A Study on Where International Aid May Have Failed: The Case of Haiti
- Uses Rwanda as the comparator because the two economies are of similar size: Rwanda's was 72 percent of Haiti's in 2019.
- Tracks official development assistance as a share of GDP for both countries from 1999 to 2019.
- Places the Dominican Republic at about 7 percent and reads its lower figure as reflecting less reliance on foreign aid at a higher stage of development.
- Separates humanitarian from developmental aid inside the package, recording humanitarian aid at 10.4 percent of the total in one period and following that share over a subsequent five years.
A May 2022 study asking where international aid to Haiti may have failed, built as a comparison rather than an assessment of Haiti alone. Rwanda is the comparator, chosen because the two economies are of similar size: in 2019 Rwanda's was 72 percent the size of Haiti's, which makes aid dependence comparable across them in a way most country pairs do not allow.
The central series is official development assistance as a share of GDP for Rwanda and Haiti from 1999 to 2019. The Dominican Republic appears alongside at about 7 percent, and the study reads its low figure as reflecting a lesser reliance on foreign aid, having reached a higher state of development. It also separates humanitarian from developmental aid within the package, recording humanitarian aid at 10.4 percent of the total in one period and tracking how that share moved over a subsequent five years. That split is the analytical point: two countries can receive similar aid volumes relative to GDP and still differ in what the money was for, and the comparison isolates that difference rather than the headline total.
How to cite
Université Quisqueya; Inter-American Dialogue, 2022, A Study on Where International Aid May Have Failed: The Case of Haiti, accessed via HaitiDocs, https://www.haitidocs.org/doc/tth-2022-where-international-aid-may-have-failed