The United Nations has elevated Bill Clinton to be its top coordinator for Haiti. It’s an excellent move that should help the eventual transition back to UN leadership of world efforts there.
No one is doing more heroic work in Haiti now than the US military. But the 82nd Airborne and the Marines will soon be needed elsewhere, and Haiti is a rare case where the United Nations has done a good job.
Critics of the UN secretary general have unfairly dubbed this crisis “Ban Ki-moon’s Katrina” — even though the shell-shocked UN, which suffered the largest loss of lives in its history, operated adequately.
Of course the UN’s efforts couldn’t match those of the US military, dispatched to Haiti since last week and now 20,000 troops strong. America’s military is best positioned to handle huge emergencies in chaotic field conditions.
The UN’s set up for longer-term work — and it will be needed, when US troops inevitably leave once the immediate emergency is over. Ideally, the tragedy could help pull Haiti out of the multigenerational, self-made crisis that has rendered it the hemisphere’s poorest nation.
Happily, the UN’s Haiti stabilization force is one of its better operations. With Brazilian troops as its backbone, the mission has met fire with fire since 2004, fighting violent armed gangs in Cite Soleil and other slums, and winning — or at least achieving enough calm for some outsiders to consider investing in Haiti.
Which brings us back to Clinton, whom Secretary-General Ban last year named as his special envoy for Haiti.
Haiti’s ambassador to Washington, Raymond Joseph, tried for years to lure US and international corporations to invest in his country. Though at first no Clinton fan, Joseph told me at the time that the ex-president’s involvement prompted many skeptical investors to “get off the fence” and move in.
And so, relative calm in the streets, Clinton’s star power and some good moves by the government of President Rene Preval created an atmosphere of hope. Haiti wasn’t there yet — but, for the first time in decades, it was moving in the right direction.
Haiti needs more outside help now. President Obama has already pledged $165 million in federal funds, while Americans have donated $40 millions privately, with more sure to come.
Americans should be wary, though, of funneling their money through the UN, which has just launched a $562 million “flash appeal” for donations to Haiti.
Consider what happened to the $13.6 billion, raised in 2005 to help Indonesia after a tsunami killed 2 million there. The Financial Times found that the multiple UN agencies that handled those funds spent a much higher share of the cash for administrative and bureaucratic costs than did aid groups like Oxfam. The UN was also much less transparent when asked to account for the money.
Money and outside help won’t suffice, either. For example, earthquake experts can help Haitians devise new construction codes, so fewer buildings collapse next time — but only Haitians can obey and enforce those codes.
America should help Haiti as much and as long as we can, but (as Obama & Co. are fond of saying) we can’t solve all the world’s problems alone. Where there’s no direct threat, as in Haiti, we should move aside and let other good neighbors (along with our private citizens, our former presidents and the UN) shoulder most of the work.
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