Relief Oversight
After the devastating 2010 Haiti earthquake, millions around the world donated what they could to help disaster relief organizations save lives. Despite these overwhelming acts of generosity, one year later, many in Haiti have not yet felt the world’s solidarity.
Investigations have found that most donors relied on appeals to emotion, generic anecdotes, and brand recognition instead of hard facts about what organizations were doing on the ground. Because of this reality, many donations were not based on the ability or capacity of organizations to deliver critical services and, after one year, nearly half of the donations sat unused as conditions continued to deteriorate and cholera killed thousands. Even groups like Doctors Without Borders criticized others humanitarian organizations for lack of initiative, revealing some unsustainable features of the multi-billion dollar humanitarian/aid sector that DAP aims to improve.
Hundreds, if not thousands, of NGOs are currently operating in Haiti and together their coffers significantly outweigh the resources of the Haitian government. To make matters worse, in the year following the earthquake, most groups did not engage or consult the Haitian government in decisions related to relief and recovery priorities, further frustrating opportunities for international cooperation and knowledge sharing.
Many of these organizations are operating in poverty, natural disaster, and conflict stricken regions across the globe without unified, independent standards for transparency, accountability, and oversight. Billions of individual, corporate, foundation, and even public dollars lack the most basic independent oversight.