As global warming gets worse, catastrophic events like floods and hurricanes are predicted to get worse. Island nations have been projected to receive the worst hits. Haiti is one of the poorest nations in the Western Hemisphere, and unfortunately, it makes it one of the most vulnerable nations to climate change. To combat the already existing damaged infrastructure and economy and future climate change events, Haiti receives a little over a billion dollars in funding from international donors. The biggest donors are the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, and most of the money that Haiti receives are grants, not loans. The biggest issue is that most of the international climate aid doesn’t go where it is needed the most; instead most of it is actually to improve the sustainability of energy production.
This article dives into the question of why would a country with such low carbon emissions need to focus on using more solar and hydroelectric power, when the money could be used to protect the nation’s interests elsewhere? Because most of the climate aid comes from international donors, those IGOs have a larger say over the Haitian government’s expenditures. Haiti already has very low carbon emissions, so it would benefit the nation more to allocate funds towards building stronger infrastructure that is able to withstand damage from climate change. It would also benefit the nation to improve electricity access by connecting more citizens to the energy grid. Since hurricanes usually cause power outages, electricity is extremely important to keep citizens safe. Haiti should have more control over allocating resources to benefit the country and maybe have more negotiations with the international donors.
Most IGOs, like the World Bank, focus on aiding financial situations around the world. It is very important and helpful for third world countries, especially Haiti. Those countries don’t have all the resources they need to protect citizens in catastrophic events, so it’s important to to have IGOs that can step in and send resources and aid. The only problem is, especially in the case with Haiti, is that the governments sending aid have a large say on what happens with their money. They don’t have all the connections and information to know what is necessary for Haitians the way the Haitian government does. Aid from IGOs is extremely important, but it should still be up to the local government to make financial decisions.