Continuing our blog series marking the 5th anniversary of the Haiti Earthquake, HPG's Simon Levine reflects on the lack of long-term evaluations and calls for the need to understand what impact humanitarian aid had on Haiti years later.
There are many reasons for marking the anniversaries of disasters. Survivors and the relatives of those killed often find comfort in creating a public moment for sharing the thoughts and grief that are normally carried around privately, but it is not for the humanitarian community (fleeting, and perhaps even peripheral, visitors) to encroach on that occasion.
For us, the humanitarian community, an anniversary is a reminder to take stock of what we did and did not do to help: the fifth anniversary of the Haiti earthquake is not just a round number but also the right length of time for some of the longer-term impacts of our work to begin to be seen.
