Haiti has more charitable organizations per capita than any country besides India. It also receives an average of $230 per person every year in foreign aid. Yet it remains a desperately poor nation with an ineffective and corrupt government. Why hasn’t all of this international humanitarian attention done any good? Though there are certainly many reasons, a great deal of the problem lies in the practices of aid organizations.

Every charitable organization assumes itself to be effective. Also, many believe that if they are too open about their activities, they may be misunderstood and lose support. Thus, many of their operational details are kept secret. As a result, bad ideas remain unchallenged, and donors miss out on key opportunities to cooperate with other donors.

Though most development organizations are well-intentioned, recent events in Haiti have shown that good intentions do not translate into good actions. A group of Baptist missionaries from Idaho justified taking children from their parents because they could bring them to a richer country. Their intention was to give opportunities to orphans, but in practice their actions were closer to kidnapping. Had their intentions and actions been more transparent, the children would have suffered less, and the group would have retained the trust of the Haitian people.

It is not just non-governmental organizations that execute counterproductive programs in the name of charity–government aid agencies undertake ill-conceived projects as well. These organizations are often used for obtaining political influence in recipient countries and rewarding politically connected contractors rather than for improving the welfare of poor nations. Israel, for instance, get billions of dollars in aid despite its relative wealth, suggesting that aid is not always given according to need.

Also, donors do not coordinate their efforts effectively. For years, the UN has used the UN Organization for Coordinating Humanitarian Assistance (UNOCHA) to organize responses to humanitarian disasters. UNOCHA appeals for aid which is subdivided into specific humanitarian sectors that need attention. Then they request that charitable organizations and donor countries use their online database to describe their actions, ensuring that humanitarian needs are met. As of February 17, UNOCHA reported that many of the post-disaster needs have been met in Haiti. However, other sectors still show an urgent need for more aid. For more than 37% of the Haiti donations reported, donors did not list where the money was going or what purpose it would serve. As a r esult, it is nearly impossible to determine which specific sectors need more attention.  If the UN cannot say much more than that a lot of money is being spent on unspecified activities in Haiti, how can we expect to be able to see where the help is most needed and effectively pursue a humanitarian response? For example, deciding to spend millions on tents when the real need is for medical equipment could have tragic impacts. Without more effective information-sharing among donors, serious needs will continue to be neglected in Haiti and subsequent disasters.

Additionally, these reporting challenges reduce accountability among donors. In general, there is little solid evidence that foreign aid has been effective. Extensive research on aid effectiveness is underway, but better information on aid donations and purposes is desperately needed. Sadly, there are even people in the foreign aid community who withhold key information regarding their development activities.  While the group from Idaho is a recent and highly publicized example, this tendency is far too common in humanitarian and development work.

Only when aid organizations start disclosing the details of their goals and methods can we expect any real development to take place. Until then, bad ideas will go unchallenged, projects will not be adequately evaluated, and aid work will be less productive than it could be.  Donors need to open up and let experts, recipients and taxpayers know what they are doing and why. If donors are serious about helping Haiti and other developing countries, they should begin with openly coordinating their information and efforts. Aid decisions will go from shady backroom deals to open, public-square debates, where good ideas can be tried and tested, and bad ideas abandoned. Greater transparency will be a catalyst for positive change, benefitting the struggling poor in Haiti and around the world.

Zach is a senior studying international relations.  Dustin is a senior studying political science.