is identified and projects are funded, it is very hard to redirect that funding.

I loved that Time magazine named the Ebola Fighters as Person of the Year for 2014. I think that those who responded to the Haiti earthquake and those who donated to support it deserved the same honor in 2010.

Le Grande Rue Languishes while Petionville booms

Le Grande Rue--the historic buisness center of Port-au-Prince

For the first time in quite a long time, I ventured into the traditional heart of Port-au-Prince. It was a sad sight. Most of the buildings along the main street (Boulevard Jean-Jacques Dessaline or Le Grande Rue as it is commonly known) were so severely damaged that they were unusable. Vendors squatted in the shade of the porches selling their goods while sunlight streamed through the shattered building behind them. Although all the loose rubble was gone, there were few signs of the reconstruction.

Even before the earthquake, this area was withering. The streets were a mess and never drained. The roads were blocked by traditional market vendors with stalls extending into the street. Crime had become a bad problem. Most businesses had moved to Petionville. 

Then came the earthquake. The New York Times beautifully captured the devastation on Le Grand Rue with a  sweeping panarama. As the panorama shows, large number of the buildings collapsed or became unstable. The National Palace is only a few blocks away and also crumbled. Throughout 2010, the government talked of the need to develop a master plan to rebuild the area. President Preval imposed a moratorium on construction to ensure that all new construction would follow the master plan. But then no plan was ever approved.

In 2011, Digicel's CEO, Dennis O'Brien stepped in to rebuild the Iron Market--a bizarre  19th Century Egyptian train station turned outdoor market. He spent $12 million to rebuild the market to make it better than it had ever been--a beautiful symbol of the rebirth of Port-au-Prince. 

President Martelly has rescinded the construction ban, but little has been done. The market remains beautiful, but it still stands alone. It wouldn't take much of an earthquake to bring many of these crumbling buildings down on those squatting under them.

I found my visit to the center of town to be quite striking due to the contrast with Petionville. I spend most of my time in Petionville where the traces of the earthquake are largely gone. New hotels, restaurants, and shopping complexes have sprung up all over. It is easy to believe that Haiti is better off now than before the earthquake--Petionville is booming.

Naturally money follows money--people are building in Petionville because others are building in Petionville. Perhaps the rebirth of downtown Port-au-Prince will only start when the government begins rebuilding its home--the palace, the parliament building, and the ministries. We can only hope that this starts soon. 

 

Moving on

After 13 years, one week, and four days with the Pan American Development Foundation, I am moving on. As I left the office today, I had a powerful mixture of feelings. I am sad to say good-bye to so many good friends--people who have struggled with me as we fought to make changes in Haiti. I am sad to leave an institution that has an incredible potential to make an impact not just in Haiti, but throughout the hemisphere. Yet I am excited for the change and I know that I am leaving at the right time.

On January 7, 2000 I began directing a complicated program designed to help rebuild Haiti following the passage of Hurricane Georges. Yes, it had already been 15 months since the Hurricane had hit Haiti. But development work moves slowly. I accepted a twenty month position that grew into a 13 year career.

I loved the Hurricane Georges Reconstruction Program. We built roads, fixed irrigation systems, planted trees, distributed seeds, and helped the Haitian government to develop its community-based disaster management system--the one that is still in place today.

In 2003, I moved with my family from Haiti to the Dominican Republic to start a program to strengthen cross-border ties in the Haitian-Dominican borderlands. The Our Border Program grew into a powerful initiative that helped to increase investments in the border and improve relations between the two countries. I loved the team that we had and I loved how we were able to move between working with rural farmers in the borderlands and top officials in both countries.

Nothing matched the challenge that I faced when the earthquake hit. Less than 24 hours after the earthquake I crossed into Haiti and quickly took over managing our Haiti operations. The early days were overwhelming. Again, I had a wonderful team that pulled together despite incredible challenges and did unbelievable work. I know that I pushed them too hard, but there was so much that needed to be done.

