The Great Haiti Humanitarian Aid Swindle

Timothy T Schwartz has a PhD in anthropology, is a specialist in statistical research methods, and has been working in the field as a consultant for much of the past 27 years. During that time he lived in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. He spent 5 years in rural areas of Haiti, first living for one year in a fishing community and later in towns and eventually Port-au-Prince where he worked as a consultant for international aid agencies. In 2001, disgusted with development, he went to live in the Dominican Republic for 10 years. The first year was in a squatter settlement at the edge of a camp of Haitian migrant laborers outside of Santo Domingo. While there he worked doing Social Impact Assessments for private corporations. In 2008, with the election of Obama, Schwartz began to work in Haiti once again. Before the earthquake he had done at least 20 major surveys and research consultancies in Haiti for the world’s largest humanitarian aid agencies, including UNICEF, CARE International, and World Vision. Since the earthquake, in the past 7 years alone, he has done at least 47 consultancies for more than 60 different organizations. This is Schwartz’s third book. The first was a popular book called Travesty in Haiti about failed development efforts, drugs, and corruption in the aid sector. The second book was an academic book about the rural Haitian family patterns called, Sex, Family and Fertility in Haiti. Schwartz has a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Florida (Gainesville: 2000). He speaks fluent English, Haitian Kreyol, and Spanish.