Haiti has long been called the “Republic of NGOs” — a reference to the enormous number of international and local non-governmental organizations operating in the country, estimated in the thousands, that have become an alternative governance structure filling gaps left by a weak state. In 2019, these organizations navigated a crisis that tested both their operational capacity and the sustainability of their development models.
Major international NGOs including CARE, Oxfam, Save the Children, and World Vision maintained their programming throughout the crisis, adapting delivery methods to account for insecurity and supply chain disruptions. Emergency food aid, health services, and cash transfers reached hundreds of thousands of beneficiaries, providing critical support to the most vulnerable.
But the NGO sector itself was not without controversy. Critics — both Haitian and international — pointed to evidence that decades of NGO activity had created dependency while undermining the development of Haitian state capacity. When NGOs provided water, ran schools, and delivered health services, they arguably reduced pressure on the Haitian government to develop its own capacity to provide these services.
The crisis of 2019 sharpened these debates. Haitian civil society organizations called for greater Haitian leadership over development programming and for international resources to flow through Haitian institutions rather than bypassing them. They argued that building Haitian capacity, though slower and more complicated, was the only path to sustainable development.