Five recommendations to tackle Covid-19 in Haiti
Fact: To say that Haiti is not ready for the Covid-19 virus is to state the obvious. To say that this government is unable but worst unwilling to tackle the challenge is also obvious. Indeed, it doesn’t care.
Truth: Covid-19 is widely spread in Haiti. However, the dead will never be known or counted because as people they were never counted when they were alive.
It is not Covid-19 or the number of deaths that scares Haiti’s ruling class. It is the economic problems that will overflow and exacerbate the social and political ones.
With remittances amounting up to 32% of GDP, Haiti’s life support has been the diaspora and this community of Haitians living abroad is being economically decimated by the Covid-19 virus. The Haitian diaspora is represented in great numbers in place like the United States (particularly in states like Florida, New York, and Massachusetts), the Dominican Republic, and Chile to name a few. Those countries have essentially shut down all economic activities and as a result the Haitians who live there, mostly working class, and who were the ones sending remittances back to support families and friends, will no longer be able do so. This will have a wide and deep ripple effect on the Haitian economy, which is expected to see a negative variation in GDP.
The economy is the current regime’s achilles heel even as they and their fellow modern-day buccaneers continue to plunder whatever is left from the state’s coffers.
Therefore, it is also stating the obvious to say that the Haitian people are on their own. The fundamental question is: how do we deal with the Covid-19 challenge?
Haiti's answer to the Covid-19 virus is what it has always been (l’Union fait la force). It is in the collective! It is in the Konbit!
As a start to the idea of citizen engagement, I would humbly propose the following:
Map our assets and develop a coordinated response. The philanthropic/nonprofit and faith sectors, which have built a closer and more trusted relationship with local communities need to leverage that trust. They need to do so NOW!
Adopt the South Korea model of wide masks distribution. Haiti's healthcare system does not have the capacity to respond to the demand. This offers a tremendous opportunity to locally make masks to sell/distribute to the population as a backstop. In the long-term, our hope is that 6 months from now the more developed nations will have had a vaccine, and for self-preservation, they will share it with us.
Develop a cohesive message to supplement the mask distribution. This message must be delivered coherently and consistently over time by faith-based, community-based and civic-minded members of the private sector.
Grow our own food. The disruption in global supply chain provides the ideal opportunity to promote policies that support local agriculture. Again, the communication vehicles above can help promote local production and consumption of local products.
Step up to lead. The time has come for you, capable patriots, to show up. All efforts will be futile if we continue to allow ignoramus to fill the void left by your absence.
In spite of all this we will lose many of our sisters and brothers. However, we have an opportunity to apply the lessons we learned from the earthquake. There is a small window during a crisis to make transformative changes. Most Haitians do not yet understand the crisis and we must use that time to bring awareness and do the groundwork necessary for change. Once that window closes, people will naturally go back to the status quo and we will look back at yet, once again, another missed opportunity.
Let us not let the deaths of our fellow citizens be in vain. Again!