A Shattered Trust: Nomadic Displacement Communities in Haiti, Post-2010
A Nomadic Existence
In policy analysis, we often train to think of policy issues as systems analysis. Human beings are incredibly adept at organization and communication, we use those traits to build systems that combine inputs and attempt to produce the desired outcome. In displacement studies, this conjures up visions of a catch-all system: large, sprawling refugee camps like Kutupalong[1] or Kakuma, barbed wire and tarp tents. The goal of this system is to bring as many displaced people together as possible, to better scale the delivery of food, water, medicine – it is easier to distribute one tonne of rice in a controlled camp than it is if displaced people are scattered throughout a country.
But what happens when those systems fail? How does a displaced population react when those given the authority to administer these systems violate duties of care? In our broader research concerning Haiti, we found that these populations simply decide to exist outside the systems entirely.
After the 2010 earthquake, international organizations including the UN and MSF moved quickly to establish the conventional displacement camps discussed above. However, a lack of functioning infrastructure within the country, as well as the behaviour of aid organizations once in-country convinced broad swaths of the displaced population to reject this kind of outside help, and instead form nebulous, often self-governing Nomadic Displacement Communities (NDCs). These NDCs predominantly feature lean-tos built out of scrap tin or aluminum and centred around major transport arteries, which allows for movement around the country. The easy-to-assemble shelters also feed into the nomadic existence, since an entire camp or partial elements of it can be built, taken down, and rebuilt with relative ease.
A Loss of Trust
The decisions made by displaced persons to break away from formalized displacement management are multiple and endogenous with larger societal struggles with colonialism, corruption and economic mismanagement within the country. However, in the fallout of the 2010 earthquake, two different inciting incidents greatly increased the assumed number of NDCs[2], as well as sparked greater desire among displaced Haitians to “go their own way” in navigating their status.
UN peacekeepers were responsible for the first outbreak of cholera the Americas had seen in decades[3], when positive carriers for the bacteria entered the country. When pairing the close quarters of displacement camps with a recurring lack of sanitation infrastructure, waterborne diseases like cholera spread quickly, and over 820,000 Haitians contracted the disease. An outbreak like this not only stressed an already-fractured healthcare delivery system but continued to weaken trust in the UN and similar organizations with the general Haitian population.
This trust was further dashed by the abusive behaviours documented by other aid workers in-country[4], including but not limited to sexual abuse, rape, trafficking, and child abandonment by peacekeepers who impregnated Haitian women. Perhaps more so than the transmission of bacteria, this very blatant abuse of the duty of care aid workers are charged with has broken down the trust of displaced persons, and indeed, their desire to participate in these systems at all. For more and more Haitians, they are simply willing to take their chances with NDCs, to build a safer, self-contained community, than risk association with organizations that have proved themselves at best unreliable and at worst a clear and present danger to the health of the Haitian people.
This shattered trust is what makes the challenge of NDCs so difficult to wrangle. Decades of government abuse have left Haitians cynical[5] about the role domestic leadership can play in the future of the country, and the above-discussed abuses by international actors have contributed to a desire to exist outside the reach of aid organizations entirely. Thus, delivery of aid becomes extremely difficult, but more importantly, rebuilding more just and reliable systems in Haiti becomes less and less likely.
Repairing Bonds
Any rebuild of administrative systems in Haiti must center around the Haitian experience. The existence of NDCs is perhaps the most tangible manifestation of that experience: a population abandoned by the formalized government and surviving abuses by those international forces expected to help. A population that has decided it can take better care of itself than the systems we assumed would deliver positive outcomes can.
It is difficult to avoid cynicism in detailing the need for NDCs[6], the direct contrast between the beauty of the Haitian countryside, the resilience of the Haitian people, and the desperate measures so many of them have taken to try and better their lives – a population of people feels safer outside the bounds of what so many would believe aid them. The systems in place, then, can never solve these problems. The Haitian people are in control of the future of their country, but the weight and abuse of history leave many of them worrying about their personal futures more than that of a nation.
This article was jointly authored by Paige Rumelt, Gina Zuno, Sogol Ghattan, and Joshua Diemert as a part of their Global Policy Project in 2021. The research included analyzing the gaps within the Haitian legal and policy frameworks, which allow climate emergency events to heighten the risk of sexual exploitation and trafficking.
[1] https://www.nrc.no/perspectives/2019/trapped-in-the-worlds-largest-refugee-camp/
[2] Averill, G. (2020, December/21). Zoom interview.
[3] https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/18/world/americas/united-nations-haiti-cholera.html
[4] https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/01/11/un-peacekeeping-has-sexual-abuse-problem, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/18/world/americas/haiti-un-peacekeepers.html, https://conduct.unmissions.org/un-committed-addressing-its-peacekeepers%E2%80%99-sexual-abuse-women-haiti-opinion
[5] Averill, G. (2020, December/21). Zoom interview.
[6] Averill, G. (2020, December/21). Zoom interview.