What Would Haiti's Marshall Plan Look Like?

So, IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn is now calling for a 'Marshall Plan' for Haiti. That's a very nice sentiment. We hear it a lot these days, especially when nasty things like disasters strike countries or places that seem far away. By my tally, we've heard Marshall Plans called for in places as divergent as Puerto Rico, Pakistan, Indonesia and Africa in just the past few years.

What unites them all? Well, for starters, the praiseworthy impulse to do well by others. Which is great. As is the $1.2 billion that's been mobilized in the past week alone for relief -- really terrific stuff, and very much necessary.

But in a practical sense, what might a Marshall Plan for Haiti actually mean? Is it just shorthand for the feeling that, as the managing director of the IMF said this afternoon, Haiti needs "something that is big"? (Many in the aid community seem to share the same fetish for using the phrase "Marshall Plan" that politicos have acquired for ‘gate.' The former used to signify "big," the latter to mean salacious.)

The track record of throwing enormous goodwill at an issue without thought, local buy-in or accountability isn’t exactly the most promising. Food aid? At one point, imported rice from the United States undercut local prices to the point that a Haitian farmer might not bother to harvest his own field, because the crop value couldn't even pay for the laborers needed, says the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti’s Brian Concannon. More loans? Grants? Who would administer them, and with what partners on the ground?

If what the IMF is talking about is the world community ponying up, it could first try to lead by example. Last Thursday, the IMF’s assistance to Haiti took the form of a $100-million loan, albeit an interest-free one. This is for a country already well over $800 million in debt. Is that the kind of Marshall Plan we’re talking about?

Photo Credit: Dey