Haiti: Negative Effects of "Aid" on Social Fabric According to the World Bank and Haiti Grassroots Watch

"Elite capture": according to a World Bank report, the people and organisations that tend to benefit the most from “community driven development” or CDD projects in poor countries are those who already enjoy privilege and power at the local level.

Still according to World Bank representatives: "When someone gets a project, they do it not only to make money, but also, they immediately start making plans to become mayor or deputy.”

Organizations are created solely to go after the funding. “There are a lot of organisations founded to channel funding from ‘NGOs,’” Mark Schuller added. “You could call those organisations ‘fake’’ or maybe ‘pocket organisations,’ because they have a piece of paper in their pocket that says they are an organisation, but for the majority of the population, they don’t really exist.”

Kòdinasyon Oganizasyon Bene (KOB)'s Elace Dirou lamented that “when these projects come into our communities, they actually destroy organisations. They make people become enemies. People that used to share what little they had – salt, matches, etc. – now turn their backs.”

Schuller also deplored what he sees as dependency and loss of self-reliance: “Because foreigners are the ones helping, after a while, people even cease to believe in Haitians! They say ‘Haitians can’t do anything’ because the NGO is doing all the work in their neighbourhood.”

SOURCE: IPS – In Haiti, Aid Dollars Corroded Social Fabric | Inter Press Service http://ht.ly/hheFz

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