21. Op-Ed: Haiti's Fight for Transparency
(Matching tags: usaid, chemonics, transparency, accountability, local procurement)

... looking at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which has spent well over a billion dollars in Haiti since 2010.  To their credit, it’s not difficult to obtain the first level ...

22. Lack of Data Prevents Measurement of Aid Effectiveness, Impact
(Matching tags: aid distribution, usaid, transparency, accountability, data)

Yesterday, Vijaya Ramachandran and Julie Walz of the Center for Global Development provided a nice overview of the U.S government’s review of its Haiti earthquake response. Ramachandran and Walz found ...

23. A Review of the U.S. Government’s Review of Its Haiti Quake Response
(Matching tags: usaid, ngos, transparency)

This guest post is cross-posted from the Center for Global Development. By Vijaya Ramachandran and Julie Walz Last week, USAID finally published an evaluation report on its activities in Haiti: “Independent ...

24. USAID-Funded Parliament Building Still Vacant 4 Months After “Inauguration”
(Matching tags: aid distribution, usaid, chemonics, dai)

Jacob Kushner and Jean Pharés Jérôme of Global Post report today on the high-profile USAID project to build a temporary building for Haiti’s parliament. Although the $1.9 million building was “inaugurated” ...

25. Evaluation of Donor Response to Haiti Earthquake Shows "Building Back Better" Nothing But a Slogan
(Matching tags: aid distribution, usaid, shelter, reconstruction, haitian government, haitian ngos, transparency, aid coordination, donors, cholera, housing)

... being confusing, non-transparent and inward-looking, despite their large presence." As an interviewee explained: USAID has had a complete bunker mentality. It’s impossible to have any continuity in ...

26. PDT Survey Looks at Efforts to Improve and Increase Local Procurement
(Matching tags: contractors, usaid, chemonics, ngos, haitian ngos, aid, economy, job creation)

Peace Dividend Trust (PDT), an organization that has been in Haiti since 2009, released a study last week (PDF) on the construction sector in Haiti based on surveys with both procurement officers of international ...

27. Contractor Accused of Waste in Katrina Reconstruction Lands USAID Contract in Haiti
(Matching tags: contractors, usaid, reconstruction, ashbritt)

... has landed a USAID contract for work in Haiti. And it's not the first time this has happened. MWH announced on December 21 that it had received a $2.8 million contract to conduct a feasibility study for ...

28. Blacklisted Contractor Continues Receiving Government Money Through Haiti Contracts
(Matching tags: contractors, usaid, us military, relief efforts, oversight, military)

... relief effort, eventually totaling over one billion dollars. But the lead agency in the immediate aftermath was not the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), as is typically the case when ...

29. With Poor Track Records For-Profit Development Companies Team Up to Fight Reform
(Matching tags: usaid, chemonics, dai)

This is the final part of a series of posts analyzing USAID's increasing reliance on contractors and how this has affected efforts to provide greater oversight, implement procurement reform and improve ...

30. Local Purchases of Rice as Food Aid Overstated
(Matching tags: usaid, france, us rice, food aid, rice policy, transparency, rice)

In addition to the problems of allocating food aid discussed in the previous post, another significant problem is the lack of local procurement, which can be more effective than importing in emergency ...

31. World Bank Report Finds Allocation of Emergency Food Aid Not Effective in Targeting Most Vulnerable
(Matching tags: aid distribution, usaid, food crisis, food aid, world bank, rice)

... of the earthquake and with the problematic Cash-for-Work programs from USAID/OTI.  ...

32. Barriers to Reform: The Big Business of Shipping Food Aid
(Matching tags: aid distribution, contractors, usaid, agriculture, us rice, food aid)

Between January 14 and February 26 2011, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) signed nine contracts with three shipping companies to send 73,000 Metric Tons of rice and other ...

33. Not Doing Enough: Unnecessary Sickness and Death from Cholera in Haiti
(Matching tags: aid distribution, usaid, sanitation, ngos, cholera, health)

A new paper from the Center for Economic and Policy Research argues that cholera treatment and prevention efforts in Haiti have fallen woefully behind, leading to thousands of preventable deaths, even ...

34. A Brief History of Failure in Post-Quake Haiti
(Matching tags: aid distribution, contractors, usaid, shelter, reconstruction, disease, ngos, red cross, cholera)

A 11,849-word article by journalist Janet Reitman in the new issue of Rolling Stone provides a sometimes fascinating and always disheartening overview of relief and reconstruction in Haiti since the earthquake. ...

35. France Increases Local Rice Procurement for Food Aid; Will the US Follow Suit?
(Matching tags: usaid, france, agriculture, rice)

... Haiti has not been included in the US’ Department of Agriculture Local and Regional Procurement Pilot Project despite the obvious need. Instead, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has ...

36. Heavy Rains Test Haiti’s Preparedness for Hurricane Season
(Matching tags: rainy season, usaid, un, shelter, cholera)

... means in need of repair. A controversial USAID-commissioned report said that 64 percent of red homes have been reoccupied in the Greater Port-au-Prince area.  ...

37. Members of Congress Want Answers on Lack of Results from U.S. Assistance Effort
(Matching tags: aid distribution, rainy season, usaid, un, shelter, sanitation, disease)

An editorial in the New York Times today describes the findings of a UN report that shows the cholera outbreak “may have originated” at a MINUSTAH camp, and says “The fact that the disease is still spreading ...

38. Killed by Bureaucracy: A Story of Neglect in a USAID/OFDA Supported Camp
(Matching tags: usaid, shelter, ngos)

Earlier we reported on an Inspector General report that is extremely critical of USAID/OFDA and their grantees’ efforts in providing housing to displaced Haitians. The audit, however, also raised a separate ...

39. Inspector General Slams USAID on Provision of Housing in Haiti
(Matching tags: aid distribution, usaid, shelter, tarps, tents, ngos)

An audit by the USAID Office of the Inspector General (OIG) that looked at USAID efforts to provide transitional housing in Haiti was published a few weeks ago and has yet to receive any attention from ...

40. Sacrificing Food Sovereignty for Food Aid
(Matching tags: contractors, usaid, chemonics, agriculture, food aid)

The AP’s Trenton Daniel put a spotlight on rising food prices in Haiti over the weekend. Daniel writes: Soaring food prices aren't new in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and heavily ...