Aid transparency needed in Haiti to avoid state recapture
Today, 31st March, sees international donors meeting at the United Nations to discuss the future of Haiti. Daniel Kaufmann, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, believes the necessity of transparency of aid information in Haiti’s reconstruction is magnified by the threat of state capture.
‘State capture takes place when powerful elite interests […] exercise undue influence or outright control in the shaping of the rules, laws and policies of the state.’ Kauffman calls it, ‘a sophisticated form of high-level political corruption’ which need to be addressed by the Haitian government and international community with several initiatives that he sets out. Amongst these recommendations is the use of ‘modern transparency standards’, which include financial and other details of development projects, are essential in mitigating the risk of development agencies being ‘captured’ and in addressing conflicts-of-interest among government officials.
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