The earthquake on 14 August 2021 enabled, after a long time, the media focus to be placed on Haiti. Over several days, the country on the American continent with the biggest challenges in human development terms and one of the most neglected in the Human Development Index (HDI) drawn up by the UN -position 170 out of 189 countries in 2020- was given front-page space worldwide and scraped a few minutes on radio and television news bulletins.
The earthquake, 7.2 on the Richter scale, shook the three departments in the south, leaving at least 2,200 dead and another 12,000 or more injured. Two days later, Hurricane Grace battered the south-west of the island, destroying already damaged houses and momentarily stopping rescue efforts. Overall, these catastrophes are estimated to have directly affected 800,000 people, of which 650,000 needed emergency aid, and around 137,500 families witnessed the destruction of their homes.
This is not the first time Haiti has been in the news in 2021. On 7 July, the president was assassinated in his private residence by a group of mercenaries. Investigations into the perpetrators of this operation are ongoing, with suspects among figures close to the assassinated president, among them the subsequent acting president. Unfortunately, for the Haiti population and organisations in the country this extreme event was a culmination inside a context of permanent insecurity and daily violence occurring over the preceding months.
To refer to the particular and serious situation Haiti faces, UNICEF and other international organisations have coined the expression “triple tragedy”, alluding to the natural disasters, the violence meted out by different armed groups throughout the country and the deterioration caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet beyond this exceptional point in time which has resonated internationally, what more do we know about Haiti?
Haiti is known as the “first black republic” due to it being the first country in Latin America and the Caribbean to proclaim independence in 1804, with a population largely made up of slaves of African origin. Formal political independence was possible after incurring a multimillion debt with France in the name of “reparation”, a debt Haiti managed to pay off 122 years later, in 1947.
Calm in the country has been infrequent: civil wars, US military occupation, between 1915 and 1934, dictatorships -Duvalier, father and son- tyrannical and corrupt governments, and the overthrowing of presidents, with four military coup d’états since 1988. Not to mention the many failed coup attempts, recurring popular uprisings, violent protests in different coordinates of the country, and highly turbulent and unstable economic, social and cultural dynamics, which still occur.
For decades on end, this adverse situation has led Haitians towards a genuine exodus, even more so in recent years, and in a position whereby the situation, rather than generating greater international support and solidarity, has resulted in discrimination, racist violence and repressive responses by States of transit and asylum -those with the sharpest media focus are the persecutions in the USA and the illegal deportations through Mexico-. Even the Dominican Republic, a country with which Haiti shares the so-called “La Española” island, began work to build a border fence between the two countries in 2019 -in 2021 it stretches across 23 kilometres-.
Currently, with just over 11 million inhabitants, Haiti occupies first place in the risk index drawn up by the European Union of countries from the American continent, and is 17th in a worldwide total of 191, ahead of many African and Asian countries, including some in situations of armed conflict. The classification reflects its vulnerability to natural phenomena, fragile institutionalism and inadequate and damaged infrastructures.
The Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO), developed by OCHA for Haiti in 2021, indicates that over 4.4 million people in the country could require humanitarian aid and could face food insecurity, while 3.5 million could have numerous types of needs. For instance, they highlight how, during the 2019-2020 school year, four million children experienced reduced access to school, often leaving them without adult support. Furthermore, in 2020 the number of cases of recorded gender-based violence had increased by 377%.
HNO also points to a considerable reduction in the access to health care and water and sanitation services, leading to lower immunization, an increase in maternal mortality and diarrhoeal diseases, the main cause of child malnutrition. Haiti was among those countries last in line to receive COVID-19 vaccines and the processes of planning and delivery were significantly delayed by the situation of violence.
The international community, meanwhile, has shown a finite commitment to the structural solution of problems in the country, currently among the so-called “forgotten crises” due to the grim situation it has been facing in recent years, coupled with scant media coverage and the limited availability of official development assistance. In the specific case of the recent earthquake, media coverage and the memory of the devastating events of 2010 engendered a significant mobilisation of resources during the days that immediately followed, the most critical stage of rescue operations. That said, there are still many doubts over whether that interest will endure during the rebuilding stages.
The experience of the previous earthquake also brought with it a series of lessons that humanitarian actors aim to keep in mind. Placing the assistance role in the hands of local authorities, concentrating coordination efforts and geographical distribution were all aspects that were strengthened, thereby generating a feeling of greater effectiveness.
In the meantime, the tireless and complex civil society of Haiti is articulated in different spaces to try to shape an autonomous solution proposal for the country, a major challenge given the circumstances of instability and violence.
At Médicos del Mundo we have focused our efforts on responding to the most urgent health needs in the southern departments of Petit and Grand Goave, where we have worked previously, and on raising awareness of the situation in Spain and analysing the access to health for Haitian migrants in the Dominican Republic. We feel that, under the circumstances, there is an even greater need for long-term political and humanitarian commitment with Haitians, to respect their leadership and take their country forward, ensuring that international political and economic interests are left to one side and avoiding negligence and oversights taking root once more.