Owning your crisis - aid partnerships in Haiti

PORT-AU-PRINCE/DAKAR, 21 February 2014 (IRIN) - Globally, humanitarian agencies are stressing the need for better partnerships during response, with local NGOs, the private sector, and government administrations. Following the 2010 Haiti earthquake, aid agencies were criticized for not doing enough to include or empower local authorities in emergency responses and recovery efforts. Four years later, IRIN has spoken to Haitians, government officials and aid agencies, to see whether this had changed.

In the aftermath of the quake, many government ministries or departments were crippled by the loss of personnel and infrastructure. As a result, much of the effort was led by foreign aid workers, who had knowledge of disaster management, but not necessarily of Haiti. Government officials were not always invited to meetings. And meetings of the 12 clusters - groups of humanitarian organizations managing the response - were often held in English, effectively barring the participation of Creole- and French-speaking Haitians.

Since then, eight of the original 12 sectors have been dissolved, and their responsibilities have been handed over to the government. The four clusters that remain active - camp management, sanitation, protection and health - reveal which sectors are still in the emergency relief phase.