Dionissi Aliprantis (PhD, University of Pennsylvania) is an economist who has traveled to Haiti several times since his first trip in 2000. He became acquainted with Haiti Outreach in 2009 and decided to do a statistical study to compare the Haiti Outreach model of community development, where community members are trained and responsible for their well’s upkeep and repair, to what is done in most cases, where an outside group is responsible for the well’s maintenance.

The results of the study have now been published as a working paper of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) based in Washington, DC. You can download and read a summary of the report by clicking HERE. The IADB has made the full study available on its web site, and you can also download it and read it by clicking HERE.  The study finds that indeed the Haiti Outreach community-based model produced superior results, providing clean water to more people for a longer period of time and at a lower long-term cost. We are very pleased that an outside evaluation has demonstrated the effectiveness of our community development model, and we intend to use the report as evidence that our work makes a difference as we seek additional funding. We are very grateful to Dionissi for all his efforts, and to our project engineer Sarah Ocwieja and Director of New Projects Neil Van Dine who contributed to Dionissi’s report.