Celebrating Haiti
The month of May is Haitian Heritage Month and today is Haitian Flag Day, where Haitians proudly commemorate the country's independence from French rule. Haiti’s flag was hoisted for the first time on May 18th in 1803, and the Haitian people came together to establish the country's first republic.
For those unfamiliar with Haiti’s history, Haiti is the world’s first black republic, having overthrown their colonial masters after 300 years of tyranny. Haiti is the first country to permanently abolish slavery and the slave trade. After gaining independence, Haiti went on to intercept ships with enslaved Africans headed for Caribbean colonies. Haiti was also instrumental in supporting other countries in Latin America in their fight for independence.
My love affair with Haiti began long before I first arrived on the island in December 2012. As a child growing up in the Caribbean, I was intrigued by the country. I couldn’t fully understand why there was so much stigma around Haiti. It was “othered”; considered cursed for the numerous natural disasters that beset its shores. The fact that Voodoo was practised in a deeply Christian region was abhorred. I will admit I got a few surprised gasps when I informed my close circle that I was moving to Haiti.
Haiti inspires me even in the present day despite all that is happening on the island. Haiti is a prime example that in the fight for justice and equity, power is never given, power is taken. The French colonisers were never going to give back Haiti to its people. Haitians would have to take their power back, and that they did.
Decolonisation is the new buzz word in international development and it is clear from ongoing debates that it means different things to different stakeholders depending on where they are based. Themrise Khan - an independent researcher in international development based in Pakistan- argues that the term decolonisation is very “Western-centric” and is a traumatic choice of words especially for formally colonised countries that went through violent transfer of power after British colonial rule.
Others prefer to use the term localisation as it focuses on putting local actors in the driving seat and strengthening local systems to be responsive to local community needs.
Over the last few years, we’ve seen some international organisations, global networks and academic institutions actively engage in the decolonisation/localisation discussions, reflecting on how they perpetuate colonialism, racism and other systems of oppression through their policies, structures, funding models, programming and operations etc. Some have taken the bold step to restructure their organisations to bring decision making power and funding closer to where it should belong.
Ipas-a well-known reproductive health international NGO- began their journey to become a post -colonial organisation in 2020. Their CEO Dr Anu Kumar has a vision to transform from a traditional ‘hub and spoke’ organisation with power centred in the USA to a ‘networked’ organisation with authority, power and leadership dispersed and shared across the countries where they work. She explains this multi-year journey is about:
Shifting power across the organisation, rather than holding it in a central body.
Redistributing resources—human and financial—toward the countries and people closest to our work.
Fostering ownership and autonomy for all involved.
Oxfam who was embroiled in a sexual abuse scandal in Haiti, has also shifted its headquarters from Oxford UK to Nairobi Kenya.
Other international organisations have obstinately steered clear of these discussions, remaining silent and carrying on with business as usual.
Themrise puts forward: “We (LMIC) accept aid not because we are forced to, but because we have not worked towards strengthening our own post-colonial governance. It is time we dispense with the rhetoric of decolonisation and instead, balance the scales of power by creating our own aid alternatives and intellect in the South''.
I don’t believe aid is going away anytime soon and strong governance from post-colonial Governments is critical to hold the numerous international organisations operating in a country to account. I personally believe that post-colonial governments can do more to reclaim their power. For example, Governments should have tighter regulatory processes in place for every INGO to be officially registered in their country. These organisations should present their strategic plan to Government officials and justify how it aligns with the country’s vision 2030 goals and beyond. Too often, because they hold the purse, international organisations are given free rein to operate at will in these sovereign countries, working in parallel instead of hand in hand with the Government.
I’ve outlined below what Decolonisation/Localisation can look like in different scenarios.
Decolonisation/Localisation can look like:
Civil society and local NGOs demanding that any INGO who wants to partner with them (to fulfil donor requirements or otherwise) on a project is more transparent about where the decision-making power lies in the partnership and are willing to amend their partnership model to ensure that the local actors can meaningfully contribute especially in project design. Many times, these so-called partnerships are very one sided with local organisations being kept in the dark, not even knowing the full scope of the project or the budget allocation.
Elevating and prioritising local knowledge and expertise. So called “capacity building” workshops in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) should only be approved if they are facilitated by a national of that country or region and an international facilitator if absolutely necessary. The fly in fly out model where technical consultants from High Income Countries (HICs) swoop in and train country staff for a week with little to no context or understanding of the country should be a thing of the past. It undermines the lived experiences and rich knowledge of LMIC nationals and perpetuates the narrative that external knowledge is superior.
Research institutions based in LMICs having tougher contract negotiation processes with HIC based research institutions. LMIC researchers should demand the right to develop their own research, serve as principal investigators in said research, analyse data in their country and serve as first or last authors on research published in scientific journals. Too many talented researchers in LMICs are demoted to mere data collectors who send their data outside of the country for analysis and interpretation and they aren’t even cited or acknowledged by name when the research is published.
Global Health conferences being held in LMICs. Currently, only 4% of Global Health conferences are hosted in low-income countries. Even at these conferences, the panels are dominated by people from HICs. I vividly remember attending a Neglected Tropical Disease conference in Ethiopia with a panel composed of four white women from HICs. The majority of Global Health conferences are held in HICs, which oftentimes excludes people from LMIC due to challenges securing a visa and key Government and LMIC stakeholders are absent from these critical knowledge sharing and decision making fora.
The international development sector is not going away, however we can work towards actively changing its architecture to redress the power asymmetries we see today. Transfer of power, knowledge and resources from HICs to LMICs in the examples listed above will not happen automatically. Things will not just organically happen over time. The power will have to be taken. LMIC countries must start agitating and demanding change. There will be resistance to recede power. However, when it all seems impossible, may we remember the valiant Haitian people who took back the power that was rightfully theirs.
Read my article celebrating Haiti: https://blackballad.co.uk/views-voices/haiti-the-first-black-republic?
For more inspirational Haitian content, follow @bertrhude on Twitter
For a taster on Decolonising Development: https://www.popworksafrica.org/products/decolonizing-development-webinar