In July 2010, I moved to Washington to oversee the Haiti program from Headquarters. This was a new challenge. I was no longer the boss and had to mediate between the needs of the field and the demands of those above me. We continued to do great work. We've created strong social networks in the most difficult neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince. These networks have in turn helped to start businesses and develop reconstruction plans. We've repaired nearly 10,000 houses and each one was inspected by a government inspector and certified by them as safely repaired. Now we are funding larger buisnesses--those with up to $1 million in revenues a year--to create new, sustainable jobs.

I'm also proud of how I have left PADF. Ever since I moved to Washington, I have tried to work myself out of a job. By helping those around me and seeking the best possible people, I have worked hard to pass off my authority (not just responsibilities) to others. As I walk away from PADF, I leave an institution in very good hands. PADF will not replace me, but I suspect that they will miss me.

It has been a wild ride for these thirteen years. Especially in the years since the earthquake, I have made a lot of painful mistakes. Yet these mistakes seem to haunt only me. I have been deeply touched by the support that I have received from my team in both Haiti and in Washington, DC.

I am also excited by this move because I am joining a wonderful new team. I brought Kit Miyamoto to Haiti the week after the earthquake. He spent an entire month volunteering his time helping Haiti to start on the right path. We partnered together to conduct a detailed assessment of the impact of the earthquake and then to repair those 10,000 houses. Miyamoto International is a purpose driven company, dedicated to making the world a better place and to saving lives. I am thrilled to join their team. My job is to open their DC office and to help them to expand beyond Haiti. Having seen the high cost that Haiti paid for poor quality construction, I have become evangelical on the importance of improving construction quality. Miyamoto International, a California-Japanese seismic engineering company, is the perfect platform for this message.

I am sad, nervous, and excited about the change. I love what I have done with PADF and am very excited as to what I could do with Miyamoto. 

It is not about the tents

Cite Soleil--is this really any better than a tent?: Photo by Jordon Michael Zuniga

When journalists discuss the progress of reconstruction in Haiti, they frequently cite the number of people still living in tents as an indication of how much work is left to be done. In the New York Times recent article about housing, Deborah Sontag wrote:

Two and a half years after the earthquake, despite billions of dollars in reconstruction aid, the most obvious, pressing need — safe, stable housing for all displaced people — remains unmet.

She later went on to state that 390,000 people that were displaced by the earthquake remain homeless.

I do not dispute that 390,000 people still live in tents and that they live in terrible conditions. However, at least a million other people live in tin shacks in places like Cite Soliel. Their living conditions are no better than those who live in tents plus they have to pay rent for their shack.

Living conditions for Haiti’s poorest were terrible before the earthquake. Many people moved into camps not because they lost their house, but because they did not have a decent house before the earthquake. I strongly agree that one of Haiti’s most pressing needs is for safe, stable housing. I hope that this is for all of Haiti’s poor—both urban and rural—and not just for those living in tents.

 

Responding to the Haiti Earthquake--my story

The Pan American Development Foundation put together a video to thank the Caterpillar Foundation for the support that they gave to us following the Haiti earthquake. It features me telling the story of how we responded. I am very pleased with how it turned out:

Two years later: a long slow fight

photo by Jordan Michael of Red 1 Studios

Two years ago, the ground in Port-au-Prince shook and tens of thousands of buildings collapsed. The January 12^th earthquake was the worst disaster to ever hit the Americas. The early days after the earthquake were unimaginable. When I drive through some of the neighborhoods that I visited that first week, I get terrible flashbacks. Poor Haiti had been in such bad shape before the earthquake, I just couldn’t imagine how it would ever get rebuilt.

As we commemorate the second anniversary of the earthquake, there are lots of stories highlighting what has and has not been done. A lot of articles focus on the apparent slow progress with headlines like Haiti 2 years later: Half a million still in camps. Except that most people are not in camps because they lost their house and are waiting for someone to rebuild it. They are in the camps because they are desperately poor and have nowhere to turn. The Miami Heralds video, Nous Boke: Two Years Later nicely highlights this problem by talking with people living in the distant Corail camp who are desperate for work.

