About Aid Watch
The Aid Watch blog is a project of New York University's Development Research Institute (DRI). This blog is principally written by William Easterly, author of "The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists' Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics" and "The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good," and Professor of Economics at NYU. It is co-written by Laura Freschi and by occasional guest bloggers. Our work is based on the idea that more aid will reach the poor the more people are watching aid.
"Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody may be looking." - H.L. Mencken
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Bill Easterly tweets
- RT @hangingnoodles: "a self-satirizing plan…pouring in money to a fictional government” http://t.co/K9yCiLgs06 @bill_easterly NYT on Mali … about 12 hours ago from Twitter for iPad ReplyRetweetFavorite
- Good article on aid to Mali, even though I'm quoted http://t.co/1aWi9mjWAo about 19 hours ago from bitly ReplyRetweetFavorite
- RT @dandrezner: Um... http://t.co/R8U5P6jbid MT @bill_easterly Thoughtful, well-written critique of Krugman anti-austerity crusade http://t… 06:43:31 PM May 16, 2013 from Twitter for iPad ReplyRetweetFavorite
- Thoughtful and well-written critique of the Krugman anti-austerity crusade http://t.co/3dAjHsz5WN 02:19:33 PM May 16, 2013 from bitly ReplyRetweetFavorite
Aid Watch tweets
- Where is the line between marketing social impact and exploitation? | http://t.co/YTc7AoLRMc via @Thehumanosphere about 15 hours ago from Buffer ReplyRetweetFavorite
- Why the rise in global trade may have less to do with policy and more to do with metal boxes. http://t.co/QN6uw0wLys via @TheEconomist about 15 hours ago from Buffer ReplyRetweetFavorite
- “I thought you were here to help.” http://t.co/z7hbKP8RtX via @NYTimes about 16 hours ago from Buffer ReplyRetweetFavorite
- African traders flocked to Guangzhou for the cheap goods but are staying to run manufacturing operations http://t.co/gK7jmSS3qW via @qz about 16 hours ago from Buffer ReplyRetweetFavorite
Tag Archives: Haiti
Aid Watch Rerun: Nobody wants your old shoes: How not to help in Haiti
NOTE FROM THE EDITORS: Over the holidays, we’ll be publishing reruns of some of our posts from the first 2 years of Aid Watch. This post originally ran a week after the Haiti earthquake, on January 16, 2010.
The following post is by Alanna Shaikh. Alanna is a global health professional who blogs at UN Dispatch and Blood and Milk.
Don’t donate goods. Donating stuff instead of money is a serious problem…
The Haiti we don’t see
Haiti is not always and all the time earthquakes, hurricanes, deforestation, misery, rape, corruption, kidnappings, poverty, garbage, violence, gangs, wasted aid, cholera, election fraud, dirty water, orphans and amputees.
These pictures, the result of an NGO-funded collaboration between a Canadian photojournalist and 22 Haitian teenagers living in Jacmel and Croix des Bouquets, are a beautiful reminder that Haiti is also babies with chickens, landscapes, going to school, solitude, hair-dos and cookouts. Via Linda Raftree, blogging at Wait…What?
Wyclef Jean for Prez?
In a world where being an actor, a rock star, or sex video vixen is sufficient qualification for people to sit up and pay attention to your ideas about how to solve world poverty, it comes as no great shock that Wyclef Jean has decided to run for President of Haiti. Herewith, we attempt two arguments in favor of the former Fugees frontman’s candidacy, and two against.
In Favor:
- Wyclef Jean demonstrated his impressive
…
The lure of starting from scratch
It is an acknowledged national characteristic that Americans believe in self-reinvention. One of our founding myths—inspired by the once unexplored and sparsely populated expanse of the North American continent—is the idea that you can head out of town, leave the encumbrances of the past behind, and start over in a new, unspoiled place.
What would happen if we brought this sensibility to development plans for poorer, more crowded nations? What if we already do?
The…
Is it easier to start an NGO than a business in Haiti?
From today’s NYT:
Alain Armand, 36, a Haitian-American lawyer from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., who is now trying to open several businesses here in Port-au-Prince, the capital, including a bed and breakfast.
Trying is the operative word, he said: “It costs $3,000, and it takes at least three months to get incorporated. There is no organized structure in which we, outsiders to NGO-land, can operate.”
Meanwhile, one list for Haiti lists 822 NGOs operating.
Posted in Entrepreneurship 13 Comments
Of mangos and plastic crates
Sometimes the things that keep people in poverty seem so small and so insignificant, and the remedies seem so simple, that it’s hard for people from rich countries to understand why they remain impoverished.
Jelen, a Haitian farmer living on about $2 a day, can’t get enough water to her mango trees, even though there is a river just beside her property. She needs a simple canal dug from the river to irrigate her…
Posted in Aid policies and approaches, Disaster relief, Trade Also tagged This American Life 15 Comments
Are aid donors now running Haiti?
This post is written by Daniel Altman
Who will determine Haiti’s future? Probably not the Haitians. With aid groups enlarging their presence on the ground and foreign governments exercising control through their wallets, Haiti’s future may be out of the hands of the Haitians for years to come.
Nowhere is this clearer than in the recently convened Interim Committee for the Reconstruction of Haiti (CIRH), which will set the nation’s priorities during an 18-month state…
Posted in Aid policies and approaches, Disaster relief Also tagged Daniel Altman, donor capture, IMF, World Bank 15 Comments
Who is best qualified to help Haiti? Why not the Haitian diaspora?
Toronto Globe and Mail columist Margaret Wente:
Who can offer the most help to the desperate children of Haiti? Is it Bill Clinton, Jeffrey Sachs, the World Bank or the UN? Is it the many experts who are calling for a Marshall Plan to “fix” Haiti once and for all, or the donor nations that have pledged billions for the task?
Personally, I would choose people like Eric and Nicole Pauyo. The Haitian-Canadian couple,
…
Posted in Disaster relief, In the news Also tagged Bill Clinton, Diaspora, earthquakes, Jeffrey Sachs, Margaret Wente, World Bank 7 Comments
Analyzing We are the World for Haiti as a Music Critic and Aid Critic
Even aid critics have their sentimental side. I confess I was genuinely moved watching this video, which has been viewed more than 13 million times on YouTube. The video is very inspiring and well done. It made me let myself go and be carried along by the idealism and hope.
Unfortunately, my kids would like to point out that I also get sentimental listening to Scorpions’ “There’s No One Like You” , so I may not be the best…
Posted in Badvocacy and celebs, Satire and parodies Also tagged earthquakes, hubris, Video 10 Comments
TWOFER: Here’s how Haitians can rescue the US from its budget crisis and save themselves
In 2001, I published an obscure paper that concluded “Econometric tests and fiscal solvency accounting confirm the important role of growth in debt crises.” Based on this, I can now say that Haitians can rescue the US from an impending budget crisis. The crisis is already severe, with previously unthinkable warnings that US government bonds might lose their AAA rating.
What does this have to do with Haitians? Here’s the longer, more technical version…