[donkeyd]

I went to Haiti last year for a vacation. I met a lot of people there working for NGOs and upper class Haitians. From what I heard from them, there are two major money leaks in the country:

NGOs: They pay their employees heaps of money, to do relatively small amounts of work. These aren't the people we see on TV who get out there to work 12 hour days and save lives. These are people who go there because they need a job and like traveling. They're the people who get the office jobs. These are all young people who spend massive amounts of time and money on leisure. Most of this money ends up in the pockets of already rich Haitians, like restaurant owners and rental agencies. The UN seems to be one of the worst at this. I've seen UN people living in $4000 a month houses full of Apple stuff and expensive cooking equipment. They would write reports that were then dismissed by the government.

Corruption: A lot of NGOs try to work with local organizations to get stuff done. This is good, because it gives the locals a chance to earn money by working to rebuild their country. However, what often happens is that higher-ups in these organizations disappear with donated money, or just suddenly have new cars. This is actually quite a big problem there, since the country seems to be inherently corrupt, something I've seen multiple times during my short stay there.

From my experience, Haiti feels a lot like a failed state and most people I've spoken don't think there will be any improvement in the next couple of decades. They're also fearful of what would happen if the UN were to leave, since they'd lose a massive inflow of money and the poor might revolt, causing for even more chaos.

[mrmondo]

Interesting indeed. I work for an NGO / non-profit in Melbourne, Australia and we work with a /lot/ of other Australian NGOs and I can honestly say most NGOs (at least in Australia and New Zealand) are not at all like this. Salaries are generally significantly lower in the NGO/Non-profit sector and generally speaking these roles tend to attract morally driven individuals that are primarily concerned with their impact on society or at least the sector they work in (obviously a generalisation but speaking from experience).

[zxcmx]

My experience of local NGO / nonprofit workers is similar, although I see that they are frustrated with organisations that seem to increasingly spend more on seeking grants and reporting than "service delivery".

Also, well funded NGOs over here often tend to have significant government-based revenue streams, which can discourage activism on the fundamentals (which government might not agree with).

I do not question the dedication of local workers I've met, but the larger issue with respect to foreign aid is what happens to the money "in country" when it comes time to distribute goods or get things done in the local economy.