INSIDE DEVELOPMENT
In this section:
Haiti Digs Out from Hurricane Jeanne
Speedy OTI Program Lists Aid Projects
Haiti Digs Out from Hurricane Jeanne
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Haitians struggle with the thick layer of mud left behind by the
torrential rains and storm surge of Hurricane Jeanne.
Jason Girard, USAID |
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti—To cope with flooding
and other hurricane damage compounded by political unrest,
Haiti signed an agreement November 16 for $34 million in U.S.
assistance, part of an overall $100 million to help Caribbean
countries recover from Hurricane Jeanne in September.
The new aid will help Gonaives, Port-de-Paix, Artibonite, and North-West
departments with job creation, cleanup, and the repairs of schools,
water systems, drainage canals, and roads. Similar work is badly needed
in the countryside, as many farms and country roads were destroyed by
the flooding and considerable livestock was lost.
The aid program also calls for environmental stabilization measures,
although Haiti’s deforestation is so widespread that only a small
portion of the work necessary can be envisioned for the present.
Gonaives, third largest city in the country, was where Haiti’s
1804 war of independence from France began and where the movement to
oust President Jean-Bertrand Aristide began last year.
Hurricane flooding up to 10 feet deep swamped the center of the city,
driving more than 100,000 people from their homes and from nearby villages.
The city and its people lack tools and resources to dig out their streets
and homes.
The Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance spent more than $11
million through NGOs such as CARE, World Vision, and CRS to provide
Gonaives with food, water, and other essentials.
But gang violence—much of it reportedly by pro-Aristide forces—hampered
relief efforts. U.N. forces, still at only half the number envisioned
months ago, have been unable to cope fully with the challenge.
CARE began a cash-for-work, cleanup program in Gonaives the second week
of November. A few days later, USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives
helped the Ministry of Public Works ship shovels, pickaxes, wheelbarrows,
boots, and facemasks to the city.
“There are still mountains and mountains of mud, but I have been
very impressed” by cleanup efforts, said Jan Wessel of Food for
Peace, who spoke to Frontlines from Gonaives November 18. She said relief
workers are finally getting to the worst neighborhoods and seeing exactly
what people need, but the lack of trained and equipped policemen remains
Gonaives’s biggest problem.
The lack of security in Port-au-Prince led USAID to reduce its mission
to a skeleton crew at times in the past months and to close its doors
occasionally due to violent eruptions in the city. At the same time,
the mission budget nearly tripled to $143 million following the ouster
of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in late February..
Rick Marshall contributed to this article.
Speedy OTI Program Lists Aid Projects
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti—When a USAID
official recently was asked by the U.S. ambassador for a list of aid
projects in the Cité Soleil slum, he provided the data in minutes,
thanks to a rapid computer program developed by the Office of Transition
Initiatives (OTI).
“I mentioned to the embassy political officer that we had several
things going in Cité Soleil, and he said that he and the ambassador
just had a meeting with the mayor of Cité Soleil and wished they
had a list,” recalled Tom Stukel, OTI consultant and a former USAID
mission director.
“I went back to my office and was able to email him the Cité
Soleil report from the database a couple of minutes later. It is a lifesaver.”
The idea for the database came to Stukel during a 1998 riot in Indonesia,
then OTI’s biggest program. Keeping track of grants, which would
top 1,100 by 2001, was not easy.
The new system runs on Microsoft Access, which is already on all Agency
computer desktops, and it can “monitor our activities at a very
granular level—it allows us to report not only on a country but
globally,” OTI technical expert Dan Henry said.
Jason Aplon, also with OTI, said: “We use these reports all the
time in the field to tell us how much money is going to specific objectives.
We literally have a hundred different ways to look at reports.”
When asked how many programs OTI has in Bamiyan Province, Afghanistan,
Aplon needed only a few seconds to respond that 13 grants worth $676,000
are currently open and 23 worth $603,980 have been completed.
“In terms of public outreach, it’s great,” said Rick
Swanson, an OTI outreach and public affairs officer. “We upload
information from the field on a weekly basis.”
The key to the database is keeping it current and making sure that
the quality of the data is properly reviewed and maintained. All OTI
contractors are required to update the information on their projects
on a regular basis—usually every week. The system indicates where
the data are incomplete and will soon give latitude and longitude for
each project.
“This is a fantastic example of a knowledge management tool—the
kind of Agency-wide capability Knowledge for Development is helping
to develop for the many business activities we use to run our Agency
and accomplish our mission,” said David Adams, head of the Office
of Development Evaluation and Information.
Rick Marshall contributed to this article.
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