After the 2010 earthquake in which over 200,000 people were killed, the situation escalated to unprecedented levels and the global community once again rose to the occasion to provide food and humanitarian aid to the devastated country. While these actions were laudable, they have seemingly made an already bad situation worse by turning Haiti into what is popularly referred to as an NGO nation. It is ironic that those who sought to alleviate the problems of perennial poverty, vulnerability to natural disaster, poor infrastructure and health have ended up providing the services themselves but the country remains only slightly better off for their presence. The objective of this paper is to explore the challenge of poverty that has ravaged Haiti for the last few decades in the context of the ineffective foreign aid and attempt to propose solutions that can bring about lasting change.

In the last decade, more Aid has been poured to Haiti than any other nation in the world with billions been sunk in by foreign governments and donors, which begs the question, what is wrong with the approach being used to provide assistance (Buss 48). Haiti is referred to as the Republic of NGOs and it is with good reason, because of the limited capacity of the national government and weak institutions, NGOs created a quasi-private state within the state. Studies have shown that after the earthquake in 2010, NGOs provided 70% of the national healthcare while 85% of the private schools were also NGO run. This has resulted in myriad challenges for the government since it has been essentially outmanoeuvred and given that it is under little pressure to provide services. It has slacked and continued to become weaker wrought with internal wrangles as politicians struggle to control the small amount of aid that comes into their hands. In the quest to understanding the situation of poverty in Haiti, one will need briefly to consider the history of the island nation.