Though foreign aid to earthquake-stricken Haiti is reaching the government at a sluggish rate, waves of assistance to international aid organizations working there continue to flow. The Haitian government has received just $90 million of the $5.3 billion promised by the March U.N. donor conference for the first 18 months post-earthquake, according to Alice Blanchet, special adviser to Haiti's Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive.
By contrast, Doctors Without Borders has received donations of $112 million following the quake, while the Red Cross has brought in $468 million. Oxfam International, which is providing aid to 440,000 people, or 20 percent of the earthquake-affected population, is working with a post-earthquake budget of $90 million.
With the Haitian government a regular on Transparency International's list of "Most Corrupt" countries, the aid organizations are deemed best-equipped to handle money and enable recovery. But a continued reliance on them could place Haiti on an unsustainable path -- one that circumvents the broken national government and excludes the Haitian people from rebuilding their own country.