Nou Bouke: Two years later from The Miami Herald on Vimeo.

This desperation existed well before the earthquake. The earthquake made a bad situation much worse. The important question is where should Haiti be today? Given how bad the situation was before the earthquake and how bad the damage was, have we made good progress?

At the one year anniversary, I had strongly mixed feelings. On one hand, I was disappointed at the lack of progress. The camp populations seemed enormous. Although the rubble had been cleared from the roads, the wounds seemed very fresh. I wished that we had made greater progress. At the same time, I couldn’t image having worked harder or pushed my team any harder. I found the same reaction when I talked with others working to rebuild Haiti. We wished that we could have done more, but had no idea how we could have gone any faster.

At the second anniversary, I feel far better about the progress. The rubble is gone from most public spaces. The government’s program to empty six camps into sixteen neighborhoods (“6/16”) has emptied the camps that used to occupy Place St Pierre and Place Boyer—two of the most visible camps. As I drive around Port-au-Prince, life seems to be much more normal.

One of the challenges is that change comes slowly. After the earthquake, we all hoped that Haiti could be quickly rebuilt and rebuilt better. We dreamed of modernizing Port-au-Prince to have wider streets, of building modern building, of making Port-au-Prince into a livable city. Two years later, we are still dreaming of this. In Delmas, we are working with an urban planner who has drawn pictures of townhouses on palm tree lined streets. Maybe someday we will get there. However, we have to first finish repairing the existing buildings, clear out the collapsed buildings, and start repairing the streets.

When I left Haiti in May 2010, I did not intend to return. I was proud of what I had accomplished and wanted to try something new. I also feared that if I stayed in Haiti, that Haiti would break my heart. I stayed and it did. But I am glad that I stayed. Brick by brick, micro-entrepreneur by micro entrepreneur, we are helping to rebuild Haiti. It is a long slow fight, but I believe that we are moving in the right direction.

What do you think? Should we be proud of what we have accomplished or should we be embarrased that we have not done more?

Signs of Progress in Haiti

One of the greatest challenges in rebuiding Haiti is fighting the expectations. To some, the picture above is a picture of poverty. Women squatting in the street selling their meager wares surrounded by poor buildings. I fear that a lot of journalists would look at this image and see it as proof that Haiti is not being rebuilt.

But I know that this is a great victory. I wrote of my visits to this neigborhood last March. At that point, we had just started the rubble removal. I was thrilled to see how our work had transformed the neighborhood. And that is the challenge. If your starting reference is the scene below, the picture above is a beautiful success.

I am guilty of having written against the idea of just rebuilding the chaos.  Now I recognize that reconstruction has to go through steps. Just removing the rubble was a huge victory. Getting the unstable houses demolished and the damaged ones repaired was another huge victory. We have to help people rebuild their lives before we can help them to build a new neighborhood.

We are continuing to move forward. We are working with the local leaders and the mayor to build a better Delmas 32. Little by little, the bird will build its nest.

Haiti's reconstruction lessons are found on the other side of the world

I had this article published today in the Miami Herald:

Haiti's reconstruction lessons are found on the other side of the world

As published in the Miami Herald 

BY DANIEL O'NEIL

WWW.IMUNITEDFORHAITI.ORG

As I rushed relief supplies from the Pan American Development Foundation through the streets of Port-au-Prince just after the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake, I could not fathom how Haiti would recover from the worst humanitarian disaster in the history of the Western Hemisphere.

Nearly a year later and on the other side of the world, I saw what could be Haiti's future.

In October, I traveled to Indonesia with a World Bank study group to see how that country recovered after the post-Christmas 2004 tsunami, which killed in excess of 200,000 and leveled some 139,000 homes, and the 2006 Yogyakarta earthquake, which took the lives of more than 5,700 and damaged 175,000 buildings.