Vast Majority of Direct Grants to Haiti Are For HIV/AIDS

Following the destructive 2010 earthquake, there was a concerted effort to direct more aid to Haiti largely led by Bill and Hilary Clinton among others. As a result, around $13 billion from international funders like the International Monetary Fund and private donors poured in.

Based on data from USASpending, the U.S. government would pony up $2.6 billion across various projects since 2010. Most of that money, 77 percent, would be spent on improvement efforts by aid organizations working within Haiti for a variety of issues, from agricultural assistance to migratory bird conservation and anti-drug and anti-human trafficking efforts.

The lesser amount of that would be direct aid to Haiti itself. And the vast majority of that direct funding is obligated for HIV/AIDS projects.

In total, $488 million of funding received by Haiti is solely for HIV/AIDS, with only $81 million destined for non-AIDS support.

An additional $41 million was spent on organizations working on HIV/AIDS within Haiti. Altogether a full 20 percent of foreign aid to Haiti—direct and indirect—is spent on HIV/AIDS.

Lots of Money But Few Results

Despite the billions from private, international, and U.S. government sources, Haiti still struggles as the poorest country in the Western hemisphere with rioters burning police stations and raiding jails just last month. A large multi-national effort to build the modern Caracol industrial park for garment manufacturing has struggled to bring in the large number of jobs that many had hoped for.

The use of outside efforts to help Haiti has been criticized as few jobs are created in the country itself. An attempt to provide Arkansas rice to Haiti in the 1990s under President Clinton would decimate Haiti’s local rice industry.

Bill Clinton has defended the Clinton Foundation’s efforts, noting that $30 million was directly given to Haiti without overhead.