Foreign-aid policies hinder recovery
BY DON SLESNICK
When aid reaches countries in need, the potential for bad policy and short sightedness exists to the detriment of those we are trying to help. This was evident during my recent trip to Haiti.
To ensure that people would not go hungry, the United States set up a system to distribute U.S.-grown rice to Haitian families. We were saddened to see rice bags travel no more than 20 yards from the gates of the distribution site before ending up in the back of a pickup truck presumably headed for the black market.
To our further dismay, we returned home to read news stories that those very same donations were undercutting Haitian rice farmers who needed income to support their own families. Our system is giving with one hand, but taking with the other. Were it not for the presence of the U.S. military, there would have been little organization and coordination within the relief operation.
My recent mission to an orphanage in Haiti was revealing on a range issues, from human-rights and disaster relief to the impact (or lack thereof) of U.S. foreign aid on the depressed quality of life within third world nations.
When the horrific earthquake struck Haiti in January, citizens from across our land offered physical and financial support for relief efforts to assist the Haitian people through the height of the crisis.
However, getting that assistance to the people who need it can be a challenge because of the complex bureaucracy that governs how aid is distributed. Research by credible and respected relief organizations, such as Oxfam America, can attest that navigating the tangle of government red tape (which currently chokes our current federal foreign-aid system) can slow the relief process to an ineffective crawl.
Simply put, our foreign-aid system is broken. The results of this breakdown are great waste and numerous inefficiencies. Within the federal government some 12 departments, 25 agencies, and 60 offices are involved in foreign-aid distribution, with very little coordination and no effective “chain of command.” Foreign-aid legislation now totals 38 major laws that contain 140 priorities and 400 directives. The rules, regulations and underlying legislative acts are, in many instances, incomprehensible and do not properly inform aid workers as to the exact nature of their mission or the manner in which it should be accomplished.
As thousands of Haitian earthquake survivors, many of whom are still living under tarps in flood zones, prepare themselves for what the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is predicting as one of the severest hurricane seasons on record, it is imperative to reform our aid system and find a better long-term approach.
Crafting a clear, modern strategy and framework for our foreign-aid system can reduce such contradictions in our efforts to help the poor. A better system will result in more of the aid getting through to effectively address local needs in a meaningful manner.
The underlying laws regulating the foreign-aid process were enacted 50 years ago and have been reworked and amended so many times on an ad-hoc basis that interpreting them is just as complex as trying to figure out who is in charge of what. Is it any wonder that so few of the taxpayer dollars dedicated to foreign aid actually make it to the people they’re supposed to help?
An overhaul of the nation’s approach to foreign aid is not only good for efficient philanthropy, it’s good for world stability and it’s good for local business. A 21st-century system of foreign aid would truly help struggling nations within our hemisphere help their people have a more abundant life and would lay a better foundation for their commercial institutions.
Both results would add to the health and vitality of our community and would create more stable trading relationships for South Florida. In turn, the stronger our economy becomes, the greater our ability becomes to increase our assistance to other countries. The goal, of course, is that this productive cycle will continue to benefit everyone at both ends of the spectrum. This is truly a vision we should nurture and support.
Don Slesnick is the mayor of the city of Coral Gables.
