Fixing the World, Bang-for-the-Buck Edition

Many proposals have been made in the past ten years to make Haiti’s public sector more effective. In spite of these efforts, public services remain in a critical state, illustrated by strikes, delays caused by red tape, and difficulties for citizens to do things like getting a passport, registering land, or clearing customs for imported goods. The improvement of public services continues to pose a challenge for Haiti.

The rich world’s fossil fuel hypocrisy is on full display in its response to the global energy crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. While the wealthy G7 countries admonish the world’s poor to use only renewables because of climate concerns, Europe and the United States are going begging to Arab nations to expand oil production, Germany is reopening coal power plants and Spain and Italy are ramping up African gas production.

A tablet that costs less than 5 gourdes (or US$0.08) could end up saving more than 15,000 Haitian lives over the next 12 years, according to new research for Haiti Priorise.

Haiti Priorise is a research project in which experts study the costs and effects of different approaches to solving Haitian challenges, from education and economic initiatives to environmental ones.

Some of the highest returns on investment are those identified by Stephen Vosti of the University of California, Davis, and colleagues, in an examination of Haitian nutrition.