The Problem with NGOs: Culture and Inequality in Haiti

“Gender Equality” is fifth on the United Nations’ list of the Sustainable Development Goals. Thousands of organizations–NGOs, UN branches, corporate funds, and governments–attempt to protect and support women’s rights around the world. In Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere where 60% of the population lives below the poverty line, women’s illiteracy rate surpasses 55 percent, and 70 percent of women in the country do not own or possess a home. Nonprofits and international organizations are omnipresent in the country, so much so that the state has been baptized the “Republic of NGOs,” as there are more per-capita NGOs than anywhere else in the world. These organizations’ attempts at addressing issues of women’s rights through economic-empowerment initiatives have proven to be not as effective as expected, mostly because of the deep cultural divide between the ideas and methodology of the humanitarian projects and the local social structures, which are rarely fully understood.

First, the largest and most influential NGOs in Haiti have projects all around the world and usually originate from Western countries; they lack sensitivity to the particular culture and society of Haiti, and are therefore often unable to help Haitians in a meaningful and targeted way. For example, CARE, Oxfam, and USAID are some of the largest organizations present in the country. While these organizations attempt to be as locally-rooted as possible through their commitment to local staffing models, it is often difficult to find large enough pools of qualified and literate candidates in Haiti. Moreover, in environments where poverty is very high it is more difficult for a local employee, who has relations and connections to the city, to be objective and strict with regards to resource allocation and procedures. Because of challenges such as these, employees frequently do not have full grasp of the local culture and economic customs. This situation is even more pronounced at the higher levels: Managers and executives tend to be foreign individuals not residing in Haiti, and therefore are unable to have a nuanced understanding of the issues of each country.

Large donors, frequently multinational corporations, almost always influence the use of their funds by nonprofits. These companies, such as The Gap Inc, donate millions of dollars yearly in charity to existing aid organizations. They can, and often do, impose restrictions regarding the use of the funds they donate. More specifically, they provide NGOs with detailed educational or economic development programs designed by the corporation. For example, The Gap Inc. funds P.A.C.E. (Personal Advancement & Career Enhancement) for “Educating Women”-a program which has been implemented in six different countries across three different continents. The program’s goal is to “provide life skills education and training for women who make Gap’s clothing.” The Gap Inc. claims that the program was successful, and that the evaluation results from India show that P.A.C.E. “improves the lives of women and their families by developing women’s knowledge, skills, and confidence.” The first concern that arises is: how can a program initially designed for India be effectively transferred to a completely different country, such as Haiti, and be equally effective? It often cannot. And it is only logical that the results from P.A.C.E. in India cannot ensure success in Haiti. Moreover, the evaluation results claim:

“The results show that P.A.C.E. is changing many women’s lives. They now have a more optimistic outlook on life and are better able to deal with challenges. They have a greater sense of self-worth, are able to express themselves with ease, can better manage their work and their personal lives, and have plans for the future that seemed out of reach before their participation in the program.”

The evaluation of P.A.C.E. was based on interviews carried out before and after the program, and the four measures of progress used were: self-esteem, self-efficacy, work efficacy, and influence on the workplace environment. The subjective nature of these indicators undermines the validity of the results; they are vague, prone to inaccuracy from external factors, and culturally dependent. As demonstrated by a study in the Asian Journal of Social Psychology, “cultural differences in modesty underlie cultural differences in cognitive self-evaluations.” More effective methods of evaluation could include a comparison to the feelings of women who did not go through the program, or a professional evaluation of the women’s mental health before and after the program.

Additionally, donors’ economic and profit-maximizing interests inherently taint the motives and purposes of such programs. For example, The Gap Inc. most likely chose to carry out P.A.C.E. in Haiti because the company has seven factories in Haiti, but not necessarily because of the potential results of the program on women’s living standards or the cultural affinities of Haiti to the methods of the program. Corporations are inherently profit-maximizing companies; therefore, the improvement of the brand’s image to its customers is more valuable to them than the success of their aid programs. Therefore, the strategic nature of many programs funded by corporations restricts the flexibility of the nonprofit-driven projects.

NGO programs can sometimes overlook a very simple, but fundamental, cultural aspect that is common to many developing countries: economic life is a day-to-day struggle for survival. The economic culture of most Haitians living below the poverty line is not based on a principle of savings, investment and accumulation for future expenses and needs. Western culture is founded upon these principles, and because of this, so are most economic empowerment programs. Many major NGOs argue that moving from “a day to-day struggle to survive to a longer-term view based on planning with a growing cushion of savings” would empower poor women and individuals. However, this is simply not possible in a context of constant scarcity and high risk of absolute loss.

Some nonprofit organizations have, over the years, developed programs that take some of these challenges into account and have been able to make valuable differences in Haiti. CARE, for example, has created a format of groups called VSLA (Village Savings and Loans Association) programming. VSLA programs provide Haitian women with a basic level of financial, long run, stability through a deposit box with an interest return. Women who participate are then encouraged to create an additional source of financial stability for themselves at the end of the program, through the founding of a small business such as selling locally sourced fish. This program is better than others which simply provide aid with no structure. VSLA programming offers women with a platform to grow a portion of their weekly earnings for the future. Rather than assuming that women can save received aid in their homes, this program acknowledges the ingrained culture of “day-to-day struggle” and the crime-ridden environment most women live in, and enables participants to place some of their funds in a safe and growing deposit for future use.

Nonprofit organizations would yield more effective results by shifting their programming focus on addressing systemic problematics in the country which perpetuate the cycle of the daily struggle for survival. Major issues include addressing the problems of poor infrastructure, education, health services, and government corruption and clientelism.