Paul Farmer and the Crisis In Haiti

I got a request from a reader to discuss how U.S. response to the crisis in Haiti might be different if Paul Farmer, founder of Partners in Health, which at present appears to have the only functional health care institutions in the country through its network of Zanmi Lasante clinics, had become head of the U.S. Agency for International Development. (In the interests of full disclosure, I made a donation to PiH last night to aid their relief efforts.) I'd point to this post from August meditating on the possibilities of Farmer's managerial style to provide a sense of how I think he might have operated at USAID in general. When it comes to Haiti, well, that's a different matter. Obviously, Farmer's contacts in Haiti might have been extremely valuable in directing U.S. aid, although given the key health role Zanmi Lasante seems primed to play in the country's recovery, that may still be true. And as much as it seems a bit harsh to say this in the aftermath of a dreadful crisis, USAID's portfolio doesn't just vanish because Haiti is in ruins. I wonder if it might have been hard for Farmer to balance his attention to Haiti with everything else on his plate, although given the vast expanse of PiH's efforts, that may not have been a huge concern. Bottom line, I think Farmer will still be able to do a tremendous amount of good for Haiti right now. And I imagine the man who got the job, Rajiv Shah, is consulting him on how the U.S. can help best.