I would not want to say that the present situation is essentially a result of the way aid has been provided in the past. Obviously, it is much more complex than that. However, the way aid is coordinated and provided on an emergency basis unfortunately has negative consequences in the longer term for the development projects that are already in place in the country.
We have seen this in the past, after the earthquake. Aid arrived in massive amounts with no coordination on the part of the Haitian authorities, and that meant that the priorities were not established by the Haitian actors.
We also saw it in the case of the United Nations clusters and when various coordinating bodies got involved. The effect was to weaken the aid, unfortunately, because they left it much too late to seek out Haitian help.
So I question the idea that when there is an emergency, the international humanitarian actors have to be brought in because they are the ones that have the expertise. Even if the situation is an emergency and there is food insecurity, the solutions have to be local. There are civil society organizations that specialize in these areas and in emergency aid, and they are the ones that the Canadian non-governmental organizations have to listen too first, and with whom they have to establish partnerships.