Help for Haiti

It is hoped the relevant Caricom mechanisms will fall into place speedily and on a sustained basis.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley indicated the matter was being dealt with on a regional level.

For sure, Hurricane Matthew did not affect only Haiti but also several Caricom States such as Barbados, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Lucia, Dominica, Jamaica, the Bahamas, and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

The storm also affected Cuba and the Dominican Republic and left in its wake significant loss of life, property and infrastructure.

In Haiti alone the toll has exceeded 1,000 but deaths were also reported in Colombia (1), the Dominican Republic (4), Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (1) and the United States (23).

According to Caricom Secretary General Irwin La Rocque, the Caricom response is being led by the Barbados-based Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) that has been working with national relief organisations to assess damage, determine priority needs and provide relief.

La Rocque said he has also been in discussions with the leadership of the countries affected as well with the executive director of CDEMA.

“The early response to the aftermath of Matthew as well as the supportive facility put in place to help resource the required recovery and rebuilding effort also underline the critical importance of the regional institutional frameworks established by the Community,” said La Roque.

“He said CDEMA and the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility had already processed payment to two of the affected countries, Barbados and Haiti.

Looking further afield, Caricom also has to take a more aggressive stance in lobbying for action on climate change and environmental sustainability, both within the region and in terms of international actors.

Hurricane Matthew underlines once again the vulnerability of Caribbean Small Island Developing States and low-lying coastal areas to the vagaries of climate action and the reversals they bring to sustainable development efforts.

The case of Haiti dramatically demonstrates this reality. The country brings to mind the old adage “eat the bread the devil kneads”.

It has been hit by catastrophe after catastrophe.

It is today still grappling with the enduring effects of the 2010 earthquake. Six years later, 45,000 displaced people were still living in tents.

Today, food and water shortages now imperil its population. Cholera lurks as desperation worsens.

Before all this, the country was already grappling with a cholera epidemic and political uncertainty given expiry of the mandate of provisional leadership.

Ironically, the efforts of United Nations aid agencies in the wake of the 2010 earthquake played a role in a fatal outbreak, which happened after that catastrophe. A UN advisor this year found that the outbreak “would not have broken out but for the actions of the United Nations.” The cholera happened after waste from a base housing 454 UN personnel from Nepal __ where a cholera outbreak had also happened __ contaminated a river.

It is therefore important to recognise that aid efforts in the past, even if done with good intentions, have disastrously backfired. Aid is not a simple matter.

It is useful to give citizens an opportunity to deposit funds directly to banks.

But this must be on the condition that these funds reach organisations or groups that are making a meaningful difference in Haiti. The State and Caricom must be vigilant in this regard.