Goodbye to ‘Pixie Dust’? A New U.S. Development Strategy in Haiti

Abstract

Given the less-than-desired results in sustained poverty alleviation and economic growth in Haiti despite the past allocation of significant foreign aid dollars, the Obama administration launched a review of the United States government's approach toward development assistance in there well before the January 2010 devastating earthquake. Findings and recommendations, fine-tuned after the catastrophic disaster, thrust Haiti into the forefront of a wider U.S. overhaul of foreign aid policy and practice that incorporates not only core principles for aid effectiveness set forth in the Paris Declaration of 2005, but also findings and recommendations included in the 2006 peer review undertaken by the Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. As the administration endeavours to enact strategies for greater aid effectiveness in a country challenged not only by a devastating natural disaster, but also by the scars of poverty and conflict, Haiti offers important insights into issues critical for achieving and sustaining more effective development and peacebuilding policies and practices worldwide.